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You may have experienced Arrington de Dionyso?s Malaikat dan Singa as an unexpected live force, pushing up through the earth like daffodils in late winter; or maybe you?re familiar with their previous exploits in the studio, Malaikat dan Singa [KLP215] and Suara Naga [KLP226], which burn clean with fragrant traumas. Open the Crown is similarly passion-filled, with new vistas (channeled hallucinations) exploring English (previously only the Indonesian language was employed) as their stomping ground to expand parallel themes anew. Open the Crown conveys tendrils of raw energy emanating from the head ? dream visions translated directly to audio outrage. Heavy. And sexy. To be expected from Arrington de Dionyso and his molten collection of Malaikat dan Singa who manipulate the ?form?d and the formless? to create from within this broken system.

The Shivas are friends and sweethearts who grew up playing music together, launching Kickstarters for a tour van and then coming of age driving that van around the country. Having played literally hundreds of shows together just after high school, The Shivas? joy and serious performing chops set them apart from other surf-pop bands in the swarming Portland music scene. Like their Burger Record cassette-mates Thee Oh Sees before them, The Shivas? sweet harmonies and sun-baked sound harkens back to the origins of surf rock, and are too compelling for the physical senses to refuse. Jared Molyneux (guitar; vocals), Kristin Leonard (drums, vocals), Eric Shanafelt and Robert Mannering are tight, precise, and deliciously fun Their sweet, reverb-laden LP Whiteout! (KLP243) debuts on K this spring,

Chain & the Gang have grown up in the crevices and the cracks of society, not due to the hi-octane nurturing of main-stream media and corporate wizards, but in spite of them. They make their version of call and answer rock'n'roll to fill a yawning chasm in music where fun, personality, charm, and content fit in. With songs like "Surprise Party," "Heavy Breathing" and "Certain Kinds of Trash" C&tG's punk spirit is as natural as falling off a log, and emits the pure expression of a feral child with finger paint. The Record is called IN COOL BLOOD (KLP240). Dig it?

Chain & the Gang are singers Ian Svenonius, Katie Alice Greer, and other musicians including Brett Lyman (M'Lady's records), Fiona Campbell (Coasting, Vivian Girls), Chris Sutton (Hornet Leg), Madison Farmer (Coasting), and Fred Thomas (Swimsuit, Saturday Looks Good to Me).

The Hive Dwellers new album is the essence of rock'n'roll moved from the garage to the basement to the rec room and then back out into the wild. Calvin Johnson plays guitar and sings his songs in combination with Gabriel Will on assorted stringed instruments and the contributions of several drummers who have made their mark on The Hive Dwellers.

Once upon a time Tara Jane ONeil mused that a 7 inch is the perfect venue for pop music, a place for light hearted documentation. After long travels and many collaborations, she banded together a group of friends to record two sweet singles from a vault of songs she's performed over the years, and she called the album "Connections" (IPU136). The first solo recordings from ONeil since her critically acclaimed release A Ways Away (KLP207) in 2009, "Connections" features "Sirena," the mesmerizing retelling of the Spanish Folk Tale in which a girl who disobeys her mother is turned into a mermaid, and "The Rainbow Connection" a tender rendition of the classic children's song.

Anyone who has seen Emily Beanblossom perform has surely left entirely taken with her. As the lead singer of Christmas, a band whose unique style of psych rock made them a cult marvel, Emily sold out both shows and records, due in no small part to her captivating, cultivated persona and the rare power of her voice. A vagabond for our ilk, she has lived life on the road and in collaborations, drifting down the line until she was called back to her family farm outside Chicago, Ill. Here she paused to lay down the hollowed noise that would become Ruby Fray. Her premier album Pith (KLP239) is a string of musical gems that range from harmonic americana and folk to shadowy psychedelia, united in their spectral chamber arrangements.

Phil Elverum, in his many musical incarnations, is a collector of sounds, so his Mount Eerie single 'Distorted Cymbals' (DBN122) fits in perfectly with the Dub Narcotic Disco Plate catalogue. Recorded with Calvin Johnson (Selector Dub Narcotics) in the Dub Narcotic studio, this collectable 7" has been called one of Phil's more cogent projects by Calvin, and is a wonderful collaboration between two musical savants.

Growing out of her previous release, Apple Core, some songs on The Mechanics of Hovering Flight are folk. Some are bluegrass. Some smack a bit more of country, with twangy guitar and foot-stomping rhythm, but somehow Kendl has created an album that is one moving piece, that tells a story between the liner notes. Perhaps it is her voice. Unwavering, at times haunting, Kendl's song reminds one of the legendary Lucinda Williams. And perhaps it is her dedication to writing the perfect song that serves her so well--to write a song that plays to the seasons, to the harvest, and speaks the truth about life. About love. About the love of a singer and her banjo.

Garage rock/Fuzz Pop. Girl-group heart and surfer-boy swagger. Would that every rock duo could be as coolly balanced as The Maxines. Two former Texans, guitarist Matt Murillo & drummer Kelly Norman rock out, sing together and make the coolest music ever on their new 7" LP, Drugstore (IPU140), out on K this January. Totally accessible and surprisingly PG-13, Drugstore is the kind of album you want to blast in the parking lot after school lets out, or bump while cruisin' the strip in your dad's T-Bird. They make garage rock as it was always meant to be made--fresh, rebellious and effortlessly fun.

The second album LAKE recorded for K, Let's Build a Roof [KLP213], included a song by drummer/multi-instrumentalist Lindsay Schief many consider one of its highlights, "Gravel". When the band returned from their U.S. tour following the release of Let's Build a Roof "Gravel" had a new fluid soulful feel to it that struck resident Dub Narcotic Studio producer Selector Dub Narcotic (aka Calvin Johnson) as a ripe candidate for the Dub Narcotic Disco Plate series of 7" 45 rpm phonograph records. He approached the band about the idea and they agreed to give it a try. The revamped "Gravel" was recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio, comprising the A side of this release. Flip it over and hear the Selector Dub Narcotic version, "Re-Grade", complete with a new melodica infused melody.

There is protectiveness in the fist that holds a bag of wolf teeth. These incisors are each of the songs held inside Tender Forever's fourth EP. To spend time with this magic while the first of the fall leaves suicide bomb your bare feet, and the cicadas are strangely silent, is like feeling the phantom sting of your own baby wolf fangs where they once bit into your most vulnerable parts.

The Hive Dwellers are a small grouping of Pacific Northwest natives, led by the large sound of one Calvin Johnson. On their latest musical effort, [DBN126] ? "Lynch the Swan" b/w Selector Dub Narcotic ? "Dub the Swan" ? Johnson and his alternating collection of collaborators fuse baritone vocals with melodica for an awkwardly peppy groove sensation.

"Tales of Crime (Part 1)" b/w "Tales of Crime (Part 2)" is the Pine Hill Haints' first 7" released by K. "Tales of Crime (Part 1)" attempts to express the dirty south, the home of the blues, the ancient father to son craft of whiskey and aging gardening in the mountains, and a cynical history, smashed and destroyed by the modern era of green star capitalism . . .

FROM THE DEPTHS OF DUB COMES THE CULTURE CLASH CLASSIC STEPPER, Adam Forkner, with his latest piece of hot wax [DBN125] White Rainbow ? "The Making of Thriller" b/w Selector Dub Narcotic ? "The Making of Star Wars."

This marks a home-coming of sorts, with Forkner returning to Dub Narcotic Studio to work with life-long friend and one time studio-mentor Calvin Johnson.

Welcome to the Midnight Opry [KLP236] is the third full-length album by The Pine Hill Haints. It's a burning tumbleweed headed straight for an open field in the middle of a dry summer; bright, dangerous, vast, and blistering. Laid out before you is a full rotation of snazzed-up, working class ghost-country. The contradiction allows you to mentally wander from one track to the other on an emotional journey from the range to the rock show, whatever you want to make of it within those parameters, that's what it is.

Nucular Aminals squeeze a lot onto their new 7" - "Nobody's Man" b/w "Kill Your Dogs" and "Garrison+ Phillips/Garrison Phillips." Shifting smoothly from surf to pop to rock and back again, the amount of fun you find yourself having while listening to these tracks is equal to at least two full-length albums, maybe four.

Inspired by Bollywood, a trip to Morocco, and Serge Gainsbourg, Angelo Spencer's second full-length World Garage [KLP235] brings armloads of new instruments and the flavor of exotic locations to a compilation of songs that amount to more than just an album, but an experience of wildness

Bobby Birdman is the ultraego of west coast musician Rob Kieswetter and he graces us with his musical interludes on "Don't Walk Away" b/w "Dub Walk" [DBN124]. Birdman's guitar twang supplemented with Calvin Johnson's melodica = magic in the heartland.

Nucular Aminals' self-titled debut release on K [KLP233] sounds like what would happen if you woke up in the morning and squeezed your tube of toothpaste, but a thick glob of sunshine came shooting out instead of minty freshness. This breed of Aminals was formed in Portland, Oregon by four distinctly rare species of musician who specialize in perfect pop melancholy.

Kendl Winter's new 7" At the Same Time [DBN121] stays true to what we've come to love from Kendl. The songs featured here are homegrown, feet in the dirt, sugary country, recorded at Dub Narcotic in Olympia, WA.

The tracks featured here single are good 'ol fashioned garage rock that morph and segue into surf, blues, and even at times a little bit of soul. But don't get confused, they're no retro band.

Tara Jane O'Neil and Nikaido Kazumi spent two years turning the recordings of 4 days into gorgeous intuitive guitar and voice duets that create a collection of orchestral collage songs which are truly a unique delight for the ears.

City Center's first full-length on K is Redeemer and it's a time capsule of strange geography and slow-motion memories; ten stretches of well-crafted sound by Fred & Ryan, distilled over the course of 2 years where the duo traveled around the country multiple times playing different versions of these songs in every basement, bar-room and house party available. The album title is actually the name of a street and a church (both) on said street in Ann Arbor, where Fred grew up and Ryan went to school. The songs are an atempt to retroactively understand said growing up (and said school), with underwater thoughts about high school tortures, stoned spring days listening to headphones for the microscopic elements of beauty, true love in a way that knows no age or era and the next generation of all these things already projecting themselves into the future at an alarming rate.Musically based in a tradition of what could be called the "understanding jam", City Center draws equally on the amped up teenage anger of hardcore (the Void side of the Faith/Void split), confused angst at the Gap sales rack circa '93 (Dinosaur Jr. style guitar solos over mumbling harmonies) or the frustration of the kid trying to talk about Fluxus at the open-armed parking lot scene of a Dead show in 1971.In the end, these songs reach out and grab at nothing, observe everything and ask no questions. The story folds back into itself like dim lights in the windows of houses only ever seen from the outside.

MAX (KLP227), the upcoming 12" EP from Anacortes, WA based songwriter and sound-crafter Karl Blau, will be Blau's first major release since his LP Zebra (KLP205) dropped in 2009. Recorded at Dub Narcotic in Olympia, Washington, MAX is a snack pack of subdued, soulful, introspective emotional funk that shows Blau at his best. When he sings "I scrape at the barnacles that build on the frame; I take old binoculars & peer in again," on the track "Celebrated by Singing" you're left with the feeling that having some "me time" between a pair of headphones is better than any prescription a doctor could give; and it feels good.

Dopestylevsky, Eprhyme's sophomore solo release, is more than just a collection of songs; It is a complete sound, style and statement all its own. The album combines Eprhyme's signature blend of universal poetics and personalized rap polemic with an epic electronic orchestra provided by Smoke of Oldominion and a host of live musicians. This is bold new music that is both thought provoking and body rocking.

For his first release on K, "In My Cave" b/w "I Know" ? 7" [IPU134] Generifus, aka, Spencer Sult, delivers a love song to comfort and personal growth. In his own words: "These two songs are connected through an ongoing narrative and also bookend a loose period of about two years of songwriting. "In My Cave," written first, explores a time of desperation and a need for familiar comfort. Emerging out from this safe place becomes a priority as the realization emerges that an individual stuck in a place of endless restful warmth can't progress any further internally. In "I Know," written around a year and a half later, independence is found through maternal wisdom, intense experiences and learning outside of the previous song's "cave."

Recorded with the powerful yet lithe trio of Jeremy, guitar and keyboards, Derek playing electric bass guitar and Michael on drums, they kept the room alive at Stagg Street Studios in Los Angeles, Ca. with the majestic pop perfection that unfolds as Dream Diary draws you into its spell.

LAKE's newest full-length album, Giving and Receiving [KLP228] soars with beautiful melodies and gentle, yet deliberate instrumentation. Written partially while staying at a little cabin in Northern Sweden, which band member Ashley Eriksson says is the only place she's ever truly heard silence, songs like "Skeleton Costume," and "Pilgrim's Day" were born in a shed there, and have the creaky barn wood/fresh air sound to prove it.

You know how in the 1950s the press and parents and such talked about how rock'n'roll had some evil, sexual, tribal force that was going to possess the youth? Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa is really that. Trance-punk dancehall explosion gonna knock you up! 2011! Formerly of Old Time Relijun, this is Dionyso's second Malaikat Dan Singa release, the lyrics for which are entirely in (self-taught) Indonesian. Fancy!

Karl Blau has become the most active member of the Dub Narcotic Studio Patrol, recording his own smooth jams, and those by LAKE, Arrington de Dionyso, The Hive Dwellers, Angelo Spencer and The Curious Mystery. As such it was a natural step for the prolific Blau (sweet croon, soft tremble) to record a Dub Narcotic Disco Plate. In virtuoso fashion, he played all the instruments. "Golden Chariot" [DBN120] makes a big pot of soup, open up and say "aaaah." You can use your words. A different version of this song will also be included on Karl Blau's 12" EP MAX [KLP227] which will be released on May 11, 2011. This disco plate version of "Golden Chariot" offers what MAX does not: a remix by Selector Dub Narcotic (the vinyl nom de plume of Calvin Johnson) who was given not only the supervisory role of this recording, but also provided emergency late-night peanut butter sandwiches.

The Curious Mystery stitch together 60's-styled psychedlia with smoky garage guitars, Eastern drones, and dynamic, post-soul experimentation; a new gospel. 2009's Rotting Slowly [KLP206] was a true debut album: a journey into new landscapes, charting the depths of canyons. With the release of We Creeling [KLP225], The Curious Mystery are no longer that mysterious stranger in town; they've left the bluffs and entered the valley. They run the drugstore, they shot the noose off the neck of the town drunk because they believe in redemption. There are new legends of where The Curious Mystery came from (the garages of Area 51?) and how much disorder there was before they brought the good light to Seattle. The truth will take its time. We Creeling was recorded in 2010 by Karl Blau and features the vocal/guitar tandem of Shana Cleveland and Nicolas Gonzalez.

Born in a cold, dark basement in 2009, Western Hymn is the uncouth union of two Olympia thoroughbreds: The Old Haunts and Bangs. A classic three-piece jammer, shaking spooky riffs and thundering rhythms, Western Hymn digs on Northwest punk staples -- reverb, rain, motorcycles and minivans. Craig Extine works the Hagstrom-hybrid, Sarah Utter switches her riffs to bass, and Kris Cunningham brings the beat as only a 'seasoned professional' can. Western Hymn strikes up from underground with vocals that beg and snarl, backed by a thundering guitar propulsion and call and response swagger.

Many people have compiled a home library of records, compact discs, ticket stubs or concert set lists, but Chain & The Gang might not be included in all of them. Their delightful racket isn't for everyone. Is it for anyone? Possibly. Music's Not For Everyone is their follow-up long-player to Down With Liberty ... Up With Chains! and it is pithy and succinct. Led by Ian Svenonius (Nation of Ulysses, Make Up, Weird War etc), it features roaring organ solos, shredding guitar, and plomping percussion by an all star cast (Fred Thomas, Arrington de Dionyso, Brian Weber) complete with call and response vocals by fabulous back-up singers such as Veronica Ortuño, Sara Pedal and Tara Jane ONeil. Some will play this Music at pool parties, proms and pizzerias because there's a hard-edged dance groove. It sounds real "earthy." Others might choose "Not Good Enough" to be the anthem for their Football Team because it really psyches out the competition. Chain & the Gang knows they have a long way to go before they're fully accepted. But they have a strategy: maybe if someone heard their music, they would like it.

The discussion of starting a band that would later be called Christmas started in a Polish dive bar. Their first single for K, "Namiot" [DBN118] would be the next big pop hit ? if people only knew what it meant. A "namiot" is not a lost tribe of people who danced beautifully ... but you can dance to this. The playful vocals ("hey!" "oh no!"), Morse code bass, tight drumskins and jangly, lost guitar were recorded in the Dub Narcotic Studios of Olympia, Washington in the Christmas-time of the Pacific Northwest: the summer. If you learned that "namiot" is just a Polish word for "tent" would that make this song an inside joke? Expand your vocabulary. On the B-side, Selector Dub Narcotic (aka Calvin Johnson) dirties not only the carpet, but also the curtains. Slowed down, mud everywhere, "Namiot Version" is the scene after the party: a lamp has been knocked over, someone is muttering in the corner. This Dub Narcotic Disco Plate is a contrast ? a true black and white Valentine.

While recording their first album at Dub Narcotic Studio, Down with Liberty...Up with Chains! [KLP203], Chain & The Gang had so many good, extra songs and radical ideas, it became obvious that it would spill over onto a Dub Narcotic Disco Plate 7" single; Chain (aka Ian Svenonius) croons on "Cry, Cry, Cry (Over You)" ? culling inspiration from background vocals by Sixx (The Vibrarians), and a stinging piano solo by Brian Weber (Dub Narcotic Sound System). Extra strong, no cream, in a word: classic. On the other side, Selector Dub Narcotic (aka Calvin Johnson) added his own melodica flourishes, and voila! you've got the brand new Chain & The Gang 45 rpm record: a logical link from Liberty to the forthcoming Chain & The Gang long-player, Music's Not For Everyone [KLP220] out in February 2011.

Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson's radiant songwriting chemistry is on display on both sides of the new 7" single by LAKE. Recorded by Tucker Martine before Oh, The Places We'll Go [KLP196] and Let's Build a Roof [KLP213], this single represents the fluidity of sounds that LAKE operates with: both songs are hopeful in different ways ? "You Are Alone" (featuring Moore's sympathetic voice and calm keys) is a hand on your shoulder, and "Higher Than Merry" (featuring Eriksson's contagious glee and a kaleidoscope of percussions, horns, and animal sounds) is a hand that pulls you into a Technicolor dream. Known to change tempos and styles on an album, LAKE throws a sharp curveball for this edition of K's International Pop Underground series of 7" singles. Your hand makes the transition; flipping Side A to Side B is like opening a letter from a familiar friend: insightful and cheerful.

Last autumn Calvin Johnson took a train from Providence, RI, to Burlington, IA; naturally he stopped off in Chicago, IL for three days to check in with Mike, Dan, Josh, Hunter: Mahjongg. You know it was Dr. Jekyll who wore the crazy pants in the family, didn't you? Mr. Hyde just had an extremely uncouth case of morning hair. Mahjongg are the perfect combination of the two: whack like Jekyll, hair like Hyde. When Calvin says, "Let's Play Band!" all sorts of bleeps and bloops ensue. That is the origin of the first recorded offering by The Hive Dwellers. Wires and buttons come alive to the beat of a drum machine never tamed. The Strategy remix of "Get In" brings The Hive Dwellers well into the 21st century. Finally. Shawn Parke and Blandow C also take a swing at another Hive Dwellers song from the Chicago sessions, "Sitting Alone at the Movies." That is The Hive Dwellers "Get In" 12" single [KLP223].

City Center was born in the headphone space of a Brooklyn bedroom. Shelved between boredom, loneliness, and every available corner of the audible spectrum, Fred Thomas and Ryan Howard make music that is both playful and shy -- that teen Halloween feeling. Now rooted in Michigan, City Center continues to unravel their ever-expanding landscape of warmly washed-out psychedelia -- creating a blurry canvas of images: an endless sun, a lavish diamond tattoo across the chest, and a pile of orca bones on the beach. While touring across the country, Fred and Ryan stopped for a few days in Olympia, Washington to groove-out a solid-action 7" 45 rpm record for K (who also put out Thomas' last full length album from Saturday Looks Good to Me). "Zen Kids" [DBN117] splinters guitars and chillingly desolate drones until it forms as a soft summery pop song. As with all singles in the Dub Narcotic Disco Plate series, just flip the record and Selector Dub Narcotic scrambles and reforms it, "Version" style.

