RODRIGUEZ - Coming From Reality

When DJ David Holmes opened his tremendous Come Get It I Got It mix-comp with the eerie, psych-folk ode to drug-dealers “Sugar Man”, excited listeners perked up their ears wondering who this mysterious Rodriguez guy was. Having already developed a cult following in Australia, demand for a proper North American reissue of the failed American singer-songwriter’s two studio albums grew. For me, his debut Cold Fact, licensed to Light In The Attic last year, was a bit of a disappointment, possibly because there was no way the rest of the album could not live up to the promise of its centerpiece/masterpiece, the aforementioned “Sugar Man”. His follow-up, recorded a year later in 1971, though lacking anything as mind-altering as his signature song, is overall a much stronger album. Here the cynical troubadour’s attraction to seedy imagery (seemingly put-on, but charming nonetheless) is tempered with more tuneful and tender side on the best songs. His band is much more together this time around, giving his songs greater sense of groove, and the string arrangements are spare and always well-placed. After this record, he recorded no more but recent interest has led to his current tour. Check him out on the West Coast if you can Friday, July 3 at a free Harbourfront Centre show!

THE WHO - The Who Sell Out

The Who's underappreciated treasure from 1967 has been reissued for the first time in fourteen years, in a deluxe double-disc package consisting of both mono and stereo mixes and a slew of bonus tracks. Before becoming famous for their rock operas, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and co. were very much a pop group--albeit an extremely loud and hard-edged one--whose success in the UK owed a great deal to airplay on offshore pirate radio stations. The British government ban on these stations in '67 incensed Townshend, who turned what could have been an album of unrelated songs into a tongue-in-cheek tribute to top-40 radio and crass commercialism. Fake commercials and genuine jingles link the most psychedelic tunes The Who ever recorded. Sell Out's mono version is a must-hear for guitar solos markedly different than the ones on the stereo mix, notably on the song "Our Love Was, Is". The bonus cuts include demos and material left off the original album which, in this reviewer's opinion, was The Who's strongest and strangest.

CRYSTAL ANTLERS - Tentacles

On the heels of Pitchfork's 8.5 blessing/kiss-of-death for their debut EP, word came down the pipe that Crystal Antlers' first full-length was to be the last release from venerable indie Touch and Go. (No pressure.) Anyone looking for a Black Kids-style crash-and-burn will be disappointed, but they shouldn't be surprised. CA are clearly not a group interested in crossing over, and their trashy Comets On Fire by way of loud Oneida (or tamed Lightning Bolt) brand of psych frenzy fits well on the label that gave us The Jesus Lizard and Big Black, among many others. Trebly and cluttered, the album takes a couple of spins to fully decipher, especially when nearly every song is awash in organ and clipped, hoarse vocals. Once there, though, the wrecking-ball energy starts to take a sugar-rush hold, whose momentum is broken only by what turn out to be some of the best cuts on the disc. In particular, epic droning album closer "Several Tongues" not only contains some of the most affecting (if still undecipherable ) vocals here, but also a totally bang-on free jazz section. Well played!

OBITS - I Blame You

It's ironic that after no less than three projects together, it's Rick Froberg's first significant project away from John Reis that most echoes his old friend's '50s rock sensibilities. I Blame You owes as much to the days of greasers and surfers as the punk/noise that defined Froberg's past killer efforts as Hot Snakes and the seminal Drive Like Jehu. It's a subtle shift that suits the man's acidic pipes to a tee, his reedy, wiry voice channeling the era in a way that suggests the ghost of Buddy Holly stumbling across a Cramps album.

JEAN-PIERRE MASSIERA - Midnight Massiera: The B-Music Of Jean-Pierre Massiera

Known to collectors primarily as the mad genius behind the nutsoid quasi-soundtrack album Les Maledictus Sound from 1968, French producer/engineer/guitarist Jean-Pierre Massiera epitomizes Finders Keepers' sensibilities perhaps more than any other artist. Recording mostly in the late '60s and '70s, Massiera's vision was to never do anything straight-ahead, whether playing cosmic surf music early in his career, charting similar psychotic territory as White Noise, Pierre Henry and Ennio Morricone, or experimenting with proggy disco. His ear for radical combinations of sounds and effects puts him in league with producers Joe Meek and Lee Perry--just check his version of "They're Coming To Take Me Away" in French! After being blown away by Midnight Massiera, you can also seek out the Mucho Gusto label's Psychoses: Freakoid (1963-1978), their second of two collections which focuses mostly on his weird Euro-disco period.

THE PRETTY THINGS - Philippe DeBarge

In 1969, British R&B/psych cult heroes The Pretty Things were somewhat at loose ends. S.F. Sorrow, their innovative rock opera released the