Mecca Normal is fully engaged on all fronts -- music, graphic novel, lecture, political art museum, films, posters, paintings, novels -- they're not some boring band trying to re-form to cash-in, because, quite frankly, they never bothered to cash-out... things go better with clout. As Mecca Normal, Jean Smith and David Lester have a 26 year history. It's all online somewhere. Got Google?Malachi Ritscher (1954-2006), American musician, free speech and anti-war activist who for many years made high quality recordings of other musicians (often jazz and experimental) performing live in Chicago. He would give a copy to the performers and sometimes these would become official releases. After the U.S. invaded Iraq, he became a vocal opponent of the war at demonstrations and was twice arrested. Like monks opposing the Vietnam war, his final act of protest culminated in an act of self-immolation.

"L'Argent" [IPU131] is the second collaboration between Angelo Spencer et L'Orchidee d'Hawai resulting in a 45 rpm double-sider for the International Pop Underground series of 7" records. Although there is a Side A and B, "L'Argent" is really one song; this is a single that can't be left idle ? tend to it like a fire. "Part I" contains the voice of Angelo Spencer, it is calm and gently awakens you from a slumber, the urging guitar providing a tingle in the hands. "Part II" follows with a procession of handclaps, stringy guitars, a totemic drum and an echoplex that unspools like the celluloid at the end of the reel. Closed eyelids filled with spinning light, "L'Argent," is a vinyl Dream Machine.

Kendl Winter is a dreamer of dark clouds. She has a drawer stuffed with stolen socks, she picks banjo and guitar and makes good driving music. Born in Arkansas and based in Olympia, Washington, Kendl twists those instruments into captivating melodies; Apple Core [KLP224] is Kendl Winter's fourth solo album and her first release for K. On this album apples represent temptation, a prize for beauty, a gift for knowledge, gravity, truth, autumn, and harvest. With its country roots, indie trunk, and sweet soulful sadness fruiting on the branches, Apple Core is apple to the core; mostly sweet with an occasional bruise. Kendl safety pins patches of piano and slide guitar on to the cloth, washes it in a lather of honest and provocative songs, and hangs it on the line to dry in the shy, unpredictable northwest sun.

Affected noises and guitar lines dance around the mist creating a current of shiny sounds, all underlined by a pulse of Rock and Roll. Electric Sunset is a new, solo project from Nic Zwart. The debut album, Electric Sunset [KLP221] is a distillation of ambient music into spiky pop songs with loud synthetic percussion and muscular bass lines. The descriptions of loss, love, fear and self discovery coincide with the stops and starts of moving down the coast from the Pacific Northwest to San Francisco. Old memories rising through the windshield, new promises illuminated by headlights. Using synthesizers, guitar, modified samplers and computers, Zwart recorded this project alone while on hiatus from his previous band, Desolation Wilderness. Both projects have emerged as expansive expressions of movement; recordings about new places, the infinite possibilities afforded by never staying still long enough to take root. Now, he is primed to take Electric Sunset on the road following paths already travelled, and creating new ones, existing as an electric hum on the highway.

When it first appeared on (a)spera in 2009, the first solo album from Mirah since 2004, "Gone Are All the Days" was a song of sorrow with a little swing and a bit of hope.  Live performances of the track took the swing and added a disco beat; an energetic pulse that alleviates sadness with glittery energy and an empowered delivery.

When unwrapped this 12" single comes in four parts: a studio recording ("Disco Beat") including a newly constructed musical arrangement featuring a punchy bassline, a sly guitar, bongos, viola and a rerecorded vocal performance by Mirah, an isolated instrumental track, an additional dance remix by Christopher Doulgeris of Hooliganship, and an a capella vocal track.  These "Days" are brighter, and the future is happening already.  Be a part of it.

Mahjongg is basically a bar band who got lucky. With The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger they will rule 2010. Their previous album Kontpab announced a big noise in the music scene of 2008. Since then, they've partied around the world and come back to invent a new style of music they call Chicagotronics: a wall of sound command center with drums and humans. They sing together and dance all crazy and there's this laser going. It's great. The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger features their first protest song ("Grooverider Free"), which is actually an extended version of a previous single (Pun alert: "Free Grooverider"). Following a closing gurgle-sax on "Gooble," comes "Miami Knights" where our dance detectives take that smooth boat through choppy waters. The album continues with layers of keyboards, guitars, and percussion parts that wind around each other almost like a fugue -- an intrinsic groove that rarely fails to amaze and inspire. No one with ears will listen and be depressed.

Have you heard? Grandma's doing the bird to the latest rock-breaking teen sensation, the wig-flipping Chain & the Gang. "(I've Got) Privilege" is the latest volume in our International Pop Underground series of 7" 45 rpm records. Young and old alike love the beat, the cranked riffs, just the overall vibe! You may, too, as soon as this package slides under your door. Ian Svenonius and chums have really come up with a winner of a dance task master, a real double-A side plate. Chain (o.k., Ian) croons on the first side; espousing the joys of being part of the privileged class. Then he gets real confused about the relationship between cars and music (isn't it obvious?) on "Detroit Music ." "(I've Got) Privilege" was recorded by Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic Studio here in Olympia, Wash. Breaking all the chains, in the best possible way.

Gigi is a recording project of Vancouver-based songwriter Nick Krgovich (No Kids) and producer Colin Stewart. The debut album, Maintenant released by Tomlab in early 2010, gave them the opportunity to unabashedly profess their love of 60s pop music. "The Hundredth Time" and "Some Second Best" aren't content to be throwback pastiches or retro workouts in the vein of Phil Spector. They succeed as opulent orchestrations working within a specific and rich tradition of pop music production. The two songs featured on this single for K are selections from the original recording session in March 2006. Ryan Peters and Duffy Driediger from Ladyhawk guest on "The Hundredth Time."

It will be said that this new collection of songs from Tender Forever is a turn away from an older sound. To say that wouldn't do justice to the subtle transition of her new album, No Snare. Take away the snare and there isn't loss, just a new song. Here we see a songwriter at that most delicate moment of transformation. Melanie Valera's third full length album moves away from some of the more exuberant dance oriented songs of past years into a darker and more melancholy direction. Maybe it's her current residence in the damp and dirty Pacific Northwest, maybe its a little adulthood. Whatever it is, we get a deeper, denser sound. These songs push through the forest as the evening comes, dripping wet, the lights of a little house up ahead. What No Snare retains is Valera's emotional clarity and eloquence. We are always invited to her world, feeling what she feels without exception. Valera keeps her lyrics light on their feet, moving with ease around the complexities of her compositions, her vocals rolling hard with the strength of conviction. Feel the shake from those little computer speakers, hear it grow and pulse through the woods.

Splash [KLP218], the third album by Jeremy Jay, was recorded over the summer of 2009, while Jeremy was living in London. It mixes a deeply personal, chopped-up narrative with crunchy guitars and sky-high synths. Splash is a sonic postcard that tells the story of a life picked up in a new and unfamiliar environment; that fresh ambition of a new life. Despite its recording location, Splash, has a very nostalgic, American feel. Jeremy confesses to watching The Goonies, and Rad over and over while he was recording, to cope with his homesickness for California. Splash, though, is not about longing to be elsewhere: Jeremy sings with the most conviction and passion he has ever shown. He is still dreaming, but this time he's looking down from the rooftops, rather than up to the sky, and the intense life he evokes is anything but everyday.

Joey Casio continues to create something wholly new for this unsteady era. The longtime Olympian, and current Portlander, reassembles the wired connections of white-hot punk energy and post-disco electronic dance music. "The Frame" finds Casio sharpening his edges rather than just running in place: you'll hear the calculated combination of dance and punk forms fused within a neon-lit matrix of percussion, including electronic strings, claps and bells and Casio's laconic delivery; a box inside a box. The b-side, "Ritual," is a tar pit of sound, pure disenfranchisement, remaining danceable while flirting with chaos.

The Bundles boasts a line-up of Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis, Jack Lewis, Anders Griffen and Karl Blau, a formidable group of artists who have achieved great singular success. The Bundles started in 2001 as a collaborative project between Lewis and Dawson, who were fans of each other in the growing anti-folk music scene of New York City in the late 90s (she of the Moldy Peaches, he of the Jeffrey Lewis Band). Years passed, during which Jeffrey released five acclaimed records on Rough Trade, and Kimya recorded six solo albums, and increased exposure from the Juno soundtrack. Despite the demanding schedules of all involved, The Bundles continued to be resurrected in unlikely times and places wherever in the world they happened to cross paths. Eventually in 2009 they congregated to make some full-band recordings. Their debut album The Bundles [KLP214] is a delightful fusion of everything they have done on their own. Mix the tragic-comic folk narratives of Lewis, with Dawson's friendly calls for bravery, with the daffy, multi-instrumentations of Jack Lewis, Blau and Griffen and the result is an album that is able to be both snarky and tender, and vulnerable and confident - all at the same time.

Similar to works by such instrumental groups as The Shadows and The Ventures, Angelo Spencer et Les Hauts Sommets illustrates the potential of the guitar; how it can be played and bent to influence accompanying instruments. Angelo Spencer is self taught, but aside from his one-man band performances, he has never played guitar in a band before. On this album his guitar creates the wavering tempo for accompanying echoplex, bass clarinet, keys, bells, bass drum, handclaps, shenhai and shakers. Arrington de Dionyso (Old Time Relijun), Karl Blau and Clyde Petersen (Your Heart Breaks) were called to Olympia, Washington to contribute extra instrumentation as Les Hauts Sommets and set the scene. Because Sergio Leone has already passed it is a soundtrack to an unmade, never dreamed of movie. A village is burned. A nameless drifter has undetermined motives. A town celebrates his arrival. The unfolding drama happens within the mind of the listener. Les Hauts Sommets is an homage to that special moment when someone hears a soundtrack that is so wild and dissimilar to what's been heard before that it helps them create their own story and hero from the music.

Some artists push the envelope, Arrington de Dionyso eats the envelope and spits out an origami of sound.Malaikat Dan Singa is a collection of throbbing, hallucinogenic, trance-inducing trans-utopian cosmic post-punk sounds from Old Time Relijun's Arrington de Dionyso. Never one to compromise in pursuit of his twisted visions of the future of music, de Dionyso not only rattles listeners with heavy grooves but he also sings every song on this album in Indonesian, with some of the lyrics being lifted from the poems of William Blake and passages from The Zohar. Malaikat Dan Singa is an album of translated and personal mysticism that sounds like it was dug up from the Earth. Although there is a familiar (drums, bass, guitar) and foreign (bass clarinet, throat-singing, echoplex) rhythm -- with a mixture of post-punk and Gamelan tendencies, Malaikat Dan Singa is really Future World Music. And you can dance to it.

Listening to Karl Blau's albums and trying to describe what you hear is like walking through a local farmer's market and describing all the vegetables grown in that area. The common thread running through Blau's records is a love felt for homegrown music. Most anyone can sense the passion this cultivator has for his trade. On his third solo album, Blau overtly mirrors African musical influences with hints of blues, soul and rock steeped in l'herbe de Northwest and he calls it Zebra. This recording explores the frontiers of folklore, adding one instrument at a time (drum, guitar, bell, keys, saxophone, flute, piano) in an organic process of response to this confluence of sounds. Blau is adept at imaginative and sweet songs about education, work, love and society; with his expressive and gentle baritone, Blau asks the eternal question: "what's next?"

Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson's radiating songwriting chemistry serves as the foundation for LAKE. Let's Build a Roof is like a travelogue of the places they went, the stories they encountered on the way, and the memories that were unearthed from those experiences, be they good or bad. Their retro-jingly pop aesthetic is applied to thicker instrumentation and tempo shifts that fracture into kaleidoscopic sounds and harmonies. A bell rings, a door opens, and an ominous chord is struck on the piano. The strong force of a pop journey is about to begin. Let's Build a Roof proves that wonder and beauty aren't just kids stuff. This is LAKE's most sophisticated record to date.

Hornet Leg has had many manifestations as both a bedroom and live project for Chris Sutton (of C.O.C.O. and Dub Narcotic Sound System). In the past, Hornet Leg has been a solo acoustic guitar project, an electro-dance undertaking, a crushing two-person art noise assault, a melancholy pop outfit and a personal four-track recording enterprise. Now with Ribbon of Fear [KLP209], the long-coming full-length debut, Hornet Leg is solidified as a three-man punk-blues powerhouse. Ribbon of Fear is heightened with a polyrhythmic jamboree of tambourine, piano keys, ghoulish laughter and female voice accompaniment. Punky twang meets doo-wop. Sutton's crowning glory is his inspiration that is drawn from just about anything that makes a sound. For this recording Hornet Leg assembled the newest line-up of Sutton on guitar, Robert Comitz on drums and Bob Desaulniers on bass. This trio's live performances expose the entire musical spectrum that Hornet Leg has been for Sutton: acapella, gospel, pop, and blues. Ribbon of Fear is a successful attempt to record six years of a shifting musical adventure into a cohesive, continuing document, overlapping with grace and vitality. A diary turned into a rock and roll mixtape.

The songs of Rose Melberg belong to her voice; its stark stillness is as hauntingly playful and familiar as the first days of fall. Similar to her work with previous bands Tiger Trap and The Softies, her approach is always tender and hushed. Homemade Ship is a small masterpiece. Melberg uses just a guitar and vocals on Homemade Ship (with occasional harmony vocal and piano work provided by Larissa Loyva of The Choir Practice and P:ano), offering helpful and insightfully delicate lyrics to perfectly ease out of sorrow and into contentment. At the forefront, her voice holds a warmth and generosity that adds strength and hopefulness to her aching lyrics. Set a table for two.

"Breaking the Ice" is another candid single from Jeremy Jay. This single, the latest volume in our International Pop Underground series of 7" 45 rpm records, appeared on Slow Dance [KLP197] in the springtime of 2009. With shiny synths, noble guitars, and a strong will ? it is another chance at romance. The single also includes an alternate version of "Winter Wonder" with icy and unsettled synthesizers, and a sincere and effective cover of the innocent 50s song "Words of Love" by Buddy Holly.

In the latest installment of K's legendary International Pop Underground series, longtime Olympian Joey Casio supplies two songs that further illuminate the lost connections between the manic energy of punk and the body-moving rhythms of electronic dance music. This is truly house punk for punk houses. Interlocked with a percolating matrix of percussion, "Debtor's Prism" is propelled by a deep hypnotic bass line that draws from Jamaica as much as it does Detroit. The commitment to lyrical content is also reflected in "Artists in Times of War," which draws its name from a Howard Zinn essay. The tempo is the urgent and the vocal delivery is snarling. This track takes the futuristic staccato sounds of acid house and presents them as politico-hardcore.

Swooning guitars, found sounds, synthesizer trills, forward percussion and dream vocals; New Universe is the second full-length album by Desolation Wilderness. It alternates between lonely sounds and the euphoria of freedom and distance ? like an empty, foggy beach in the early morning. After touring the country extensively, this album is the labor of a restless engine; postcards from being constantly on the move.

Tori Kudo, the conductor and band leader of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, fuses stray elements of pop, folk, jazz and experimental music into pieces of candid musical gestures. C'est La Dernière Chanson is a double album of songs composed by Kudo between 2005-2007. For the recordings, Kudo assembled nine musicians from Japan and bunkered down for six days in St. Pierre-Eglise, France. Bassoon, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, glass percussion, organ, rocks and sticks are expanded by a sophisticated counter-repetition technique into an extensive tonal range of colors; the effect is at turns serene, dissonant, enchanting, crisp, spacious and maddeningly catchy. The future of music on Planet Earth. Listen closely, please.

A ragged collection of junk musicians and travelers, the Pine Hill Haints have journeyed to hold Midnight Opries across the basements of Babylon for over a decade. Here with To Win or to Lose [KLP208], their second long player on K Records, the topics move further into the forest shadows, with tales of modern America and the ghosts of its past and reflects the ancient idea of the Great Hunt, the hounds and the horn of impending doom; this record has fast songs about living and self-destruction, songs of natural disaster, public domain dance music, and tales of friends, brothers and sisters who walk the streets, sleep in the dumpsters or backseats of cars, or jump trains. A Valentine croon and a roaring train wreck.

Moving effortlessly from Middle Eastern melodies to dance-hall and deep-house rhythms, "Shomer Salaam" is multi-cultural and poly-rhythmic. On the B-side, "My Mouth is a House of Prayer" represents soul music in its purest form. And it bumps. Combining a classic marching band drum break with an Arabic pop vocal chorus, "My Mouth is a House of Prayer" takes you back to the future of a global-local village. Eprhyme's fluctuating cadence and styles float like a stoned butterfly, while the relentlessly hard-hitting beat stings like a spelling bee.

These songs are the celluloid preview to Desolation Wilderness' second full length album, New Universe [KLP204], which will be released by K in August. The single, part of our International Pop Underground series, was recorded by the band at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia Washington: tubes glowing, tape echoing, guitars chiming. Hey, go outside and let the sun in.

The Curious Mystery place an emphasis on dense sonic texture and unorthodox song structures. Their debut album, Rotting Slowly has a vast implied distance and textural tension, canvassing canyons and turning tight corners. Shana Cleveland, a Midwestern daughter of Blues and Country musicians and Nicolas Gonzalez,an experimental instrumentalist from Texas, split vocal duties; hers is silky, his familiar and they wind around each other in an organic swirl of skeletal percussion, tangled guitars, Eastern drones and multiple tempos.

The work of Tara Jane ONeil has always innately crossed genres and boundaries - like several genies emerging from a single lamp. Every singer wants to be a painter, every guitarist a singer, every songwriter a poet and every producer an alchemist. ONeil is skilled at all these things and on A Ways Away [KLP207], her fifth album and first for K, she has wielded all of her powers. A Ways Away is a song cycle, generous and concise, direct and uncompromising.

Just as it's called "liberty" when war and greed stalk the land, Ian Svenonius (Make Up, Nation of Ulysses and Weird War) calls his band Chain and the Gang. Like a true chain gang, they're on the road to confront and defy any freedom-lovers that come across their path. They shuffle, manacled, across railway yards, and through graveyards; they're on the side of the road, picking up the garbage as they walk, as people drive by, yelling at them. All they can do is become a chorus of metal meeting metal, hands hitting hands and a collective voice louder than one. The songs they have created on Down With Liberty ... Up With Chains [KLP203] are sing-alongs; a call and response in the tradition of gospel tunes, work favorites and the girl groups and vocal aggregates that once dotted the corners of the Mid-Atlantic United States.

Recorded in winter-time at the Dub Narcotic Studio (Olympia, Washington) in a succession of silhouettes, Jay (synth and guitar; joined by Derek James on bass, Nick Pahl on drums and Ilya Malinsky on guitar) varies speeds with smooth precision. "Slow Dance" and "Winter Wonder" have a repetitive, loose charm. "In This Lonely Town" and "Breaking the Ice" maintain a strident beat; "Will You Dance with Me?" and "Where Could We Go Tonight?" end with questions where the response feels limitless. The glide on ice transfers to the dance floor with ease.

The album holds many surprises within its undulating reverie. String sections shimmer in the opening track "Generosity" and in the impeccable "Education," a relentless fist pounds against a soundboard in the darkly powerful "The World Is Falling Apart." "Shells" offers a breathtaking vantage of Kane Mathis¹ masterful playing of the mandinka kora, a street party emerges in full swing from the galaxy of Mirah¹s heart in "The Country of the Future," unexpected turns are taken in "The Forest," horns burst forth as quickly as they retreat back into the starscape on "The River." Kalimba, hurdy gurdy, bongos, horns, instruments for all worlds, all times.

"My Music is My Sweat" began with a conversation between Karl Blau and Angelo Spencer about how music is similar to body odor and, like everyone's stench, one's music is also unique and identifiable. Angelo's music is as raw as sweat. Recorded in one day, on one take by Blau, this 7" is a puddle of twitchy urgency. Generally a one man band, this recording is fleshed out with frantic drum fills and fidgety keys by L'Orchidee d'Hawaii soon after they finished a tour with Spencer. "My Music is My Sweat" is the sprint and "The Great Salt Lake" is the cool-down, exasperated pause needed to sprint and sweat again; embellished with distant whistling ? like the playful intermission of a spaghetti western ? and Spencer is the wandering hero. "Music should always be like that."

I See Beyond the Black Sun pushes de Dionyso's previous solo album Breath of Fire (2006) from a charcoal sketchbook into a Technicolor landscape with more clarity, shape and definition. The album is structured with two immense bookends "AION" and "Pluto in Capricorn (I See Beyond the Black Sun)." "AION" creates a rhythmic drone that specifies the rules for movements of the melodies on the album in a convergent up and down scale ? continuing to climb the color spectrum ever so slowly. The gradient shift is deceptively hidden before exploding into color on the parenthetical title track. "Pluto in Capricorn (I See Beyond the Black Sun)" ? featuring a guest appearance by Old Time Relijun drummer Germaine Baca ? is the culminating catharticconclusion, a propulsive mythical beast that combines all the previous pieces into a new separate entity where sparks begin to rise. It is the crossing over and the release.

Inspired in part by influential French scientist/poet J.Henri Fabré, Mirah's lyrics smartly humanize the trials and pleasures of the insect world, touching on themes of villainy, seduction, self-sacrifice and love. Shining a light on the epic complexity of the insect world, the songs imply an inescapable comparison with our own. Along with a host of other sources Share This Place draws visual inspiration from Karel ?apek's surrealist Insect Play where the epic and dramatic lives of insects are given human characteristics to extenuate the similarities between humans and insects in work and desire. The music and corresponding videos explore the tender, dramatic, sordid, tragic and triumphant lives of insects.

White Light Strobing [KLP198] is the debut album of the band Desolation Wilderness. Recorded in the Winter of 2008, supposedly the dark months but there is a beauty hidden there, too. Sound waves transmuted through archaic vacuum tubes and dusty transistors, magnetized on to a playable medium. A rush of air pressure, a few more charged ions here and there. Somehow, out of chaos comes order, a record of an event at a specific time and place. White Light Strobing. Strobing, like what movies do, or sunlight, or even sound: More than meets the eye. White Light Strobing contains songs straight from the wide awake dream world about simple things (love, escape, the open road) which transform before your ears into something else entirely. Similar to the experience of being inside all day and then walking outside to find yourself blinded by the light of the sun, blinking in a daze. What just happened? More than meets the eye. The meaning of words are transcended by their texture, what they rest upon. Lingual poetry as visual poetry as aural poetry; sung in any language, it is understood.

Stylistically, Mahjongg is boundless and indefinable. From their very first EP through K's Kontpab (released earlier this year), Mahjongg have dabbled in beatbox punk, afro-beat revivalism and junkyard whimsy. The continual shifts in their albums is an earnest attempt to realize global harmonies, but if given only one side of a 7" which side of Mahjongg would come out to play? The Dub Narcotic Disco Plate series provides the answer and "Free Groove Rider" is their most refracted pop statement yet. Using a swirling vocoder and intermittent dance beats, this single flickers like a channel-surfer finding pop sensibilities in between the static. The B-side, a remix by Selector Dub Narcotic (Calvin Johnson), ups the playfulness by reducing the static in favor of an unkempt, bubbling mix of melodica and reemerging synths.

Keeping a steady sneer but subtracting angst and teenage romanticism Wallpaper on their debut album On the Chewing Gum Ground captures the modern era that they ostentatiously do not feel a part of. Wallpaper's core members started working on music together in middle school, and On the Chewing Gum Ground represents much of their adult work over the past four years. Hailing from Auburn, Washington ? a place just close enough to the ocean to make weekend trips and understand what the Beach Boys are about ? they mix '50s rockabilly and '60s surf mixed with the crucial wave of '80s underground music. The strength allure of the album comes in the juxtaposition of pop sensibilities with lyrics sung like a sliding shimmy but written with a call for a pop-cultural reform.

"Oh, the places we'll go! Oh, we don't actually know!" The title track lyrics, with a nod to Dr. Seuss, have a wide-eyed, wondrous feeling, (and a hint of agnosticism) which finds itself popping up throughout the record. On their first K release, LAKE crafts up-beat, dance-able, psychedelic, uniquely sincere and unaffected pop songs, ranging from the jubilant, echoey, post-soul groove of Heaven to the sweet, polyrhythmic Green Arrows-inspired Bad Dream. Recorded at home, largely on cassette 8-track, this album, actually LAKE's third, has a slightly lo-fi, homemade feel as well (because it is home-made), showing evidence of their influence from prolific artists Karl Blau and R. Stevie Moore. Oh, the Places We'll Go represents a new direction for LAKE ? more synthesizers, more up-beat, rhythmically-based songwriting ? but it is also in keeping with their aesthetic, with contributing horn players and percussionists, male and female singers, group harmonies, sweet melodies and homespun production.

Anchor's got aweigh... and now Blau's ship shatters as it strikes land! This is the land that production forgot, the place where Nature is central and permeating out from the core. The sense that the sound matters never arrived, and here to stay in its place is the process a song happens and then leaves out into the world. Did Nature leave? No. Nature got loose. And now that these songs have clearly gone into the world -- are they left to run around naked? Yes.

Nature's Got Away made it to tape fresh off of a tour in Spring 2007 where Karl Blau traveled to Japan and performed with some of his biggest musical influences: namely Tori Kudo (Maher Shalal Hash Baz), Reiko Kudo, Nikaido Kazumi, the Moools, Tennis Coats, and Arrington DeDionyso (of K Records, Old Time Relijun). Written on the road and recorded at "home" at the beloved Dub Narcotic Studio by Karl Blau accompanied mainly by: Olympians-- Peter Dolan (Chin-Up Merryweather), and members of LAKE: Lindsay Shief, Eli Moore, Mark Morrison, Micah Davis-Wheeler, Andrew Dorsett, and Ashley Eriksson; with also Portland folks Nate Ashley and Greg Olin (Graves); and Seattle's Steve Moore (Earth, Sunn0)))))).

K is proud to announce the release of Kimya Dawson's new studio album, ALPHABUTT. Set for a September 9th release, ALPHABUTT is a collection of children's songs written by Dawson along with a number of her musical friends and their children. Hailed by the likes of Rolling Stone, NPR, Blender and Pitchfork, as a seriously talented wordsmith, Dawson successfully leads a group of children in this sunny and energetic batch of songs with plenty of fun in the form of snapping fingers, clapping hands and stamping feet. ALPHABUTT follows up the highly successful soundtrack, JUNO, which featured many of Dawson's songs.

Like Dawson's previous releases, ALPHABUTT, succeeds by being tender and vulnerable, silly and raw while maintaining the intimacy and sense of community that has become so special to both fans and critics. Clocking in at 27 minutes, ALPHABUTT effortlessly showcases Dawson's powerful talent for storytelling.

Desolation Wilderness is the primary musical project of Nicolaas Zwart. Started in 2005, it is his musical realization of themes inspired by american literature, film, and music: transcendentalism, hope, longing, movement. If you had to map it, it would be somewhere between A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Rabbit, Run by John Updike.

Until Forever was written, played, and recorded by Nic in Summer of 2007, at Dub Narcotic studio in Olympia, Washington; during the late night sessions for his self- released full-length album Hey Someone. Nic played almost all the instruments including the vibraphone, clarinet, glockenspiel, guitar, computer, and synthesizer. On "4/4 Love Song" he enlisted his friends Andrew Dorsett and Adam Oelsner to play Hammond Organ and Accordion, respectively.

"Goodbye Summer Girl" is the end of a story. Saying a sudden goodbye to someone new to you who you were in love with, and seeing her disappear out of the rear view mirror of your car as you drive away; getting lost in the shimmering heat of a California summer day.

"Gloria" and "4/4 Love Song" have no words, but they capture a mood you can get when watching fireworks over a lake during twilight on the Fourth of July: everything you see and do is imbued with the magic of fate and destiny.

This is a debut album containing ten songs, but really it is a cinematic escapade into the mind of a singular individual, Jeremy Jay. A Place Where We Could Go is a statement of fiction and fact, exploring the shadowy depths of an attitude: the romance of life without the people and things that pull down the corners; create your own world. This universe may have a fairy tale look; it may be illuminated by streetlight. But it will definitely be a safe haven for the exploration of dreams. Think vast landscapes of reverberating storybook endings populated by the more charming characters from John Hughes' movies. Jeremy Jay: dancing, singing and playing guitar. A Place Where We Could Go is your hardcopy of the illusive, blonde, Jeremy Jay moon-roof vista. Buena.

Hornet Leg, the new Northwest fuzz harbingers in tune with the "heavy", identify the primal symbolisms of blood as fear, death and paradoxically, life. The Blood Trilogy, condenses the full length concept album into three potent tracks of pure unsentimental, raw energy. Expertly engineered by Calvin Johnson at the Dub Narcotic Studios, these recordings are an immediate grab to the throat but leave a haunting grip to the ear?Chapter 1: "Bleed The Blood", a groovy mid tempo churn, represents the immediate loss of spirit that occurs when love is lost and never regained. To bleed the spirit is to bleed the blood and thus the spirit is bled. Chapter 2: "Covered In Blood", has the pounding scream and scrape when one is exposed to the blunt force of brutality. Anger and fear become intertwined and fused into the "bad" parts of the subconscious and the ensuing detriment can make vibrations that sound very similar to the distorted electric guitar. Chapter 3: "Bloody Hands", is a requiem for the (un)dearly departed sung in the style of a ghostly lullaby. A melodic question is posed - Is consciousness tethered to the physicality of blood?The arterial guitar and voice of Chris Sutton (Dub Narcotic, C.O.C.O) is the jugular vein carrying the sound of this group?s unique garage punk. The heart pumping rhythm is the bash and thrash of one Claudia Meza (Japanther, Thunder Thunder Thunder). Joel Brazzel (K Records darling), a full-fledged ghost member, contributes shaker and tambourine work in the session that produces just the right amount of evil. These kids need to be seen live in the flesh. Their dynamic performances have been extolled as "revivals" leaving many an audience member with the familiar taste of copper lingering on their tongue.

This album takes a stab at capturing some of the energy Jason loves putting into every show he plays, whether there are five or fifty people present. For the most part it succeeds, but to say that these are the "definitive" or "final" or "best" versions of these songs would be unrealistic, it would be straight-up false, actually. Jason says he's come to grips with the fact that it can never be just the way he wants in the studio; that the passionate, in-the-moment rush of doing these tunes in a basement full of singing, sweating friends is where his affection really lies. This is a bittersweet notion, but maybe explains why someone would spend half a decade on the road, trying to connect with people anywhere and everywhere, wanting to make them happy, to make them feel alive

Re-mastered in 2007 w/bonus materials (20 tracks: "Other songs from around the time of The Glow Pt. 2 and Destroyed versions"): While "Lo-Fi" as a sub-genre has quietly dissipated into the great tape hiss of the ether, the Microphones continue to boldly expand and expound upon the possibilities of analog recording?both at home AND in a studio. The Glow Pt. 2, the third full length album by the Microphones for K and fifth overall, is a sprawling 67-minute masterwork, a wonder of songwriting and alchemical engineering, certain to overtake last year's acclaimed It Was Hot,We Stayed in the Water (KLP116) and earn Microphones the undisputed title of experimental pop's Most Valuable Player.

Enter Eprhyme: a rapper with more on his mind than his money; a Jew with issues other than his mother. A cultural nomad with roots in seemingly contradictory cultural contexts, Eprhyme approaches both Judaism and Hip Hop with a profound respect for tradition, balanced by creative freedom and poetic license. Not afraid to experiment or cross boundaries of content and style, Eprhyme blends and juxtaposes seemingly divergent sounds and ideas into a swirling and seamless whole.

Mahjongg began in Columbia, Mo., which many consider a small, isolated place. Through the communication revolution that has transformed our culture in the past generation, this isolation gave Mahjongg the advantage of encapsulating their community spirit, as cogently summed up on Kontpab. Mahjongg get real and Kontpab keeps you elevated, raking across several strata of dance floor enchantment to sustain the listener in a cocoon of measured propulsion; "listener" transformed by empirical data into a "beliver". Hard facts, hard rhythms.

The new single "We Were There" will be released this Winter as Jeremy Jay's 2nd Single this year on K. Hot on the heels of his 1st single "Airwalker", The single "We Were There" was recorded in Angel Town with Nick Pahl on drums.

When it's love, you can say all the right things. We can teach wolves to whistle. We can kiss while the planets spin and fall around us. This sensation is just the beginning of Tender Forever's second full-length album, Wider. Tender Forever is Melanie Valera, the striking singer, multi-instrumentalist and performer who touched us last year with her breakout LP The Soft and the Hardcore. Each song on Wider moves you deeper into that warm, dimly lit place we all want to be: the eloquent, blunt, fantastic tragedy where big harmonies, insanely contagious hooks and a turn of phrase can make you feel that the world is good; that those calluses can yield; that the soft focus of the future feels clear and present.

Could a single person use her voice to represent many? Tout Seul dans la Forêt en Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur? (Alone in the forest in the middle of the day, are you scared? in English. Tout Seul for short) is the new record by WOELV . It is a record about present times, but may very well be about what has happened in the past and what might just happen again in the future. The music itself is dark and insistent. It is in a bad mood, yet it still has some hope left in its vocal chords that gives it its spine. The music could sound naughty and too difficult at first, but really it wants to be like a nurturing force that very softly asks the questions we would not want to hear otherwise.

Growing up in the lower Appalachians, The Pine Hill Haints learned its sound from old men and women playing on porches and in living rooms, under ancient oak trees and paper mill forests. The 19 tracks on this album are a massive flow of music. Some songs were written on the day of the recording, and others 400 years ago. "When You Fall" and "Say Something Say Anything" explore the feeling of holding an empty hand out to someone you love. "Phantom Rules" and "Raggle-Taggle Gypsy" channel Africa, the Cherokee Nation, Ireland, and the modern times.

After three years of relative silence, warped indie-pop collective Saturday Looks Good To Me return triumphantly with their fourth studio album "Fill Up The Room". Following two critically acclaimed releases with Polyvinyl Records, this marks the beginning of the band's work with K Records, and a dramatic progression from their 60's tinged retro-pop sound to a more textured, experimental and colorful breed of pop music.

Songwriter, producer, guitarist and lead vocalist Fred Thomas leads the Saturdays through a shifting palette of sonic joys on Fill Up The Room. Renowned for their production and arrangement, SLGTM is true to form with these new developments, meshing soaring string sections, harpsichords and interstellar fuzz guitar with found sound samples and ghostly wordless vocal melodies. By the end, it's clear that Fill Up The Room acts as a powerful song cycle, repeating themes of love, death and redemption in a way free of teenage existential crises, but leaning more towards feelings of unbearable, unreasonable joy and the desire to celebrate all the misery and terror of life as part of the wonder.

OLD TIME RELIJUN continues to break the confinement of rock-cliché with its newest release, "Catharsis in Crisis". Song after song, the ferocity of lead singer Arrington De Dionyso draws listeners deeper into a world where language, rhythm and unrepentant libido collide. This music is temperamental, unwieldy and unyielding; and it cuts you to the bone.

"Catharsis in Crisis" was written and recorded at Calvin Johnson's fabled Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington in four inspired days and nights. Legendary producer Steve Fisk was recruited to mix this raw material into OTR's most fully realized album to date. OTR + Calvin Johnson + Steve Fisk = a magical alchemy of sound and light. But don't worry kids, it's still terrible background music.

This self titled release could be considered Adrian Orange's first 'deliberate' album. After touring the country in 2006 with a massive band in two vans (including children and horn players and official dancers) and inventing a new kind of music and living, the band re-materialized in Dub Narcotic Studio in February 2007. The studio is an amazing collection of equipment from an era when recordings were made "live", everything happening on the spot, which was perfect for this new kind of tidal wave. It's the perfect combination of beautiful accident and deliberate symphony.

Up from the swamps of the death disco comes a new offering from the minimalist soul group all the heads call C.O.C.O. Olivia Ness (bass, drums, vocals) and Chris Sutton (drums, bass, vocals) have been tapping the primal groove for a while now using only the most basic of instrumentation, but this time our explorers have decided to travel to the outer limits of the beat.

C.O.C.O's mission is simple: "Play Drums + Bass" and that credo was the inspiration for their third ? without a doubt their best - record. The musical spectrum continues to expand into the nether regions of dub reggae (for a tribute to the late great Tamara Dobson) all the way to the sunny side of surf rock.

In Share This Place: Stories and Observations, Lori Goldston and Kyle Hanson of Black Cat Orchestra acclaim team up with K Records recording artist Mirah to deliver a sweeping song cycle inspired by the tragic and triumphant lives of insects.

Inspired in part by influential French scientist/poet J.Henri Fabré, Mirah's lyrics smartly humanize the trials and pleasures of the insect world, touching on themes of villainy, seduction, self-sacrifice and love. Shining a light on the epic complexity of the insect world, the songs imply an inescapable comparison with our own.

A concept album of sorts, Share This Place is a score written by Goldston, Hanson and Mirah for a suite of twelve stop-motion animated short films by Britta Johnson. One of the films, Credo Cigalia, is included on the album, along with an illustrated lyric booklet.

Old Time Relijun tempts us with top-secret, sneak preview alternate mixes of songs from the upcoming K album "Catharsis and Crisis". "The Tightest Cage" rattles to the breaking point, spilling over into the wilderness of undiscovered sound. Side Two contains a dubbed-out instrumental version of "Indestructible Life" that will grace your dancehalls with a filthy hurricane wreckage that can never be cleaned.

Poor Aim: Love Songs is resilient electro-pop music that can be lovingly devoured by people of all ages and coolness factors. Already, the songs have fallen into a beloved repeat-play position in many a heart (and cell phone, as ring tones!). In their experiment, the two challenged each other with stringent requirements: Jona insisted that the rhythms couldn't be redundant; Khaela guaranteed that the lyrics held sentences worth repeating. They succeeded. The songs are catchy as hell, and rise to meet all of the duo's snobby music standards. With sing-along-when-you-think-you're-alone types of refrains, it's as if the oldies station on the car stereo is playing at the same time as the urban party music station, with the occasional interfering sonic sway of an eighties keyboard refrain. That mash of sounds would come closest to describing Poor Aim's productional pitch, the sound of feeling fun and desperate and bravely romantically unsuccessful all at once; easy listening for difficult feelings.

In 2003, K recording artists Khaela Maricich (the Blow) and Jason Anderson had a vision. "What if Calvin Johnson played all his best songs from over the years, with a band of real music-making people?" This was their vision, and they decided to make it happen. Jason formed a band of other K music stalwarts that included Kyle Field (Little Wings) on bass with Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, VERSION) and Jason sharing the guitar and drum playing duties. Dubbed by Jason the Sons of the Soil, they set out to modernize the primitive. Khaela designed a graphic image that perfectly captured the Sons of the Soil's transcendental vibe. A tour was arranged that crossed paths with other fine Olympia types, including Rebecca Pearcy and Mirah. Songs were chosen that spanned the years and various combos, including songs originally recorded by Halo Benders ("Love Travels Faster"), Dub Narcotic Sound System ("Booty Run") and the Go Team ("Sand"). Rehearsals commenced, and then it was off across the Western United States for a rollicking, rockin' good time. This album was recorded at the Dub Narcotic studio in July, 2003, immediately following their return to Olympia, Wash. It features a good cross section of the material from the tour and includes a few live snippets from the Sons of the Soil performance in Spokane, Wash.

Composing his music to be played by amateur musicians, Tori Kudo, the enigmatic conductor of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, has been called "The Master of Mistake". On "L'Autre Cap" he is a wickedly inspired bandleader, presenting a tight package of 27 songs both fierce and fragile.

Barely held together by the threads these songs seem just a note away from falling apart completely. The effect is at turns serene, dissonant, enchanting, rockin', and intensively catchy- kind of a Langley School kids Avant-Idiot Savant Orchestra with a Syd Barrett meets Charles Ives conductor, fusing the most captivating elements of twisted jazz, psychedelic rock rebellion, and dreamy pop chamber music to form a most intimate and cohesive vision of the future of music on Planet Earth.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz were the guests of honor at the 12th Annual Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics. They made the million-mile trip over from Japan to spend some days rehearsing, playing, living and recording in the legendary "Big Room" that formerly housed the mystery that is Dub Narcotic Studio. Man-on-board the control room was Arrington de Dionyso, so it should be no surprise that Old Time Relijun, Melanie Valera (Tender Forever), Warren Lee, and Derek Johnson (Le Ton Mite) make guest appearances among the cast. The sounds are crisp and spacious, the delicate result of three microphones and two days (!) that capture forever the determined spontaneity defining Tori's sophisticated work with the band.

For longtime fans who have tracked the band over their many years and mutations, obviously "L'Autre Cap" is an essential follow up to "Faux Depart" which was also recorded at Dub Narcotic (released on Yik Yak! in 2004). It's also an excellent starting point for those unfamiliar with the long history and naive genius of Tori Kudo's Maher Shalal Hash Baz.

When Mirah makes a plan, she involves everybody. She makes a cafe in her living room, and everybody is invited. Her birthday parties, more likely than not, are costumed formal dinners, long walks around lakes, or hot air balloon rides. Mirah has recorded three albums of her lovely song self, always directing the writing, production and arrangements. Now she is in a year hiatus from performing, but she wanted to play again, just for fun and not so serious, plus some serious as well as fun. So Mirah made a plan: She generously offered up her songs themselves and asked for the participation of the people around her. In this hot air balloon ride of remixes, Mirah lifts off with old friends and new ones, taking off without quite knowing where the landing might be. With so many music-smart friends at the controls, Joyride: Remixes is an experiment for Mirah in not being the only one in charge. It is an experiment in floating free through the clouds, sharing, giving away and opening presents at the same time.

The Blow is Jona Bechtolt and Khaela Maricich. The two have been working together as The Blow since 2004 when they recorded a limited edition EP called Poor Aim: Love Songs It quickly became clear that the results of their combined forces flexed with a muscle that had a range far beyond the limited edition market. United by a shared affection for the sparkling production styles of mainstream radio, and both raised with deep roots in the DIY scenes of the Pacific Northwest, the duo makes fractured pop chart toppers to seduce all manner of hearts out of their cases, onto the floor.

Spider and the Webs' sound is the result of many disparate factors, but is always minimal, piercing and melody driven. James Maeda on guitar is wild and eccentric, with a 1981 northwest punk/ 1966 psychedlic flavor-- like Roky Erickson meets Greg Sage in a field of flowers. Chris Sutton keeps the rhythms solid and driving yet simple, in a Modern Lovers/Tronics kind of way, inciting dancers to chant and yell "SPIDER MAGIC!" until they fall on the floor, exhausted. Tobi Vail's guitar playing is deliberately sparse yet meticulous, the sound governed by the use of a black and white Rickenbacker, generous amounts of reverb and a 1960's Fender amp with the treble on 11. The singing is classic Tobi Vail style, varying between screamy screams and whisper-core. The best songs feature James and Chris on back up vocals. Also: bongos!

While Arrington's work with Old Time Relijun has brought much in the way of both critical praise and notoriety for ecstatic-rock deconstructions and a frenzied performance on the edge of possession, "Breath of Fire" is a very different sort of beast. Recorded on Christmas Day in a nameless town in Southern Italy, the album uses voice, bass clarinet, and jaw harps to invoke the spirits in a mind-bending ritual of technical mastery and emotional freedom. Like field recordings from a lost continent, these short pieces conspire to present a completely mysterious sound universe, unlike anything you may have heard before. To be sure this voyage is not without its reference points- fans of Old Time Relijun's live performances have longtime been aware of Arrington's multiphonic vocal research, unearthing the missing links between Tuvan throat-singing and free improvisation. In "Breath of Fire", this research is presented in its purest form- spontaneously, without overdubs or processing of any kind; an ethnography of intergalactic avant-primitive folk music, a dream diary without words, that enwraps in resonant sound.

From the watery shores of the artist's-paradise known as Anacortes, Washington comes a new 7" from Karl Blau. A co-release between Olympia, Washington's K Records and Chicago's On Purpose Records, this 7" shows two different sides of our hero, Karl Blau.

"Slow Down Joe" is an urgent, driving beat juxtoposed with lyrics that encourage "Let's rest in the harbor / with the calmness of the bay and smell of the driftwood." "Damn Joe! Just pull over to the side there." Karl's smooth delivery adds to the feeling that even though life uregently pulls us forward, we have to take some time to relax on the bay.

Lake King's Daughter is a poem by A.A. Milne. Symbolically it's like the Rainbow Connection; it's all about the lovers, the dreamers and you. As if under a spell we are attracted by these fantasies that may or may not be obtainable. But if we were to give up the hunt for our dream-lives, we eventually would let the cement of the Man set about our ankles, sinking into oblivion.

Karl provided the drums and vocals. He recruited help from Laura Veirs, Nate Ashley and Dave Matthies (The Gift Machine) for additional instrumentation.

Following up her critically acclaimed album, Hidden Vagenda, with an album that continues her mission to reach out to those with their ears to the ground looking for answers, Kimya Dawson will release Remember That I Love You, May 9th on K Records. Remember That I Love You is the latest chapter, and represents not only Kimya¹s continued personal adaptation to the tumultuous world around her, but also the growing relationship between the fans and friends she needs just as much as they need her.

Recorded in homes and hotels around Olympia, Washington, Tickets to Real Imaginary Places takes you on a voyage through the countryside of North Pacific America, Each morsel is akin to Peter and the Wolf, in that it spins a tale, makes a new friend or shares in the creation of an elixir. Tickets to Real Imaginary Places is the sonic component to an art installation by McCloud Zicmuse in October 2004 that was based on real experiences of that summer.

While Karl Blau's presence has been heard for years on numerous K releases by The Microphones, Little Wings, Wolf Colonel, D+, and on the Invisible Shield compilation; Beneath Waves is his first full-length solo album for K. The past few years have found Karl recording and touring in Europe and North America with Nonesuch artist Laura Veirs, both as a band member and opening act. Meanwhile, Blau has toured solo, started his Kelp Monthly label and organized What the Heck fest in Anacortes,WA. Four years ago Karl Blau's critically acclaimed Clothes Your I's (Knw-yr-Own) ranked #2 on Richie Unterberger's Rolling Stone top ten and received extensive college radio airplay. Now resurfacing as bandleader with Beneath Waves, Blau's inner artist can no longer remain in the shadows. Beneath Waves is his most powerful work to date and he's ready to take the world by storm all on his own; KARL BLAU!Karl Blau is a gifted vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer/visionary who collaborates brilliantly with artists both inside and outside of himself. Constant touring, insanely prolific recording and his monthly outpouring of handmade music in idiosyncratic packages (KELP! Monthly) is evidence of his HUGE work ethic.Beneath Waves was recorded at The Department of Safety in Anacortes by Dave Matthies (The Gift Machine) and produced by Karl Blau himself. Laura Veirs appears on a number of tracks, as does Karl's brother Eddy, Nate Ashley and Dave Matthies.

"I don't believe that love can save the world, but I think tenderness might have a chance." So says Melanie Valera, the throbbing heart and head philosopher of the solo band, Tender Forever. A native of Southern France, Valera recently landed in Olympia, Washington, with an impact that nobody can ignore, ready to stay for a while and teach us all a thing or two about the strength in being sensitive. Though a native in the language of love, Valera skips the French and goes straight for the English jugular on this debut full length, with twelve songs that spell out the ups and downs of FEELING IT, in capitalized and crushing detail.

Ten new songs from Calvin Johnson, compiled on his second album as a solo artist. Calvin's first album, What Was Me (KLP117) is a Spartan kalang of guitar and voice; Before the Dream Faded?is a collection of collaborations, with a slate of guest producers including Khaela Marricich (the Blow), Mirah yom tov Zeitlyn, Johnny Jewel (Glass Candy) and Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) liveningthings up the with their ideas about arrangements and textures. Other guest players, including Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, VERSION), Jona Bechtolt (Y.A.C.H.T.), Warren Lee and Devin Welch (Chromatics, Shoplifting) add a psychic twist, dramatizing all that is unholy in the Olympia undergroundschematic.This album was recorded at the Dub Narcotic studio in Olympia, Wash., except "I am without",recorded by Johnny Jewel at his D/E/A/T/H D/I/S/C/O studio in Portland, Ore., and "Delverance",recorded by Phil Elverum, Nowhere, Anacortes, Wash.Calvin Johnson is the founder of K and operates the Dub Narcotic Studio, where he has recordedsuch stalwarts as Mirah, Tender Forever, Yume Bitsu, the Gossip. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, OldTime Relijun and Fitz of Depression. He has released numerous records with the bands BeatHappening, Dub Narcotic Sound System and the Halo Benders, and toured across the United Statesscads of times, and will continue to do so after Before the Dream Faded? is released.

Feral sounds have been corralled and turned beasts of burden to the willof our trinity, the musical experimentors, Old Time Relijun. On 2012,recorded with Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic studio, bandmates Arrington deDionyso, Aaron Hartman and Jamie Peterson continue the exploration of thesubconscious iconography begun with Lost Light (KLP159). The cacophany of2012 extends down dimly lit paths and discovers jocular illumination in thedarkest places of our psyche, and ultimately, a hand held catharsis. Some of the credit for the comfortable thunder/agony/delight of 2012revolves on the recently joined percussionist Jamie Peterson, formerly ofthe Curtains, St.Andre, and Dada Swing. She has settled nicely into thethrone formerly occupied by Bryce Panic, Phil Elverum and Rives Elliot(among others). Jamie blends splendidly with the double bass playing ofAaron Hartman to provide a seemless pedestal for the howl and guitar scratchbloom of Arrington de Dionyso. There is no remorse: 2012 is Old Time Relijun`s seventh collection ofsongmaking since 1996. They have toured the world and will continue to doso, incessantly.

This album is from the Blow archives, originally released under the full band name Get the Hell Out of the Way. The Blow is Khaela Maricich, who recorded these songs in her bedroom on a cassette four track and reel-to-reel eight track for release as a cassette. It was packaged in a hand silk-screened and letter pressed cover and sold at the merchandise table on Khaela's first tour, with Jason Anderson in March, 2001. The packaging has been redesigned by Khaela for the CD version, with one of her drawings featured prominently on the cover. In recent years, Khaela's drawings have been featured on K releases by Yume Bitsu, the Microphones, Mirah and the Blow. The songs included on Everyday Examples of Humans? are the first songs Khaela wrote using a guitar, as soon as she figured out a guitar playing method that suited her artistic temperament. They are simple, intimate songs, with very interior lyrics. They were recorded by Khaela with no guest artists, Khaela playing guitar and keyboard. These songs are still featured occasionally in the Blow's live performances; "Nothing" was re-recorded at Dub Narcotic studio last year and included on the Blow album The Concussive Caress (KLP153).

Jason Anderson's not had a permanent address since the release of hisSomething/Everything (KLP132) album in 2002. He has been relentlesslytouring the U.S., Canada and Europe, singing and playing and sparking a fireof hope and joy. Every time he leaves a town, he leaves behind friends, fansand some newly converted fanatics. His is a global conversion, one livingroom at a time. The Wreath brings us to a more serene place while chronicling thestruggle it took to get there. Love is in this place, and love lost, and arestless searching haunts the subconscious. One thing that Jason retainedthrough his wandering and constant shifts is his sense of humor. The Wreathabounds in his peculiar whimsy. The Last Jason Anderson album, New England (KLP148) has out-soldSomething/Everything, and the Jason world (ever-expanding) is hungry for TheWreath. Peoples want more Jason Anderson. The Wreath was recorded in Boise,Id., with Jeremy Jensen (proprietor of the local label Coming in Second).Like the previous Jason Anderson and Wolf Colonel (Jason's former stagehandle) albums, most everything is played by Jason himself, with guestappearances by Rachael Jensen, Karen MacDonald and Jeremy Jensen.

The Beakers were a hack fit of four art-bashing funk wave arbiters who skronked into action Jan. 1980 and expired in Jan. 1981. In between they toured up and down the west coast, released a 45 and songs on two compilations, played shows with Delta 5 and Gang of Four, and recorded several times. The majority of the 17 songs on Four Steps Toward a Cultural Revolution (KLP163) have never been released before; the handful that were once available are now long out of print. The four Beakers, George Romansic, drums, Mark H. Smith, guitar and vocals, Jim Anderson, sax and vocals, and Frankie Sundsten, bass, were an abrupt, powerful force on the Seattle musical scene, who through the force of their personalities and charmingly abrasive music made that town quake, dance and smile.

The Blackouts were the best Seattle band you never heard of. To those who bought their records and attended their shows, this is no secret. But for the majority who didn't, this exciting anthology--long overdue--thankfully now exists. Sequenced in reverse-chronological order, it begins with their last recordings, which were produced by Al Jourgensen and originally released on Wax Trax! (three Blackouts later worked with Jourgensen in Ministry after the Blackouts demise). The album ends with their debut 45 "The Underpass." Included on History in Reverse (KLP165) are three previously unreleased songs from the Wax Trax! session.

In 1979, following the breakup of the notorious Telepaths, several members (guitarist Erich Werner, drummer Bill Rieflin, synth/sax player Roland Barker and bassist Mike Davidson, later replaced by Paul "Ion" Barker) re-formed as a new musical alliance--the Blackouts. They had an implosive intensity and were the antithesis of the bar bands that dominated Seattle's anemic local music scene. Intentional, dynamic songs were the Blackouts' stock-in-trade. At this they excelled. Over the next six years they released four singles and EPs on four different labels (Modern, Engram, Situation Two, a subsidiary of 4AD, and Wax Trax!) and relocated to Boston, then San Francisco. Few bands from that era can claim as impressive a legacy as History in Reverse.

The problem with almost every contemporary female vocalist is that they're always pretending to be something that they're not. Sometimes it?s a highly feminine sophisticated sexual, love-lost artist?s with their heart on their sleeves. Always pretending that they actually feel something or maybe sing about a great love they never had. The Moldy Peaches co-founder, and goddaughter of Antifolk, Kimya Dawson, succeeds by simply being true to herself. There is no empty space between her visions. There is no filler in her songs.

Kimya succeeds by being tender and vulnerable, silly and raw. She shows you what she feels and makes you want to feel it too. She shows you what she loves and makes you love it. She is the quintessential bohemian artist. She is what almost every smoky nightclub jazz chanteuse wishes she could be--authentic. Kimya is the artist-poet skateboard girl. And, most importantly, she is a very delicate human sensing device. She is the only real human on a planet full of androids. What makes her and her music so unique and amazing is her undiluted humanity, comparable only with Richard Pryor in the way she uses humor and sorrow combined as a personal healing device.

Cycling past the deep trips of previous Landing outings, Sphere settles into a gently rock-y world. Landing are known for dishing up a mildly psychedelic mindscape; with this album they have reconfigured their oeuvre to include the traditional tools of psychedelic rock: more drums, more rhythm, more "songs". Recorded at their own Hi Mid studio, Landing have crafted a softly vacillating sound, a rippling set of tones, a feeling that is akin to their Vessyl brethren Yume Bitsu, Version and Surface of Eceon. The Vessyl is a loose collection of abstract collaborations between like-minded psychedelic legionnaires. Landing has been the flagship combo of the Vessyl, a champion launching uncounted voyages through light.

Little Wings is a diverse musical palette Kyle Field uses to paint stories with sound. The personnel in Little Wings has always been in flux, through the Wonder and Light Green Leaves trilogies and last years Harvest Joy album. Says Kyle, "Magic Wand is about trusting to get it right the first time (pointing your magic wand with total faith and projection and focus, sending light in this way). Magic Wand attempts a refined high realism, lyrically and musically, that I have never attempted with the voice." He adds, "I am drawing a lot", as evidenced by the cover illustrations for Magic Wand, an extension of the work in Kyle's latest gallery show. With this album Kyle worked with producer Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic studio in Olympia, Wa., recruiting a wide variety of other artists (musical and visual: Phil Elverum, Bobby Birdman, Lee Baggett, Genevieve Elverum, Miggy Littleton and others) who come and go throughout the week Magic Wand is recorded. They stay for days and nights, or for just one song. This results in the Child Artist deep inside Kyle emerging, picking up his pen again with his original devotion and purpose. In his hands "Magic Wand" becomes a synonym for pen (writing and drawing), microphone, peace pipe, cigarette, an actual magicians wand, crystal shard, etc. This is the sixth album from Kyle Field funneling his wood grain/crystal shards through the latest wave of Big Sur revivalism.

The sound of our anti-heroes lost on the edge of a treasure map. The fifth Beat Happening studio album, You Turn Me On was produced by Steve Fisk and Stuart Moxham. Mr. Moxham had been a member of the Young Marble Giants, an important early influence on the band. You Turn Me On finds the band experimenting with various arrangements and musical ideas; several of the songs have two, rather than the usual one, guitarist playing interwoven parts, and many of the songs break out of the band's standard three minute song format, some extending into the 6 to 9 minute range. Heather Lewis and Calvin Johnson also wrote lyrics for each other on "Sleepy Head" and "Hey Day". An expansive, rumbling audio odyssey, You Turn Me On includes the epics "Godsend" and "Tiger Trap", plus anthems "Teenage Caveman" and "You Turn Me On".

Dreamy is the fourth Beat Happening studio album, considered by many to be their finest achievement. From the epic "Revolution Come and Gone" to the country-tinged "Cry for a Shadow", there is a plethora of styles and forms and feelings on Dreamy. Combining state-of-the-art studio technique with down-home captured in the moment, Dreamy is a delicate balance between "real" 24 track studio recordings, and documents made while our quiet three are ensconced in Steve Fisk's home four track lodging (a photo of the band in front of Fisk's pad graces the cover). Included is the original version of the oft-covered "Red Head Walking" and "Hot Chocolate Boy". Originally a 1991 co-release with Sub/Pop, Dreamy has been out of print on CD for several years except as a part of the Crashing Through (KLP115) CD box set of Beat Happening material.

Something gentle this way comes in the form of Mirah and her third full-length album, C'mon Miracle (KLP160). Many hands lent themselves, strumming autoharps and bowing strings, accompanying the lilting, soaring voice that can not be mistaken. Mirah's whole new batch of songs stands solid and un-afraid; pianos and drums, truth and protest. If her first album, you think it's like this but really it's like this (KLP112) snuck up and surprised you, then her second album Advisory Committee (KLP135) stunned you with cannon fire. Now sit back and relax as C'mon Miracle washes over you and etches its subtle ways into your psyche. Mirah recorded most of C'mon Miracle at Dub Narcotic studio with Phil Elverum and Calvin Johnson. Lori Goldston (of The Black Cat Orchestra), Emily Kingan (of The Haggard and Sextional), Khaela Maricich (The Blow), Aaron Hartman (Old Time Relijun), Jason Anderson (Wolf Colonel) and Nora Davidson and Themba Lewis (of Liarbird) are among the other players and helpmates who knew just how to coax the right sounds out of Olympia's late summer and make this album such a whirl of audio pleasure. Two of the songs here were recorded in a flurry of necessity under the hot Argentinian sun with Bryce Panic (former Old Time Relijun drummer), making controlled patterns of delight and filling out the album's unshakeable honesty. The combination is always special, never veering from the realm of Mirah sounds. They're the best type! And here's a whole album filled, so C'mon Miracle and get into it.

Hey, Gravedigger. Welcome to Black Candy, the third Beat Happening album. Bret, Heather and Calvin explore the more sinister aspects of life, with an eye towards the relief that can be found in its simpler pleasures. "Melancholy" is a word that has been used to describe this approach, though Black Candy does include many optimistic moments. If you like your pop music effervescent and carefree, there's "T.V. Girl" and "Other Side" to polish your bike to. If you like it black, here's a blast of playhouse on fire, pajama party and haunted shadow to propel your day. Originally a 1989 K release, available on Rough Trade in the U.K., Black Candy was re-issued on Sub/Pop in 1993. Included on here is the original version of "Cast a Shadow", covered by Yo La Tengo and Cub. Black Candy has been out of print for several years on CD except as a part of the Crashing Through (KLP115) box set of Beat Happening material. Crashing Through includes all five of the Beat Happening albums (Beat Happening, Jamboree, Black Candy, Dreamy, You Turn Me On) plus the singles compilation Music to Climb the Apple Tree By (KLP109). All of the packaging for the CDs has been redesigned as six-panel digi-pak to include additional photographs of the band, many of which have never been published previously.

Like, whoever heard of an accessible Old Time Relijun record? Well, here it is. The latest incarnation of a band that keeps re-inventing itself, while remaining true to their axis of emotional divinity. The beauty lies deeply ingrained in a jubilant outpouring of thunderclouds and crowns of thorns and tumbling bags of bones. The addition of drummer Rives Elliot to the kettle containing Arrington de Dionyso (guitar, voice and woodwinds) and Aaron Hartman (double bass) provides the music of Old Time Relijun with a resounding thud heard across the dance floor. This is a band of musicians who create, improvise and communicate. Sure, the noise and confusion of previous Old Time Relijun outings are maintained here, but the clarity of Lost Light lifts it through the skylight of destruction to a world you've never visited before. Judge it deep, thick, luscious, feral; there are still no rules to the instinctual sounds of Old Time Relijun, it's an unforced force for inner peace through catharsis.

The second Beat Happening album: it rocks killer. Includes the original version of "Indian Summer", since covered by the likes of Luna and Spectrum. It was produced in Ellensburg, WA at Albright Productions by Steve Fisk. It was co-produced by Mark Lanegan and Gary Lee Conners of the Screaming Trees. Gary Lee Conners also plays guitar on the song "Midnight A' Go-Go". Hailed by many as one of the founding releases of the Crash-Pop genre. Nail it to your turntable and arch your back to the primitive beat.

"The only band in the history of the planet to be equally influenced by the Raincoats and Minor Threat. Beat Hap manufactures a universally acceptable sound that is as likable as a cool rain. Jamboree is their heaviest outing yet (actual "power chords" can be heard) but remains completely at odds with the more "pushable" (out the window, please) bands on the new breed RT roster. A perfect record. From a perfect band. - Forced Exposure

Jason Anderson (formerly of Wolf Colonel) returns with a studio collaboration with Phil Elverum of the Microphones/Mount Eerie. New England glows with honest songs and the joy of working with friends. K compatriots Calvin Johnson, Khaela Maricich of the Blow, Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu/[[VVRRSNN]], Mirah and Elverum all contribute to the music and the loose, inspired arrangements. After completely finishing an album in 2002 Anderson decided to return to the studio in the summer of 2003 and re-record the best songs from his last year of performing. The result is Jason at his finest: songs with an evolved writing style and obvious maturity. The off-the-cuff, "first take" sessions were so transcendent that Phil even donated a new Mount Eerie song, "Thanksgiving", to the project, as it was recorded with the same pick-up band and was in line with the album's vision and emotional timbre.

More than anything, New England is a warm, consistent group of songs that reveal themselves more with each listen. Jason's lyrics are focused, endearing examinations of the human experience; of small epiphanies and melancholy yearning. The album sees two musicians--and great friends-- stumbling into something and capturing the moment. Phil Elvrum the producer and craftsman; Jason Anderson the songwriter and lyricist.

This tour/retail-only 12"features a photo of Chris Sutton.Packaged in plain sleeves with a dye cut hole in the center, one white, one black, with a sticker on the outside of the shrinkwrap explaining that they are special tour singles from the upcoming Dub Narcotic Sound System album

The A sides of each will be on the album, the B sides will not. Super-limited!

All new material from the Microphones. Recorded live while on tour in Japan with Little Wings and Calvin Johnson in February 2003. Amazing sound quality - you don't want to miss this one!

Degenerate Introduction is the much anticipated full-length album from Dub Narcotic Sound System. Drop the needle, pump it hardcore. An unsafe mix of radioactive garage soul sound sweeping the mining towns of the west; the subterranean dance floors of the east will recoil in anticipation. This is a 3-piece you just won't want to miss featuring old school hip hop stylings, electron beats and instrumental reggae influences, all with the Dub Narcotic Sound System stripped down.

Calvin (vocals, guitar, melodica, percussion), co-founder of the fiercely influential punk band Beat Happening, continues to make exciting music with Chris Sutton (bass, drums, guitar, percussion, organ), who is also a member of K's C.O.C.O; Heather Dunn (vocal, bass, sax, drums), alumni of Lois, Tiger Trap and current member of the No No's and Liarbird is the secret ingredient. Recorded at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, WA by Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu and Version fame. Forkner also makes a guest appearance, playing keyboards on "Fuck Me Up".

Classic Dub style shines through on tracks "Sounds Narcotic," "Joint Joint" and "Dub Narcotic Groove". "Fuck Me Up" features vocal stylings of Heather Dunn as a follow-up to her debut "Sabley Goodness". "Code of the West" features old-school Dub style reminiscent of Augustus Pablo. Johnson yelps and howls over the funkiest of bass lines in "I Don't Love." "Blood Flow" is DNSS's subtle call for us all to remain politically active.

The Make-Up flood Dub Narcotic studio with their tightened-up sound. Joined sporadically by members of the Dub Narcotic Sound System, they are doing a soul rockin' that has no territorial boundaries. Turn on to the idea of Sound Verite and understand that the struggle of culture vs. Make-Up is the struggle vs. Destiny, the struggle to stop history itself.

Twenty three tracks of Rock n' Roll Commitern agitprop. Originally released as bitesized 7" tomes by central committees around the globe, this is the bedside companion of every agent of the insurgent kind. "Blue Is Beautiful", "Pow! To the People", "Free Arthur Lee", "Substance Abuse": Get yours!

Khaela Maricich is the Blow, also known to some as Get the Hell out of the Way of the Volcano, also a member of the Dub Narcotic studio gang. She makes many arts in the various tents, forts and caves she has built there. Her last album was the Bonus Album (KLP143), also recorded in a cave; it made a simple case for living. Now we have the more complex examination of the human condition post-American century style. Yes, The Concussive Caress is an affirmation, but only after trial by fire. A bold move was made, evolutionarily, out of the cave and over to the Dub Narcotic 16 track tape deck, where Khaela recorded this entire album, producing it herself, with guest appearances by a few friends: Susan Ploetz, Anna Oxygen, Mirah, Nora Danielson, Jason Anderson and Jenn Kliese. There is a narrative hidden in the string of songs that comprise The Concussive Caress. It is the stories of various people, the songs these characters sing to themselves that usually don't make it out of their heads. Like secret mantras, these are adult versions of children's rhymes adapted for more complicated situations, songs people want to sing for their loved ones, but probably never will.

The LP format of The Concussive Caress is limited to 500 copies and packaged in a cover specially designed for the LP format by Khaela, hand silk-screen printed by her with the help of the K summer interns.

This album compiles Beat Happening songs recorded between 1984 and 2000, including material long out of print on 45s and compilations, including the original version of "Nancy Sin". The last four songs are from the Beat Happening/Screaming Trees collaboration EP. Music to Climb Apple Trees by was originally included in the seven CD box set Crashing Through (KLP115) released last year. Now it is being made available individually for the first time.

Discover Worlds of Wonder is the second album in the Little Wings "Wonder" trilogy, along with the albums Wonder City (Knw-Yr-Own) and Wonderue (KLP134). Little Wings is Kyle Field and an assortment of accompaniests, rogue and wanderers.

Bobby Birdman has two full-length records of beautiful glitch-folk music on Hush records. Heart Caves is his first foray into completely electronic territory. On Heart Caves Rob Kieswetter (AKA BOBBY BIRDMAN) trades in his nylon string for a G4 laptop, and his "lo-fi" wall of sound productions for clean-as-a-whistle hi-tech robotic sheen. But the icy production is wonderfully corrupted by the undeniable warmth of his smooth tenor. Heart Caves is a one-night stand: tender, desperate, awkwardly intimate, hott, eerily objective, disconnected and ultimately kind of melancholy. But in a good way. It's sublime - and we are still all having fun, right?!?! OK then. Let's get it on.. This is the sunset strip late night seen through the eyes of a surfer-boy more accustomed to beach canyon sing-a-longs than steely discotheques. Which brings us to the heart of the funk: surfer boy in vans and jeans (with a voice to make any girl swoon) entering the uneasy world of glitz and glam and producing something vital, new and challenging for both the artist and the listener. The first lesson in New-Genre / No-genre RIL MUSIC, what is sure to become a prolific and ground-breaking line of releases emphasizing and exploring the new territory where computerized music processing meets a generation of musicians raised on house-shows, floor-tom folk, after-hours IDM, cell-phones, fake beards and file sharing networks.

Both avid adventurists and music-makers, Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn and Ginger Brooks Takahashi, a scant three months into their friendship, proposed this idyllic project to each other; to surround themselves with instruments and recording equipment for one month in a town where neither lived. No distractions. Securing the use of a friend's grandmother's empty home in the cradle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, they awaited September. More of an experience documented than a traditional album, Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project is a tribute to the lush of late summer, the ardor of autumn and the persistence of the garden across the street. Visits were paid by invited friends, seven in all, who each appear on the album, some performing their own songs, some accompanying on songs written during the month. The project was recorded in September 2002 in Black Mountain, North Carolina on a Tascam cassette 4-track and a mini-disc recorder. Beneficiaries of the proceeds from the album are the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon (www.girlsrockcamp.org) and The Pentridge Children's Garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Ever since Arrington de Dionyso cleared his throat and growled "I ate a hole right through the mirror/ Spat out the shards, and I put it back together" on the standout track "Mirror", his music has spoken to those lonely souls who have stared at themselves in the mirror and known that something lies on the other side, beyond their comprehension. The band Old Time Relijun formed in Olympia, Wash., in 1995 with bassist Aaron Hartman and drummer Bryce Panic, to take Arrington's four-track tapes that had been circulating and spooking people around Olympia, and to translate them into live performance. Since that time, the band has gone through various mutations, including a number of drummers (Phil Elvrum, currently of the Microphones, toured and recorded with Old time Relijun for several years after the departure of Bryce Panic), but the spirit of Arrington's musical explorations and creative expression have remained constant. Unlike most releases that attempt to summarize a band and an era, Varieties of Religious Experience is not a clear-the-vaults effort, and the multiple takes are not filler; nor is their inclusion the result of an unchecked ego, intoxicated by its own brilliance, unable to edit itself. It would be equally wrong to suggest that Arrington's four-track takes are "originals", the band's versions are "alternates", and one is necessarily better than the other. While four-track enabled Arrington to cram songs full of esoteric sounds and a sheer ear-popping lunacy that can turn two minutes into kaleidoscopic trips, Hartman and Panic helped loosen his grip on the drum sticks, change up the whack-a-mole tempos, and let a song's backbone slide. Calling the result Varieties of Religious Experience emphasizes Arrington's belief that it's all good - every song is its own spark of playful, in-the-moment creation, its own shard of experience - and the remarkable thing is that all is good on this CD.

Invisible Shield is a compilation of work by current K artists. All tracks are culled from the individual artists' recent releases, except the Microphones song "Untitled", recorded live on their recent tour to Japan.Invisible Shield is an unofficial and unassuming support network of artists, pals and mutual admirers. Invisible Shield is a loose and ill-defined process for creating and maintaining a community by interweaving the creative processes of an indeterminate number of kindred spirits. Invisible Shield is not a band.Some of you may have noticed that for the last few years, the names of "band members on many a K releases cross-over and cross pollinate; Phil of the Microphones is the drummer in Old Time Relijun and produces some recordings by Wolf Colonel and Mirah; Mirah also sings and plays on records by Calvin Johnson, Dennis Driscoll and the Microphones; Kyle of Little Wings also sings and plays on the Microphones new album; Adam Forkner of (((VERSION))) and Yume Bitsu plays on records by Dub Narcotic Sound System and Wolf Colonel and produces recordings by both bands as well as Little Wings; Khaela Maricich of the Blow also records with Dennis Driscoll and has designed record covers for the Microphones and Mirah; and everyone tours with everyone else, plays and sings back-up and generally wrecks havoc at each others' shows. This phenomena is what we refer to as the Invisible Shield: a bunch of folks who follow their own artistic vision but who feed off the artistic energy of their compatriots. Although this kind of collaboration and mutual inspiration has been true at K since its origins, the current regime has just left the kettle on high and turned the intimacy factor up to 11.

In December of 2001 Arrington de Dionyso and Aaron Hartman of (Olympia/K Record's Old Time Relijun) found themselves stranded in Milan during one of the worst snowstorms in Italian history. They were sheltered, fed, and protected by the auspices of two of the most notable figures in the Italian independent/experimental music scene- Fabio Magistrali and Jacopo Andreini. This album is the result of 18 days of practicing, performing, recording and mixing with a quartet that had never played together before, but found an instant chemistry in their mutual fervor and ferocity for the exploration of new musical territories. Some moments on this album will seem familiar to the rabid fans of Old Time Relijun in their off-kilter gumbofication of free-jazz intensity with "rock played wrong", while other pieces bring the quartet through even less easily definable non-clichés of free improvisation and new music experimentalism. There are no "songs", and none of the pieces on this record have titles. Little discussion took place before the recording of each spontaneous composition, yet the results are as cohesive and whole as any master expressionist canvas.

On previous albums, Landing has offered up everything from clean intertwining guitars to long curtains of unimpeded sound sculpture. Each release has had its own feel, usually focusing on one side of the band's abilities or the other. Passages Through, Landing's fourth full-length, is an attempt to incorporate all sides into a flowing tapestry of songs. This release marks the fullness of Landing as friends and collaborators. Songs such as "Wings of Light", "To See You", "It Is Shining", "Breathing", and "Tell Myself" were written as a band and recorded live to tape with few overdubs, each band member adding his or her own distinct touch. Instruments were switched without ego and all thoughts were geared to the music, regardless of genre or classification. Passages Through does not fit easily into any one category, be it "space-gaze", "drone" or "post rock". This is the sound of four great friends playing music that comes from their hearts. Sometimes, the music sprawls out like vast oceans. At other times, the songs are clean and filled with heartfelt sentiment. Never before have Adrienne and Aaron dared to be heard so clearly, but the result is well worth the risk. Landing's first release on K records is a rebirth of sorts. The songs are clear and the tryyps are deep. This is Landing in 3D.

This record is called [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] and you pronounce it like "version". Like the b-side dub remix on a reggae 45; like a version of something that happened before; an improvement, a change, a re-vision, an edit. Adam Forkner, aka [[[[VVRSSNN]]]], is a founding member of the bands Yume Bitsu and Surface of Eceon. He's also known for recording and engineering all sorts of bands at K Records' Dub Narcotic Studio, including, among others, Calvin Johnson, Little Wings, Wolf Colonel, Greg Weeks, and Kinski. [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] makes music on his computer, by himself and with his friends. Its like: guitars, sequencers, BEATS, glitches, singing. Lots of singing: songs, weird vocal loops, yeah, there's some voice on this record. It's a little dark at times, but you won't get too scared. It's 21st century feel good all over music. Autumnal in all the right ways. Curl up on a couch. Drive around at dusk in the rain. Go to a dance party and feel alienated. The [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] CD/LP is for these times. [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] (KLP145) features contributions and collaborations with: Dave Longstreth, Jeremiah Green and Eric Judy of Modest Mouse, Phil Elvrum of The Microphones, Calvin Johnson, Rob Kieswetter (aka Bobby Birdman), Franz Prichard of Yume Bitsu, 9078686 (aka Y.A.C.H.T.) of The Badger King. As they say in Portland these days, "get in".

Artwork of note: the CD version has 8 different covers and the LP covers are hand-decorated by Mr. Forkner and Friends. Bella!

What started years ago during a heat wave to pass the time, has blossomed into a full on pop and roll extravaganza. Portland, Oregon's All Girl Summer Fun Band are back with their second K Records release, "2". And they've got something new for you up their sleeves. While their first album (All Girl Summer Fun Band, February 2002) left you swooning with hearts in your eyes, and received rave reviews from pop critics and rock journalists, who compared them to The Shangri-La's, The Shirelles, and all things sugary, AGSFB now take the "girl group" to a new level. With confidence, the girls attack classic vocal harmonies, pairing them with distorted guitars and pop-punk melodies, to produce an album so full of hits, you'll need a corner man to patch you up between tracks. Kim Baxter (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jen Sbragia (vocals, guitar), Kathy Foster (drums, bass, vocals), and Ari Douangpanya (bass, drums,vocals) flex their musical muscles with catchy rock numbers like "Ticking Time Bomb", "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Troublemaker", "Becky", and "Tour Heart Throb"; and then pour on the sweetness with caramelized pop hits like "Video Game Heart", "Parallel Park" and "Jason Lee". This 30-minute dance party will leave you breathless and sweaty - hook after hook, AGSFB pull you into the closet to make out and tell you they love you. Throw it in the mix with The Breeders, The Ronettes, Tiger Trap, Sleater-Kinney and The Runaways, and it will hold its own. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll dance, you'll sigh. And when its over, you'll dive to hit the play button on your stereo one more time to keep that hyper-sweet feeling of nostalgia going as you giggle into the mirror at the hickey on your neck. All Girl Summer Fun Band is still here to save you from the seasonal doldrums with their fresh new look at pop music, only this time, they're not asking, they're telling. Uh-huh, that's right!

Dub Narcotic Sound System (DNSS) was born in the Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington. Founded by Calvin Johnson in 1993, the band is a loose combination of people trying out different musical ideas. DNSS has functioned as both a live touring band as well as a studio recording band. They have recorded several albums of their own as well as backing other artists for their work. DNSS borrows the Jamaican production techniques of reusing rhythms in a variety of contexts. The band has been on tour a total of 13 times across the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Canada. Dub Narcotic Sound System has toured with other bands such as Satisfact, The Bangs, Built to Spill, Unwound, The Microphones, D+, The Make-Up, Subdebs, Fugazi, John Spencer Blues Explosion, and many others. The long awaited upcoming release from DNSS is due in stores January 21, 2003. This consists of a 7" record with new songs from DNSS. We hope you enjoy the new 7" and the sound of Dub Narcotic Sound System.

On previous Microphones albums, Phil Elvrum has explored themes of man communing with nature, describing serene catastrophic entanglements with wind, sea and woods. Mount Eerie is a concept album that takes it up a notch, the self searching for identity within a universal context. Divided into five parts, it is named after Mt. Erie, a peak that dominates Fidalgo Island where Phil grew up. This drama tells the tale of one person striking out into the wilderness to unearth the face beneath the disguise, and the being beneath the face. "Epic" is too shallow a word to describe the boundless beauty and vision that comprises this superlative work.

They call him the Man in Brown. Dennis Driscoll is not your average singer/songwriter who plays guitar in that his songs emphasize the pop bursts of classic AM radio, where nothing exceeds three minutes and everything is said with a heart beat. This new album, Voices in the Fog, was recorded by Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic studio, covering a wide variety of Dennis' songs and styles from rockin' to lovelorn to whimsical. Dennis plays host to a wide variety of Olympia players, including duets with Mirah on "Telepathic Birdcalls, Khaela Maricich (the Blow) on "I'm in Love with a Ghost" and Katy Davidson on a cover of her own Dear Nora song "Second Hand". Dennis also recruited Heather Dunn and Chris Sutton of Dub Narcotic Sound System to back him on some of the more tumultuous numbers, and DJ KO of IQU to add a touch of theremin to "Moon Patrol".Dennis Driscoll grew up in the small fishing town of Illwaco, Wash. It was there and across the Columbia River in Astoria, Ore. that Dennis first started to sing and play. He had a radio show on community station KMUN and was exposed to a variety of music, and learned to think of himself as not "the smartest bear in the woods, but not the dumbest either; if I can think of myself as a bear". Dennis now lives in Olympia, Wash. where he breathes in the evening breeze of Olympia and blows out magical puffs of smoke from the streets of Illwaco. He calls these smoke-puffs songs and records them regularly for all to hear. Dozens of songs have been recorded and released on such labels as Knw-Yr-Own, Talent Show, This Heart Plays Records, Red Square and Tiny Pad. Dennis has toured the country a couple of times and plans to continue to do so through 2003.The cover to Voices in the Fog was drawn by noted comic artist Dame Darcy (Meatcake).

Chris and Olivia, City of Olympia, that is C.O.C.O. The C.O.C.O. Sound, harder to define. Chris Sutton is also known for his work as bass player in Dub Narcotic Sound System. In C.O.C.O. he plays the drums, with Olivia on the bass. This is their second album, and it continues their heavy emphasis on the dance quotient in music, exploring different sides of the funk. Using the bare minimum, stripping it down to the bass and drums, breaking it down to it's essence, but being fully soulful and melodic at the same time. It is a sound refined, yet garagey. A mix of Stax southern soul and thee Headcoats; a sound equally influenced by the Gories, ESG, & Trouble Funk. Their high energy live shows always have the dance floor crowded.

"Olympia's C.O.C.O. sneaked up on me recently when the group's eponymous CD was being played over the sound system of a local bar. It was booty-licious: what I had initially tapped my toes to and then dismissed as a fun, somewhat silly two-piece (drum, bass, pretty pop/soul/R&B vocals) suddenly sounded like a truly inspired work of art. I went home and put my own copy on. I couldn't stop dancing. I decided while dancing that C.O.C.O. is one of the sweetest, baddest motherfuckers to happen in the Northwest in a long time: Olivia Ness' bass lines are stellar, hook-laden and inordinately danceable; Dub Narcotic Sound System's Chris Sutton plays his kit like he's tied to Ness but still loose and inspired; and both of the members' vocals, while they appear too infrequently, are money each and every time. Bring your propensity for smiling brightly and having much fun." - Jeff DeRoche, The Stranger

Light Green Leaves: to be read as seasonal fall and it's dying cloak, in the newest wails and crashes through the branches. Towards the coasts and all bellies and faces of the land comes a new rising, a late light that dies. "light green leaves from the trees...we'd best enjoy them before they turn brown." Advancing from within the humming of green summertime, all of the album's foliage is set to fall apart, and "I will finally fall to pieces" here, after we have bloomed on this branch. In the fall phantom's creeping on leafy legs, the way we stare out from the fort, the idea of invisibility.After completing the "Wonder Trilogy" of albums (The Wonder City, Discover Worlds of Wonder, Wonderue) Kyle Field launched his next trilogy all in one fell swoop. This new Little Wings album, Light Green Leaves, is actually three albums in one: each format (CD, LP, CS) is a separate set of recordings, three versions with three perspectives, different recording situations and even different songs/versions on each format. Of course it is all pure Kyle. The CD version was recorded by Kyle at "the Birdnest" (his former house in Portland, Ore.) with a cast of Portland and California characters. The LP version was recorded at Dub Narcotic studio with Phil Elvrum (the Microphones), Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu), Calvin Johnson, Khaela Maricich (the Blow, providing spiritual guidance) and others. The Cassette version was recorded directly to cassette in various locations: cars, campgrounds, bedrooms, etc. Light Green Leaves creates a new dense canopy of foliage using layers and versions of songs as a physical metaphor. The birth-life-death cycles are represented and seen through the variations, an aerial view with a phantom presence. Light Green Leaves displays all the power and whimsy of the Kyle Field/Little Wings universe in shocking clarity. Once you enter that universe, there is no escape, you will voraciously devour the entire Little Wings oeuvre.

With Something/Everything, Anderson, (24 years old, from South Sutton, New Hampshire) has completed his third collection of Wolf Colonel songs, and it is certainly the most ambitious. This music is touching and gentle, yet ragged and torn apart at the same time. Wolf Colonel is Jason Anderson. Jason Anderson is Wolf Colonel, dedicated to noisy pop rockin' and granulated sugar hookery. The previous Wolf Colonel albums, Vikings of Mint (KLP107) and The Castle (KLP114), were recorded in weeks--if not days-- capturing concise snapshots of Anderson's developing vision and songwriting. Penning all the material and playing the majority of the instruments, the songs ranged from over-the-top power pop to stripped down acoustic introspection; all the while garnering interest and raves from Magnet, NME, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. For two years, Anderson wrote over 100 songs, recorded three potential records--most of which were discarded--and toured the world alone, playing everywhere from Saskatchewan to Iceland. Casting aside the irony that permeated his earlier shows, the solo concerts became intimate, honest, and exciting affairs, where anything, and everything was possible. Rigorous traveling and passionate performances have started to carve out an ever-growing awareness of Wolf Colonel. For current fans, Something/Everything will be another triumphant step; for those not taken with Jason's previous output, it should serve as a pleasant surprise. Anderson worked with a variety of producers on this, including Phil Elvrum (the Microphones), Calvin Johnson, Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu), combining these varied studio textures with home four track recordings to come up with the best pop record of the year. From the out of balance "Break the News" to the floating "Astronaut, Astronaut", the album glows with a relaxed confidence and sincerity. The album's title is, in part, a smiling reference to Todd Rundgren's opus, Something/Anything! and, like Rundgren, Anderson has created an ode to pop music with surprising depth. More than anything, Something/Everything is the sound of an ever-changing artist finding his voice. Straight up.

The Microphones are the vision of a singular individual, Phil Elvrum. For over five years he has been prolifically crafting noisy pop sounds with the help of various friends and collaborators. Song Islands compiles all the Microphones singles onto one disc. Previously available only in limited quantities on 7" 45 rpm discs from such labels as Instatone, Up, K, the Bedtime Record and Coming in Second, as well as a few cassette compilations on friends' labels around the globe. Some of the individuals that assist Phil on this collection are Mirah, Khaela Maricich (the Blow), Karl Blau, Calvin Johnson, Jenn Kliese and Kyle Field (Little Wings). This collection traces the development of the Microphones through material that dates from the time period of the first Microphones album Tests (Elsinor) through last year's epic The Glow Pt. 2 (KLP133). The most recent material included on Song Islands are the songs from the International Pop Underground series 45 "Lanterns" and "Antlers" (IPU101), which gives the listener a foretaste of what the next Microphones album, Mt. Eerie (due January, 2003) will sound like.

The first of what promises to be many posthumous solo albums from Calvin Johnson, culled from the extensive archive of tapes left behind by the prolific songmaker and performer. Calvin Johnson made up songs about the feeling inside for over twenty years. What Was Me collects ten bits of lifeness and spreads them thickly with voice and acoustic guitar; a capella 40% of the time. There are patches that are worn and threadbare but the overall effect is gutty and moist. The affect is also noteworthy. Calvin is joined by the K divas Mirah on "Ode to St. Valentine" and Beth Ditto (the Gossip) on "Lightnin' Rod for Jesus".

Following on the demise of Marine Research, Amelia Fletcher has risen again in the guise of Tender Trap. Accompanied by her Marine Research band-mates Rob Pursey and DJ Downfall, Amelia has coalesced her voice and impeccable taste into a fourth experiment in unforgettable, streamlined pop music (previously she fronted Talulah Gosh and Heavenly). "Face of '73" is an indication of what to expect from the forthcoming Tender Trap album Film Molecules (KLP126, release date: July 16, 2002). The B side, "Fin", will not be included on the album. It is a special re-mix by DJ Downfall.

Amelia Fletcher has been a vibrant center of the K universe for over ten years now, with her many experiments in crashpop propulsion: first the punkific Talulah Gosh, which melded into Heavenly and then the graceful Marine Research. She reemerges after a three year hiatus with the stripped to the bone pop-perfect Tender Trap. A collaboration with Rob Pursey (Heavenly, Marine Research) and former Marine Research drummer DJ on the sequences and keyboards, this latest amalgamation takes flight with resounding resiliency and speed. Tender Trap songs are designed to be as clear and as simple as possible. Short songs, stripped down and with all the scaffolding removed to find out what lives inside. Discovering that even when rooms are completely empty they still house ghosts. Recorded mostly away from studios. Trying to understand the ways of sound molecules. Film Molecules is preceded by the 45 "Face of '73" (IPU102), included here as well, it is just one of thirteen songs, each a cudgel of hooked-out popness. One of the main differences between this and the earlier material by these folks is the programming and sequencing by DJ Downfall, which, without sacrificing any of the raw emotive power, calibrates the feelings expressed to maximum effect.

An official announcement from Yume Bitsu: "There are no song titles for this record. Each composition was created as improvised or barely structured music throughout their development as recordings and it feels wrong and contrived to think of words to fit them now. We have chosen to let them stand nude as sonic experiences without, and beyond, the boundaries of the written word. We suggest that you address the songs as you would if you never knew the title. The first song, therefore would be 'Song One', the second 'Song Two' and so on." Sonically, Yume Bitsu has always been a hard band to pin down. Traversing across celestial landscapes imbued with drifting, lilting sheets of ambient guitars, keyboard driven astral landscapes, in-your-face wall of fuzz and occasional harmonious soaring voice, Yume Bitsu effortlessly shift from one end of the psychedelic musical spectrum to the other, with surprisingly successful effect. Yume Bitsu's process of creation, as it has developed over the last 7 years, is as intriguing as the music it creates. They claim that they play forth from "the vessyl" a channel of energy whose output is greater than that of the individual members combined. Accordingly, their approach to creating sound has been more uniform than their output ever has. Nowhere in their ever-growing catalog is that more apparent than on their remarkable fourth full length, The Golden Vessyl of Sound.

Here is Wonderue under late afternoon skies. The skies are still changing within the four corners of this album. Born in the fall, winter and spring, the tape picked up the sidewalk's hum, the ocean's swell, the echoes in the canyon and the reflection out on the lake. I wonder what will happen when you hear it, I wonder where by then you all will be, I wonder if your heart is feeling near it? I wonder if your heart is feeling free? Wonderue is the culmination of several years work by Kyle Field who travels creatively under the moniker Little Wings, a "band" he has developed as "a loosely assembled group of people helping me to make my songs; lending their singing, listening and playing for short periods of time, at which point they are recorded or witnessed live by small audiences here and there." This album is the third in his "Wonder" triliogy, a concept based upon a drawing by the L.A. artist Victor Hu entitled "Discover Worlds of Wonder", the first two volumes in the series being Wonder City (Knw-Yr-Own, KNW046) and Worlds of Wonder (Walking). Recorded by Phil Elvrum (The Microphones) at Dub Narcotic, and in Portland at the Birdnest and Type Foundry by the Birdnest Family, Wonderue will stay with you and keep you warm all year 'round.

Advisory Committee was produced by Mirah on her own and with Phil Elvrum (the Microphones) at Dub Narcotic studio. This time around they have pushed themselves far beyond what even they thought capable to create a truly stunning, innovative and expressive piece of work that reverberates softly through the soul of all who hear it. Advisory Committee.Mirah's first album, You Think Its Like This but Really Its Like This (KLP112) caught a lot of people off guard. Her power lies in steeping the feelings that motivate her, simmering and condensing them, encased in herself. She then creates a tender space where the listener can really be touched by this potency she sends out as a deliciously seductive, complexly sculpted lullabye, honest and true.The fourteen songs which construct Advisory Committee swell with detail, orchestration and variance. From the first song (also released as a single, IPU100), it is evident that Advisory Committee is not your average songstress' solo affair. "Cold Cold Water" is charged and lushly layered, with an arrangement that utilizes a string section, tympani, galloping percussive highlights, pump organ, haunting chamber vocals and of course Mirah's inimitable soaring voice. "Cold Cold Water" is of cinematic proportions, as vivid and intricate as any classic movie theme song ever penned. What follows is as epic if not as grandiose. Mirah unveils each song drawing from a varied palette of instrumentation and arrangement. On top of it all are Mirah's vocals, blanketing her songs with a soft, smoldering glow.

The All Girl Summer Fun Band Make a Joyful Sound! Kim, Ari, Kathy and Jen (also of our lovely Softies) have come together forming a powerful pop majesty. Dream girl mod action recorded at the Dub Narcotic studio, it's the ultimate in groovilicious guitar wonder-chimes. There are elements of girl group, punk and Britpop; long distance boyfriends, oversized cel phones and cars that don't start. Confectioary Grrr Grrr Grrr.

Culled from the new Mirah album Advisory Committee (KLP135), "Cold, Cold Water" is the magnificently orchestrated epic that includes chorus, strings, timpani and all, produced with the help of Phil Elvrum (Microphones). There are several non-album songs added, recorded starkly with just acoustic guitar and Mirah's enchanting voice, including a stripped-down version of "Cold, Cold Water". There are also bonus bits and pieces of the orchestration of the title track. Cover painting by Khaela Marricich (Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano).

Seattle Hip-Hop underground veterans Jace 4th Party and Blak Blind Council collaborate on a return to the lyrical artform with raw beats aplenty. Experimental approach for those craving new sounds. Kendu of Black Anger/Bedroom Produksionz steps up for a guest appearance on the mic.

Black Anger brings you nothing but sure shots with hits like "206 Mix Tapes Worldwide" for the Walkman Crew featuring DJ B-Mello, the No. 1 west coast Tapemaster, "Conscious Attack", "Violence I Become It". Maximum strength hip-hop relief for your aching conscious head.

Track listing:206 Mix Tapes Worldwide, Conscious Attack, Violence I Become It, Feel What I Feel, No Commercial, Conscious Attack - Radio Edit, 206 mix Tapes Worldwide ? Radio Edit, Conscious Attack Beat-A-Pella, Still No Commercial

Winter Pageant is the drama of utter melancholia documenting the broken promises, missed phone calls, conversations stalled, love lost. Colossal tasks recorded two guitars deep, forming a new Iliad, chapters on brave deeds and the power of love on the move. You can live for love, or you could live for the splendid cascade of guitar on guitar, voice over voice, the Softies combination; feathers and thorns, fawn and fearless, fable and friction.

This ten song collection has a representation from each line-up of Built to Spill from 1993 to 1995. Included are "Shortcut" from the first album session; the six songs from the November 1993 Dub Narcotic session that yielded the three Olympia area label 45s on Saturnine, Atlas/Face the Music and K ; "Still Flat" from the Built to Spill Caustic Resin session; "Some" recorded live in Chicago with Dave and James, and a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some things Last a Long Time".

The debut single by Tacoma, Washington's premiere Underground Hip-Hop combo. Produced by their own Bedroom Produksionz at the Dub Narcotic studio, "Feel What I Feel" serves as a symbolic douche for those days when you're not feeling...well you know, FRESH!

When the Black Anger crew is pared down to Sayeed and Kendu, they function as Bedroom Produksionz, knocking out the hitz, hip hop pure and direct from their Tacoma lair. This is presented in conjunction with their own DU4SELF label.

From the crew that brought you "S.E.L.F.", the record which Justyn Tyme said was "The most slept on record of 1998". DJ Sayeed (producer, engineer, and deejay) and Kindu (emcee, co-producer and head of DU4SELF Records) have set full steam ahead to bring you the next headknocker, "Non-Fiction". An energetic, innovative, work of poetical hip-hop. This song is an undisputed hit. "Temple No. 8" gives you the same style of low-end kicks and chopped guitar sample that DJ Sayeed phased us with on "S.E.L.F.", except the lyrics are more in the freestyle- battling-with-intellect mode, showing that Kindu can take out the sucker mc as well as provoke him to think.

Pop psychosis vs. the garage disease.

B side: "Feeder", "Living in a Haunted House"

Bonfire Madigan is the minstrel Madigan in band form. Angel or insect? Hard to tell. Certainly got a good beat and you can crawl the walls to it.

B side: "Batty's Wish", "Begin at the Beginning"

Love's not dead. A collection of their softly alarming psychedelica. Listen to while stitching the Emperor's new clothes.

Track listing:"Love and Umbrellas", "Magic Pail" / "Hands of Love", "Coastal Memories"

Rhythm: a regular recurrence of stress. This is the subtext of C.O.C.O. and their implied mission statement. Olympia's newest dance minimalists celebrate musical blueprints and sonic architecture via drum 'n' bass in its organic and blissfully booty-shaking form. C.O.C.O. is a duo comprised of Olivia Ness on bass and vocals, and Chris Sutton (Dub Narcotic Sound System bassist extraordinaire) laying down the drums and additional vocals. Olivia's voice is soulful yet understated, sultry and steady, a highly melodic component which color her fat 'n' funky bass pulses. Chris gets busy on the traps with a highly percussive approach; nailing the beat straight into the floor. Minimalist in construct and approach, the emphasis lies on the heady grooves being laid down, augmented by sexy soul singing and early hip-hop styled shout-outs. Elements of dub soak through the mix, and they're taking it to the dancefloor.

"Olympia's C.O.C.O. sneaked up on me recently when the group's eponymous CD was being played over the sound system of a local bar. It was booty-licious: what I had initially tapped my toes to and then dismissed as a fun, somewhat silly two-piece (drum, bass, pretty pop/soul/R&B vocals) suddenly sounded like a truly inspired work of art. I went home and put my own copy on. I couldn't stop dancing. I decided while dancing that C.O.C.O. is one of the sweetest, baddest motherfuckers to happen in the Northwest in a long time: Olivia Ness' bass lines are stellar, hook-laden and inordinately danceable; Dub Narcotic Sound System's Chris Sutton plays his kit like he's tied to Ness but still loose and inspired; and both of the members' vocals, while they appear too infrequently, are money each and every time. Bring your propensity for smiling brightly and having much fun." - Jeff DeRoche, The Stranger

The folk-based roll call of junior sts, Dusty Sarah Dougher and Kissy Corin Tucker roam the tender side of tough as Cadallaca. An electric guitar, farfisa organ and set of traps are the background hum for this first full album of Cadallaca songs. They voice a raw-throated while pulling no punches in telling it like it is, evoking visions of St. Joan on a motorbike, teardrops and drumsticks, high gear elegance, Venus on the half shell.

Produced in Olympia by Pat Maley at Yo-Yo studio. Horns but no whistling.

B side: "Monsieur Hot", "Let's Pretend"

Viva la Baker and radical Divas everywhere. The Cha Cha Cabaret is a show, darling. It toured the west coast for a few seasons and then documented itself on this disc. It features acts and objects extravagant but familiar, made with those things closest at hand?Drawing heavily on the imagery of Josephine Baker and the attitudes of Nina Simone, starring lady glitterati and tap dancing dandies?these restless marauders are the original troubadours, charting the terrain in their flights of fancy. Included on this bountiful collection are the work of Simplement Jacques (aka Dale Shaw of Blood Sausage and the Lies), the Skirts, Old Time Relijun, the Lookers (featuring Sarah Dougher), Panties, Nikki McClure, Cocozelle (aka Mirah), Miranda July, Flying Tigers (featuring Star Athena), and our hostess, Miss Lady Hand Grenade (Jen Smith).

Three former students of Munich's School of Art?New Yorker Melissa Logan, Sydney, Australia's Alex Murray-Leslie, and Munich's own Kiki Morse?have invented an amorphous multimedia platform under the moniker Chicks on Speed. Originally this was self-released as a paperback sleeve in an edition of 1,000 copies in Germany and long since devoured by rabid fans. The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases, marks the first official domestic recording by Chicks on Speed, who merge performance, graphic design and feminist/consumerist politics with the seemingly disparate sounds of early 80's New Wave/NYC No Wave, electronica, DIY punk, disco, pop and Digital Hardcore. Their first single, a cover of The Normal's classic Euro-wave "Warm Leatherette" with DJ Hell on their own Go label, was their first rumble, claiming "Single of the Week" in NME. Four other singles released in 1999 all sold. Live shows by Chicks on Speed were elevating their notoriety, as the band came on stage wearing homemade paper dresses and performed their techno-soiled pop deconstructions via MiniDisc players and compact samplers, as video montages pulsed behind them. At nearly 72 minutes in length via 33 tracks, The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases is a remix collage of Chicks on Speed tracks by Viennese Ramon Bauer (Mego) and Gerhard Potuznik (Cheap, Mego, Breakin, IT), and includes all of their singles sewn together with live recordings, chicks interviews, caustic noise bursts, and a lot of rare historic chicks material like the very first Chicks recordings ever made. Challenging and thoroughly intoxicating.

The duo of Lisa Jackson and Jonn Lunsford started out modestly, as just a Christmas project the tragically out of print X-Mas with the Crabs cassette, now coming on full force on their debut album, Jackpot. The nautical themes abound as they merge Anacortes style rockin' with classic pop. You also get lovesick musings and a cry for vengence against the neighborhood bully. Definitely the catch of the day. A co-release with Knw-Yr-Own.

New brainwave gliding semi-sweetly over pop guitar rubble, this album fits every mood imaginable. Crashing crush themes, prom night anthems, rock'n'roll lullabies, an ode to Jean Paul Sartre flow from Jonn and Lisa, with Pat Maley pumping the keyboard. It's hummable.

Remember the scene from Rebel without a Cause at the observatory when Buzz says "Hey, I'm a crab!"? In that shared moment of intimate humor there was a glimmer of hope. Everything was going to work out this time, after all. Jonn Lunsford and Lisa Jackson have fulfilled the promise of hollow-body rockin' in a grange hall style, a party where you can win the dance contest in the name of love: What Were Flames Now Smolder. A rebel with a constellation. Al Larsen wads his guitar up into a ball for one song. Pat Maley tinkles the keys on a few others. Abandon the alter of drab and dull for some stone-free love-itis.

The most succulent pop stars of the Northwest, rumored to have inspired several characters in Twin Peaks. These kids seem wholesome enough, but wet bathing suits under their jeans and Pendleton daycoats speak of Northwest adventures untold. New member Sarah Dougher joins Jonn and Lisa with her farfisa organ. The Crabs provide the hinge to where the '60s meet the '00s, a familiar clamor meshing with modern insights. And when was the last time a rock'n'pop combo made you dance? The Crabs gonna move you.

Cover beautifully designed by Nikki McClure.

D+ specializes in the kind of backwoods intellectual heartfelt rockin' guitar rhythm and ballad that is homegrown in the Northwest. Founded by Bret Lunsford of Beat Happening when he moved back to his hometown of Anacortes, Wash., in the late '80s. It has had a floating membership that has included various Anacortes luminaries. After banging guitars together for eight years, they are finally getting around to releasing a record. This has Bret accompanied by Phil Elvrum, Karl Blau and Bronwyn Holm: ode to super 8, dark room psychosis and the true sounds of liberty. A co-release with Knw-Yr-Own.

This is the gang that say KNW-YR-OWN. The laconic stovepipe ramblings of Bret Lunsford, Karl Blau and Phil Elvrum can get stuck in your mind, it's a good feeling. When they suggest giving the beavers machine guns, you can't disagree. D+ is a trio that specializes in tales told in a singular American voice with a rural sensibility, wry and dry, humorous and unbridled. The members of D+ grew up in and around Anacortes, Wash., on the San Juan Island of Fildalgo. They have a unique take on the lifestyle of the region and its problems: when life gives you dandelions, make dandelion wine. There are four bonus songs on the CD of Dandelion Seeds, two by Karl Blau (who has a CD available on KNW-YR-OWN) and two songs by the Microphones (Phil Elvrum's nom de plume).

Dance and shake like an old mix cake! The players: Todd Ranslow, bass; Larry Butler, drums; Calvin Johnson, voice; Brian Weber, organ.

Five song ep blessed disco bleed, basement dub and echo mike version soul.

This is the boot down. This train to nodville features the usual rhythm section of Todd Ranslow bass, Larry Butler drums, Brian Weber guitar, organ, and Calvin Johnson melodica joined by Lois Maffeo and Jen Smith on vocals, Lindi Coyne Wandering Lucy on guitar and DJ Sayeed Black Anger on the Turntables. They're mixing up a batch of that demon's head pudding. Zero, ignition...blast-off to Robotica.

Six song ep recorded at Royal Recording, Memphis, Tn., with William C. Brown III. Fifty-gallon drum. Organ and bass lock groove. Dance haul.

It is Olympia Gone to Memphis Vol. Two: the result of the second Dub Narcotic Sound System session at the famed Royal Recording Studio. This ep was produced by Stax records alumnus Willie Mitchell. The song "Bass Hump" features horns by Memphians Ben Cauley a founding member of the BarKays, trumpet, Jack Hale formerly of the Memphis Horns, trombone, and Lannie McMillan, saxophone.

If you saw them live and survived, you know the new sound of Dub Narcotic Sound System - it's loud, propulsive and disturbed. For Out of Your Mind, the Dub Narcotic Sound System has been stripped down to the bone, R&B smeared raw, with Calvin Johnson (melodica, voice), Larry Butler (drums), Brian Weber (guitar, keyboards) carrying on, augmented by Chris Sutton (bass) and special guest vocalist Miranda July on the title song. The styles of playing are still diverse: bleeding ear rockin' to blurbeat dub, all played edge-wise. It's a graveyard smash.

Steve Fisk and Bill Owen of Pell Mell.

Baby, you been blues bashed.

Mike Kunka taking the extremes of godheadSilo to another level: two basses, still no guitar. A provocative collaboration with Zach Sally and Danny Sasaki that rages into quieter moments and then spreads wide. Cinematic textures. Colorful bruises.

Fifth Column say down with Oedipal excuses. This is the gang that updated the '60s girl group statement as TO SIR WITH HATE. Don't get them wrong...They know a thing or three about love. It's just that this bubblegum rebellion is for keeps.

Fitz hold a sacred place in the lexicon of Olympia folklore: the crossroads of all things Hessian, everything hardcore, punk, pop, new wave, metal, heavy and hopeful. This album is their first full length collection and shows off their every side. Revered within the city limits, often misunderstood beyond them, they played every party in Olympia for 8 years. Recorded by Jack Endino at Dub Narcotic.

Relentless Fitz, a band that captures so much of Olympia and Tumwater, with a touch of Aberdeen and assorted trace metals. Fry your influences like your mind on a TV commercial and some mutated form emerges that sounds good on paper, better on record and great at a party. This album is classic plastic: "I Can't", "Form a Line", "New Disgrace".

Perfect pop: it's a misty business....with the strength of fourteen ordinary pop bands, Gaze have carved bone and stone to a gossamer glaze. Listening to their debut album Mitsumeru is a constant cycle of play-pause-repeat. They pulsate and magnify, rushing your head with what crawls through your dreams. This album breathes, it lives. Miko Hoffman and Megan Mallet are the main thrusters; voices from deep space, vacuum fresh, willing to warm you content like a devil in footy p.j's and/or rock you like a sugarcane. Rose Softies Melberg handles the rattle and crash. Mesmerizing charm that never fails to connect.

Gaze are the new wonder in pop. Hailing from the north, Vancouver, B.C., where most music is made in the garage, Gaze are more attic-style, souvenirs and memories held up to a different light. Here's a whole new album's worth fourteen songs of the kinda sadness/gladness Gaze set to motion. Miko Hoffman, Megan Mallett, and Rose Melberg bend deep powder borne songs into harmony and humming form. Short bursts or super furry, quite contrary, voice, guitar, bass, drums.

If you get caught raving, this Partyzilla soundtrack will erase the negative scene points from your scorecard. Rage to it.

This is vol. XCVII in the International Pop Underground series.

Known as Gene Defcon, this mythological entity has built a party machine, an audio diary of parties past and future. Gene Defcon's music mirrors a creative mind that's been perverted by the intoxicating properties of pure love and unadulterated good times. But what a prolific mind it is! Forty-five songs make a head-on run through '60s bubblegum, '70s glam and '80s new wave. Gene Defcon is the missing link between Dwight Twilley and Bobby Brown, a bizarre rope-skipping competition between pop underground and Captain Kangaroo. Come Party With Me 2000 was born as a cassette release in an edition of 50 and evolved into a CDR run of about 150. The time is nigh to spread the singular gospel of a twisted enigmatic figure, Eugene Gordon Defcon, beyond obscurity into celebrity. Put on your boogie shoes, the party messiah has arrived!

Have the heavens blessed us with a voice more elegant than Ms. Pam Berry? One knows of none.

This is vol. LXIII of the International Pop Underground series.

Glo-Worm produce chiming pop music of a non-bouncing variety that sounds pure, forlorn and unencumbered. This compact disc brings all the various Glo-Worm 45s together under one roof. Glo-Worm features the voice of Pam Berry, also known for her vocals in Black Tambourine and Belmondo (check out the Belmondo 45, volume LIX of the International Pop Underground), and currently recording as the Pines. Pam is also one of the founders of Chickfactor magazine.

Southern fried diva wails crooked blues over feral back beat and unshackled guitar. Beth you are a blessing.

This is vol. LXIII of the International Pop Underground series.

This is the melancholy Northwest love call. The Anacortes, Wa. penchant for hearts-wrapped-in-wool rockin' at it's ultimate.

This is vol. XXIX of the International Pop Underground series.

The first combination of the voices Doug Martsch and Calvin Johnson, of basement rock and rule out of joint. The sound of the comet's tail. Can there be a perfect underground noisy pop rockin' device? Sad places explored and reformed. Bending brain waves and calling it art.

Heaven sent with a halo bent. Doug Martsch Built to Spill, Treepeople joins forces with other underground folks from his past and future: Steve Fisk Pell Mell, Pigeonhed, Duck Hunt, Calvin Johnson Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System, Wayne Flower Treepeople, Violent Green, Ralf Youtz Feelings, Built to Spill. The Dub Narcotic studios are the meeting place for this feast of empty headed loudmouth doorbell rock done backwards, from basement to bombshelter.

This week in heaven W. Shakespeare and M. Proust are having a no holds bard-shoving match to determine who holds the title of literary progenitor of the otherwise completely fresh and original guitar stylings of Doug Martsch and the current set of Halo Benders recordings. On this album Doug wails away on guitar and voice accompanied by Calvin Johnson (also guitar and voice, but with a strong Jackson Pollock influence), Ralf Youtz (playing drums and guitar) and Wayne Flower (bass and drum). Steve Fisk also makes his customary appearance on keyboards, playing on various songs organ, synthesizer, harmonium and theremin. Heather Dunn makes a brief guest appearance on guitar.

The ultimate pop combo's most diverse set of dossiers on love and other catastrophes. Five songs total.

Heavenly formed in 1990 out of the ashes of Talulah Gosh. Consisting of Amelia Fletcher, voice and guitar, Peter Momtchiloff, guitar, Matthew Fletcher, drums, Rob Pursey, bass, and Cathy Rogers, voice, keyboards, Heavenly released four albums and several singles and EPs. P.U.N.K. Girl is an EP released in 1993, following the release of their second album, Le Jardin de Heavenly. In 1998, the majority of the members of Heavenly recombined as Marine Research. Amelia and Rob later formed Tender Trap.

Accusations of perfection have never dissuaded Heavenly from fulfilling their birthright as pop rockin' nobility. On this album they fiddle while they burn. Et tu, Heavenly.

Heavenly formed in 1990 out of the ashes of Talulah Gosh. Consisting of Amelia Fletcher, voice and guitar, Peter Momtchiloff, guitar, Matthew Fletcher, drums, Rob Pursey, bass, and Cathy Rogers, voice, keyboards, Heavenly released four albums and several singles and EPs. The Decline and Fall of Heavenly is their third album, released in 1994. In 1998, the majority of the members of Heavenly recombined as Marine Research.Amelia and Rob later formed Tender Trap.

A split single featuring one song by each of these Crashpop powerhouses.

Heavenly formed in 1990 out of the ashes of Talulah Gosh. Consisting of Amelia Fletcher, voice and guitar, Peter Momtchiloff, guitar, Matthew Fletcher, drums, Rob Pursey, bass, and Cathy Rogers, voice, keyboards, Heavenly released four albums and several singles and EPs. In 1998, the majority of the members of Heavenly recombined as Marine Research. Amelia and Rob later formed Tender Trap.

This is vol. LXVI of the International Pop Underground series.

Electronic music fiesta featuring the multi-media multi-talents of many! Behind the scenes of the Olympia underground lurks a talent heard but rarely seen. Paul Schuster has left his mark on many fine projects. He has recorded with Some Velvet Sidewalk, Jason Traeger, KG and his own band P.E.Z.; produced the Spells and Julie Ruin and toured with Miranda July. Internal/External is Paul's latest creative outlet. Featuring... began as a recording project in 1997 while Paul was experimenting with electronic music. After fleshing out the songs, he invited a slew of local folks to add their own touch. To wit: Angie Hart, Joseph DeRouselle, Kanako Wynkoop, Kathleen Hanna, Lois Maffeo, Justin Trosper, Al Larsen & Carrie Brownstein, Calvin Johnson, Slim Moon & K.O., Rachel Carns, all contribute vocals or instruments to Paul's foundation. Masterful drum 'n bass/pop/noise/r'n b crossover, genre-blending with leisure.

After their debut recording Featuring?, Internal/External's introductory techno/electronica hybrid, Paul Schuster (Internal/External's master of ceremonies) donned his lab coat, sequestered himself in the studio and went to work developing a new I/E sound. Schuster sought to cement the project by recruiting a second member for vocal and instrumental duties, the muti-talented Rebecca Pearcy. "Inside Outside" launches this approach with a blast of stun-tone synths, alien bass and drum loops joined halfway through by a back beat of double piano, for a pillowy electro-psychedelic Sunday drive. The Internal/External experience shifts to a slow jam hover as Rebecca Pearcy (Olympia's Minister of Folk and Queen Bee Creations' master crafter) spreads a silken iceburn over "Anchordown" (a reprise of "Hope", originally glazed sultry 'n' sexy by the inimitable Lois Maffeo on the Featuring? album). "Weedhead" sparks one up with a trippy vinyl sample spliced over vintage organ and classic funky drum loops, "Sweetness" is a lovely slice of exploratory electro-pop; Instrumental versions of "Anchordown" and "Sweetness" provide ample material for the DJs and home MCs.

IQU turns the electronica underground inside out with their debut album Chotto Matte a Moment! IQU are in harmony with the analog instrumentation of the past, deftly melding it with the present modern day tools of the trade, connecting the dots and loops between drum'n'bass, soundtrack, kraut rock and bedroom trip hop. Some have pontificated that the future of pop music will blend the rock, rave and dance scenes together. IQU thrive in this climate, forging their own niche and creating a space conducive to the ever-blurring lines of modern musical styles.

This features the epic Nipponese inspired song "Teenage Dream", with remixes by IQU's pals Looper, Lexaunculpt, Team 714, Dub ID, Take One & Red Clay, and Concentrick. Two bonus mixes of "Can't You Even Remember That" from IQU's debut long player chotto matte A MOMENT! KLP085 are included on the CD format, and as a bonus 7" single housed inside the 12". "Q>C Mix" by K.O. was created for an independent horror movie. "Sonic Boom Mix" is a special treat by ex-Spacemen 3, current Experimental Audio Research/Spectrum master Sonic Boom.

Two of the Northwest's most idiosyncratic entities combine their unique visions into one heady concoction, a project entitled Girls on Dates. IQU regulate techno into an amorphous being, genre-bending by integrating analog instrumentation against sampling, programming and oscillating synthesizers. Miranda July from Portland, Ore. is the premier experimental performance and spoken artist today. Miranda July is a modern story teller. The two pieces here feature the otherworldly tones of Miranda with the kaleidoscopic electro-hush of IQU to chilling effect. Includes two remixes by K.O. and DJ Swiggs.

The three things he likes most in life are love, love and love. This long-awaited second release from Jason deliciously lays down the songs you know from his electric and unpredictable live performances. He spreads his religion with wit, plenty of humor and musical charm, these songs will make you try on every emotion you got. With personnel including Dub Narcotic Sound System folks, Scott Plouf Built To Spill, Danny Sasaki Enemymine, Paul Schuster Internal/External, and Phil Elvrum D+, Microphones, Old Time Relijun.

Album number one sinks to the pit of your stomach. Karp, straight out of Tumwater High, gay blades heavy and sweaty. Looks like a deck of cards playing war for real. Feels like a chunk of concrete stapled to your forehead.

They wear the American flag for a diaper and openly taunt the football bullies...Karp is the spawn of the K nether-regions, lock-groove combat rock that spindles and mutilates. Know that inside every Karp song is a pop song trying to screech and claw it's way out. This is the sound of big amplifiers on a small town overdose. Totally decapitating.

Signal transmissions from a weed on foreign soil, immigrants and aliens. They don't mean to be cruel but this album is pain like warm leatherette. Science Fiction. Clanky din of candy + new wave. Rachel Carns staples the drums. Tae Won Yu drops the guitar. On these recordings they are joined by Sue P. Fox, wordcircus artist, and Tim Green, electroplate engineer.

Lois has the heartbreakingest voice ever, put to tear-renderingly good use on all the hits: "Press Play and Record", "Bonds in Seconds", "Spray", "Valentine". She is joined on this album of songs by producer Stuart Moxham on bass and Molly Neuman on drums.

This is grace with your slip showing. The second album of pure Lois tunesmithery, includes the classics "The Trouble with Me", "From a Heart" and "Strumpet" and the Zombie's "The Way I Feel Inside". Molly Neuman Bratmobile plays drums, Donna Dresch and Stephen Immerwahr Codeine play bass.

A seductive mix of everything that we love about the Lois: the natural wit, charm, poise and grace of a beauty school drop-out on the lam. Accompanied by Heather Dunn on the drums, Lois has brought new focus to her singing, playing and songwriting on this, her third album. You never suspect her of leaving the thumbtack on the teacher's chair, but wait a minute; this hits hard like an anvil loaded pillow at your slumber party of two, a well balanced dart thrown to the heart.

Shy Town is from the Bet the Sky lp. The four additional songs are from a D.C. session produced by Ian MacKaye with Amy drums and Juan bass, of the Warmers.

A cross-country road trip resulted in this ep. Lois worked with a bunch of different folks from all over: Alan Sparhawk Low, Damon Locks Trenchmouth, James McNew Yo La Tengo, Brendan Canty Fugazi, and members of Red Red Meat. Of course, Heather Dunn is on board to provide her usual insightful commentary and insect impersonations. They tower and they totter; inspired songs gone on to be inspiring.

Ten short stories disguised as pop songs. Working with sidekicks Heather Dunn on drums and Brendan Canty on electric guitar, bass and organ, Lois Maffeo has written ten songs that map the heart and decode the complex cryptograms of love and chance. Also appearing on Infinity Plus are Elliott Smith, on the duet "Rougher," and Alan Sparhawk Low adding spectral guitar to the tunes "A Summer Long" and "Silent Auction."

Tamala (of Automaticans) on the march! This be her hour. Get some now!

Fuzzy buzz imprinted on your grey matter, once made it will remain. An out-of-phase bomb

It was never hip to be square. Sam Jayne is living testimony to that truism.

Grainy, sandy, snowy, trance-inducing. Rock. This shit's got legs.

Sam Jayne of Lync makes the wheels turn at Love as Laughter central, Atari joystick in hand, gone total apeshit casio guitar keyboard and energy refined. Romeo shy and four track spy v spy, deathrock gone good, goggle-eyed bad seed anthems, ouija board surfing dementia. It is masked, the sugar coating rubbed raw.

Love as Laughter started as Sam Jayne and whatever sounds he put together on a series of multi-track cassette recorders, glorious love-pop-mess. Now Love As Laughter has morphed into a band that features Dave Schneider on drums (Dave was once in the seminal combo Lync with Sam; he also drums for Satisfact) and guitarist Jessica Espeleta. This is a new breed of bleeding gums rock'n'roll that has no equal in time. Large American Distortion played by pale lit cross-dressing (cotton and polyester) hipsters. #1 U.S.A. is the rock'n'roll record Mick Jagger has privately admitted he wishes he had made. When you listen to it, you'll catch slow blues fever and fail your next drug test. #1 U.S.A. is the noisy rockin' counter-culture soundtrack for a century's end. The CD version of this album contains five untitled bonus tracks.

A special tour single with one song each by the seductive (Sarah Utter and Mark, formerly Plastique) and Love as Laughter (Sam Jayne).

Rising from the tragic demise of Heavenly, Marine Research are a revelation in pop music, swinging with rich, aquatic clarity. Sounds from the Gulf Stream is a much more languid approach than anything previously attempted by Amelia and co., warmly oscillating between Ursella Andress in Dr. No and Carroll Baker in Baby Doll. Diving bell deep to coral sands, breathtakingly lush reef to seashore with pail in hand. View the videos for "Parallel Horizontal" and "Queen B" at the www.southern.com site. Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and DJ Downfall went on from Marine Research to form Tender Trap.

A special four-song ep that features "Parallel Horizontal" off the Sounds From the Gulf Stream album, two songs from their John Peel BBC session, and a secret remix affected by their drummer, DJ Downfall. Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey and DJ Downfall went on from Marine Research to form Tender Trap.

Brit hard pop propulsion. Cover painted by Heather Lewis Beat Happening.

The alien insects have landed.

This beauty spreads. Feel it.

A theme for the chronically bohemian. Such a feeling everytime it plays.

This one's got it all: love, murder, hate, frying pans, jealousy, prison, bullets, bonfires and a blue t.v. behind the iron curtain. Wordsmith Jean takes on the world while guitar man Dave rocks 'n' rolls it.

Their fourth album; captivating, graceful, and with their singular edge intact. After ten years, this album still sends shivers down my spine, their most cohesive and emotionally charged document.

A mess of songs from singles and compilations dating from 1987 to 1992. A collection that reveals the awesome might of their thing

Mecca Normal is Jean and Dave: warm, intense and insightful; Flood Plain is catchy and rockin', and still no unnecessary bass and drums.

The first album, originally released on their own Smarten Up! label in 1986, available for the first time on the CD format. Here is where the sound of Jean on voice and Dave on Guitar first came together, and the world has been shuddering to their special vibe ever since. Includes Are You Hungry Joe and I Walk Alone.

It's like this: Mirah writes and sings the songs that mean the mostest.She looks like a valentine. She sings like the valentine of all time first prize. Her power lies in steeping the feelings that motivate her, simmering and condensing them, encased in herself. Then she creates a rich, tender space where the listener can really be touched by this dense, potent package she sends directly to them in a deliciously seductive, complexly sculpted lullabye, honest and true.Her finger picking is nice.Did you ever notice how she leans her front foot on her back foot?She don't miss no notes.People love her, they are surprised music can be this good.It's like this: Mirah will rock you into soft oblivion.Produced at Dub Narcotic Studios by Phil Elvrum (the Microphones) and on secret bedroom 4-track by Mirah herself.

Fanfare is the second Mocket platter following their debut album on the Olympia label Punk in My Vitamins? There are twelve Mocket songs on fanfare!, a new rock bottom, pure rocket fuel and sandpaper. fanfare! Nothing softer than hard ice cream, everything happening at once. fanfare! Mocket hails from Olympia: again Audrey Marrs and Matt Steinke sing and play, while newly joined Carolyn Rue plays a drum set. Matt Steinke is also known for his work with Satisfact, a different kind of bleep on the radar screen.

Nikki' music is formed through supreme devotion to body talk. It's all about hand-clapping, guitar slapping, chant pop power straight to the hips.

"Sex and doom-obsessed hyper-gospel, dissonance with fangs, Ayler-esque bass and a truly possessed clarinet chunder forth. Your funeral..." is how Quitty describes them. Ringleader Arrington rains "Oh Hear Ye! Confused garage dub meets psycho hillbilly twang on the free jazz fuck train to noisy gospel swamp raga-inferno." That covers a lot of ground, but he's a preacher's son with a sweaty crybaby falsetto, so give him room to throw rattlesnakes or make with the ultra-raw backwoods contortions. Phil Elvrum Microphones, D+ and Aaron Hartman IQU are also on board to help shout it out. There isn't even the shakiest of middle ground.

The moonshine has been pilfered again by those pagan wood goblins Old Time Relijun. Now they speak in tongues: Italian, Portugese and Spanish. Three songs from Uterus and Fire have been rerecorded in the romance languages, plus five new songs combine for this special ep releases in time for their European tour. As honest as it gets, Old Time Relijun bare their deepest, darkest emotions, warts and all.

Modern American primitive deconstructionists Old Time Relijun return with their third full length album. They have certainly sharpened their forked tongue. Witchcraft Rebellion is an album of charismatic eclecticism, expounding upon their frantic fusion of raw roots rock, latter 60's ecstatic jazz and aggressive punk mutations, Witchcraft Rebellion seems to coalesce Old Time Relijun's raging schizophrenic convulsions.

Guitar songs by Paul Schuster of Internal/External fame.

A duet by Jon Ginoli and Calvin Johnson on this Johnny Cash/ June Carter classic.

Two youth on the prowl with a proclivity to make amplifiers howl and beat the skins with primitive and satisfying force. They are goners with MC5 haircuts that are scraping out the good parts and blasting them back at us. Early work by Sarah Utter of the Bangs. This band briefly changed their name to the Seductive, and released a split 45 with Love as Laughter.

Two southern corn-fed rockers from Austin, Tx.'s queens of the primitive.

The Rondelles bend 50's malt shop rock n' roll, early 80's CBGB-scene punk, and modern Britpop as if they invented all of these sub-genres themselves. Beginning as juniors in High School and now in their early 20's, The Rondelles have elevated their songwriting and ignite even more relentless, frenetic energy than ever before. This album combines some of their hoppin 45s with new recordings. Ecstatically catchy pop melodies and Juliet's lovely vocals direct infectious garage-y riffs upon riffs, threatening to curl up in your cranium where their hooks will be stuck for weeks.

A collaboration between the Pastels and our Alan Larsen Some Velvet Sidewalk calling themselves Sandy Dirt, a vehicle for excavating common ground in search of the new. The result is this five-song ep: an homage to the originator of flamethrower art, a bit of down-by-the-sea style romance, love letter lost in a toy store, an exploration of invisible connections across time-zones.

The brightest light of bridge city, Sarah has played around in the Lookers, the Crabs and Cadallaca. This album is a more complex work than any that she has participated in with the above collaborations. Sarah's songs lean against your heart; they tell the guitar and piano story of so many hearts, stories we long to hear over and over again.

Portland, Ore.'s rockin' instrumental combo cover the Shadows and dish up one of their own.

There is an urgency to the work that Satisfact must accomplish. The modern world is cold and lonely. These stark truisms are expressed in Satisfact's ever-growing body of work without their being reflected in them. Here you will find bleak geometrical landscapes tempered with hope, anonymous cubicles illuminated by a single shaft of light. There is "Misprint" and there is "Are You Gifted?". There is "Moods for Moderns" and there is "Perfect Sleeper". Modern technology interacts with our human forms in unnatural ways. These pieces are the sound effects of their intercession.

As the bubbles and noise crash-land on your dreamtime, Satisfact deliver this data capsule of echoed soul. It once took a roomful of computers the size of two refrigerators to make something this epic. Recent advances in technology permit the same effect through the efforts of only four men: Chad States, Matt Steinke, Josh Warren and Dave Schneider. This is more than background radiation. Part miniature rocketry, part aural kinetic sculpture, it's a soundscape and moon launch breakthrough.

Produced and directed by Heather Rose Dominic, The Shield Around The K profiles the birth and growth of the do-it-yourself record label K Records, based in Olympia, Washington. Calvin Johnson and Candice Pedersen are interviewed along with 20 artists and peers, including Mecca Normal, Lois, Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, Softies, Gaze), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Slim Moon (Kill Rock Stars), Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna), Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, E.A.R.), Gerard Cosloy (Matador Records), Ira Robbins (Trouser Press), Michael Azzerad, Steve Fisk (producer, pigeohed, Halo Benders) and more. The Shield Around The K features performances by Calvin Johnson's legendary Beat features performances by Calvin Johnson's legendary Beat Happening, a band whose far-reaching influence on the punk rock scene cannot be underestimated. Powered by Super 8 music videos directed by Lois and Patrick Maley (YoYo Recordings) and rare International Pop Underground Festival footage featuring Fugazi, Beat Happening, Mecca Normal and others.

The Shinin' are a hot new production crew made up of the hard-working Los Angeles DJ's Take One and None. Taking a nod from the title, this six-cut gem is a skillfully constructed screening of some of the finest MC's working the Los Angeles and Seattle/Tacoma underground hip-hop scenes. Opening with the thematic sample found in "Shinin" Intro" and launching right into the show, the sharp production skills are immediately evident. The sound is FULL; scratches are cut with prime precision and fresh beats are threaded all the way through. Featured on the mic are the talents of Dr. OOP and PM The Praying Mantis of Black Love (Black Love Crew & Blackberry Records; "Reign" single on Blackberry, and a track found on DJ Revolutions comp.), layin' down the rhyme play on "Monsterous". PM is all over both "Monsterous" and "Stereotypical", joined by LA up & comers Universal and J-Thorn. Seattle's Samson S., whose controversial single "Watch Your Words" came out on Conception Records last year, is joined by producer Vitamin D on the smooth track "Who Knows?" with optimum effect. Rounding out the wax is "Just Say When" starring Tacoma's Bedroom Produksionz of the Black Anger/DU4SELF crew, the team which upended the underground with their single "S.E.L.F." BP serve up more of their higher-consciousness hip-hop, telling it like it is about the lame game of fame. The Shinin' give it up for the Los Angeles/Northwest axis, showcasing links in the West Coast underground connection. Co-released on their own imprint Drunk Decibel Records.

If you're into scooters and loud cool punk rock, this is where your youth is not wasted. Before everyone else got the idea to trade off on old riots, Snuff were boldly clashing pop and punk strains into a twisted, fun conglomeration like nothing else before or since. This is Snuff's second album, recorded just prior to their initial break-up in 1991.

Listening to The Softies feels like peeking into a diary, with no personal detail spared. Holiday in Rhode Island presents the most accessible means inside the humble honesty of the emotive universe of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia. Whereas lyrically the band traditionally documents a lovelorn heart in every manifestation, hope is a bright silver lining adorning each of these new songs. The harmonies between Rose And Jen shimmer, brighter than ever before, benefiting from strong arrangements and production. Their two delicately jangling guitars and crystalline voices never needed anything else, their minimalist blueprint succeeds in filling every single space, but with maturity comes the security and confidence to explore, and that's just what The Softies do with these tunes. Acoustic guitar embellishes "Just a Day" and "You and Only You", piano and sparse drums color the airy "Me and the Bees", xylophone makes some subtle appearances as well.

Primal scream therepy turned untouchable rock'n'roll blast.

The Larson ictus in full bloom as Al gives it all in three tasty bites. There is no world without that girl. The essential SVS.

A single from the Generate! album, with a remix on the flip by Pell Mell's Greg Freemn.

The return of the Great Pumpkin, only slightly out of control this time. Al Larsen is a gift to be cherished; he somehow churns life's pits back into cherries. On Avalanche he bestows the most pleasant ice cream headache imaginable, songs that move snow and earth, sweeping all in its path along for the ride. Includes the monster hit Loch Ness.

I Scream is frozen solid. I Scream is rotting your teeth and freezing your brain. Al Larsen and Steve Fisk reach deep into his digi-fridge and do the mix-mocha to the SVS underground hit "I Scream". The kind of stomach ache you get from a lifetime of eating the wrong things.

Alan Larsen sings and plays his heart inside out. On the surface it appears to be "rock" music, and can be appreciated on that level. In actuality, it's a totally cathartic tidal wave of frantic noise luv punk mayhem. Even in their sensitive moments they peel paint off the walls. This captures the feeling of stepping on a crack, breaking through where the sidewalk ends.

The lost second album, featuring Tobi Vail Bikini Kill, Frumpies on drums and Louise Olsen Matrimony on bass. Recorded in 1990, Shipwreck bridges the gap between the heartfelt incompetence of the early Sidewalk recordings and the pop chaos of Avalanche and Whirlpool. Included are some of the best songs from their live shows like "Mousetrap" and "Puppy".

Generate! is a big record, bigger than its twelve inch appearance. There are beats and rhymes and light years of intimacy that can't be crawled around or glossed over. You can get a bite sized chunk from a little bit of feeling called "Valley of the Clock" International Pop Underground vol. LXXX. But the whole platter of wax is a ticking package you can't refuse: underbeat meets overdrive: infinite time and the deep patterns of the universe. Nikki McClure is in on the action, giving us the biological lowdown. Produced by Greg Freeman Pell Mell and Mike Johnson.

Now for the Lowdown. This CD ep begins with a story of the raw and the true and living your life the way ya wanna wanna do; this is the Al Larsen story and through him the Olympia story. "The Lowdown" is followed by a selection of remixed Generate! KLP062 songs, cookie dough in the raw. As on all Some Velvet Sidewalk releases, paint-peeling crashpop abounds, but now you find yourself surfing bass frequencies with the echoplex ghosts offshore. Remixes by K.O. IQU and Thrones. Woodwinds by Arrington de Dionysoold Time Relijun. The Lowdown by Al.

This is two guitars and two voices in pure melodious rock'n'roll grandeur. Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony play off each other brilliantly, weaving and spinning their guitar and vocal styles with subtle intricacy. A drum machine makes an appearance on "the Age of Backwards" and "#1 Fan", while a modern take on the Who's "Can't Explain" reveals the root chords of this pop experiment. Four songs in all, recorded by Paul Schuster Internal/External.

Fisk is best known as a producer, a member of Pell Mell, pigeonhed, Duck Hunt and his work with the Halo Benders. This collection features solo work by Fisk between 1981 and 1987. Much of it was previously available only on cassette, some of this has never before been released. Tape loops, samples, noise and found material combined in fine Fisk fashion.

Vampirina dies screaming to the sound of the Subdebs, a new Olympia combo featuring Star Athena (featured on Selector Dub Narcotic compilation; she was also one third of the Flying Tigers), Brooke and James. They subvert the social strata by introducing the tomboys, brainiacs and introverts to the ball, as if nothing is wrong. Songs of glamour smeared across the bathroom mirror. They say "Don't Mess with Us" and "Let's Go" and "Into the Night", songs of action captured in high contrast black and white. So don a wig as a helmet and charge. Other hits include "The Man with the Golden Arm", "My War", "No Good Man", "Please Understand", "Hypnotized".The LP version is packaged in a hand silk screened jacket.

Full friction hip hop breaks, mad skills smoking, sharp cuts equipped with enough strength to burn up that quarter mile. Checking in from Olympia, Wash., Take One is a DJ whose tireless activity at clubs and parties throughout the Northwest culminates in this lethal turntable tool. One side for MCs, one for DJs, buttery smooth production throughout. Take One also co-produced the Shinin ep, which features five diverse MC tracks featuring the best underground mic talent on the west coast.

Tentacles, where are you? The inquiries continue to pour in concerning the Tentacles/Yo-Yo a Go-Go confusion. Though we at K are responsible for releasing the Tentacles only known recordings, even we are in the dark on many details concerning the band, their personnel and past history. We usually only work with folks we know; the Tentacles material "The Touch" b/w "Louie Louie Got Married" (International Pop Underground Vol. XCIV 7" 45rpm) is just so sublime we couldn't resist making it available.We don't have a lot of details on the renegade Yo-Yo show that was scheduled at Itchy's Cavern on Saturday, July 17. Like everyone else at Yo-Yo a Go-Go, we noticed the letter press printed posters that mysteriously began appearing early in the week announcing the show: "SECRET SHOW! The TENTACLES SATURDAY NIGHT ITCHY'S CAVERN DO YOU WANT THE TOUCH?" A number of naive out-of-towners made the extreme scene faux pas of asking "where is Itchy's Cavern?", to which the cynical (and equally puzzled) locals replied "What, you don't know?" The only other known performance by the Tentacles was a basement party a year earlier.The phones started ringing here at K , and we had to admit we were stumped. But the Tentacles never have done things the easy way, and if they were determined to go up against Yo-Yo a Go-Go's grand finale, no one was going to deter them, and no one wanted to; the possibility of a live Tentacles show was so tempting, it was worth the possibility of missing the Make-Up/Enemymine/Tight Bros. bill that was to cap Yo-Yo on the same evening.The excitement began to build. On Thursday, the posters announcing the Tentacles show were stamped with "SOLD OUT" in bright red letters. Entrance to the show at Itchy's became the hottest ticket in town, with a pair rumored to have gone for over $50.00 on eBay. Other rumors abound: supposedly Nardwar was going to release himself from the hospital in order to MC the event, and Itchy's Cavern was going to order a huge wedding cake that would be cut right before the Tentacles played "Louie Louie Got Married". I guess it must be true.Alas, confusion reigned on Saturday when suddenly all the posters for the show where pasted across the front with a big CANCELLED. What happened? Again, the rumors flowed like black cherry soda down 4th and 5th Avenues. Some said that Itchy's Cavern burned down (arson suspected), and all the ticket receipts were locked in the office, so there would be no refunds. Another story had it that the powers that be at Yo-Yo had the city shut the show down, on the pretext of code violations. Another strong rumor traced the demise of the Tentacles show at Itchy's Cavern to a long running feud between two D.C. street gangs, the Dags (a gang of Spycyclists to which the Tentacles are allegedly connected) and the Skulkers, who have long been championed by the Make-Up and their ilk. Apparently, the Skulkers didn't like the idea of Dags moving in on their Saturday Night territory. One unlikely theory is that the Tentacles canceled the show because they were unable to make it to town in time. A group of Tentacle devotees from the Bay Area were going to substitute for them as the Alternative Tentacles, but that was nixed at the last minute by the folks at the Scene Control Room (thanks Quitty!).We most likely will never know what really happened with the Tentacles and Itchy's Cavern. The Tentacles never made it to Yo-Yo a Go-Go, but all of us there felt their touch.This is vol. XCIV of the International Pop Underground series.

A new treatise on punk.

Olympia teens driving a cement mixer. No song titles, just scraping and howl.

Supercrush boss rockin'. Angie Loy, Rose Melberg, Jen Braun and Heather Dunn set Sacramento, Ca. on its head when they strap on the roller skates and cheerfully explode pop dynamite. Sparkly guitars and treasure-troves full of classic rockin' songs are combined in carefree chaos to a land-locked surf beat. The ultimate.

Yeah. Action! Neck-snapping beats are dance floor wise, & razor-sharp cuts courtesy of DJ B-Mello express hip hop pride, Tilson's ferocious freestyle delivers straight to the isle of hypnosis. Definition: superfresh.

The re-issue of the 1990 debut album by this Boise, Id. band that relocated to Seattle in the late '80s. Doug Martsch, Scott Schmaljohn, Pat Brown, and Wayne Flower have since gone on to Stuntman, Violent Green, Halo Benders and Built to Spill.

A live compilation documenting the International Pop Underground Convention, held at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, Wash., August, 1991.

A compilation culled from the first 25 volumes of our International Pop Underground series of seven inch releases. See also the Project: Echo (KCD055) compilation of singles released in 1996.

A modern compilation of hit songs from the International Pop Underground series of 7" 45 rpm records. All of this material is available here on compact disc for the first time. A K mixtape extraordinaire! See also our earlier singles compilation, International Hip Swing (KLP016).

Leave it up to the Seattle-Tacoma Underground to bring you nothing but the real Hip-Hop. Look toward the NW corner and you'll find that scientists have been in the lab putting together the ELEMENTS that make CLASSIC material, thus you have CLASSIC ELEMENTS, demonstrating that authentic true school skills still reign supreme.

This is a compilation album crafted at the Dub Narcotic studio in Olympia, Wash. It features home town heroes and some out of town folks just dropped by to set a spell; maybe play a bit. This includes material from the earliest Dub Narcotic basement sessions to the current loft-style scene. Many different folks experimenting with Pop music, combining instruments and players in new and exciting ways.

Lindiwe arrives in town, lays down the hits, plays a couple of shows and then takes the bus back to Vancouver with her guitar and the Drummer 2002. This should be in every jukebox in every teen center.

The first round of Wandering Lucy was Lindiwe Coyne, her guitar and the Drummer 2002 rhythm activator. The songs flow with an insulated grace, chiming out crisp from the bottom of the reverberation tank (reference the "Arms and Legs" ep, International Pop Underground vol. LXI). Now Leap Year takes a giant step, mixing songs derived from the original concept (one girl, one guitar, one robot) with those using a more conventional approach. Fred Armisen (drums) and Brian Sparhawk (bass) form a new matrix with Lindi that transmits brain-twanging signals, some intermittent, some pulse steady, a few break up into static and distortion. There are scads of rad tunes and the mic is passed to Jen Smith for one glorious song. A hybrid holiday: Leap Year.

A rambunctious tribe of merry pranksters onslaught rock, warping all concepts of the bubblegum powered volume high. Dedicated to pop music in a big way and it shows in these fifteen songs clocking in at no longer than two and a half minutes each. Wolf Colonel re-invent "attention deficit rock". It's over the top can't-get-it-out-of-your-headness. Wit, humor, loudness; Vikings of Mint pillages the rock script and scorches a new kaboom with authority. Vikings of Mint is the first album from Wolf Colonel, led by Jason Anderson (vocals, bass and guitars) with Adam Forkner on drums (Adam fronts Yume Bitsu with Jason on drums). This was produced by Brian Weber (DNSS) at Dub Narcotic over three days, during which Jason refused to leave the studio, sleeping and eating there, until the album was finished.

The Castle arrives barely seven months after the release of Wolf Colonel's righteous Vikings of Mint. Whereas Vikings perfected the power of brevity behind 15 shards of ultra-melodic, high volume pop, The Castle shifts this perspective by allowing the tunes to bloom, diversifying stylistically. Some tracks are stripped bare with only acoustic guitar and vocals in accompaniment, harkening back to the roots of Wolf Colonel as the moniker for leader Jason Anderson as he banged out a sixty song set list to astonished audiences in various dorm rooms and performance spaces. Some tunes expand into winding, lengthy excursions. When Wolf Colonel's hooks are in flight, they benefit from some well-placed studio tricks and BIG sounding production. Matured in every which way, Wolf Colonel have constructed an album of ear candy that expands upon their mesh of Beatles-esque harmonies and hardcore punk's concise delivery. Produced by Brian Weber at Dub Narcotic studio.

Early work by Barbara Manning.

Yume Bitsu: spiritual bedroom music. This is their third album, capturing the feel of the dream beats from which they draw their name. Auspicious Winds documents their latest journey through sonic time holes and hazy alter-universes. Four extended epic compositions and one yearning psyche-pop jewel ("Sharp, Twisted") map out introspective territories, cascading through the subtle nuances of mind, body and soul. Take it and saturate the textures?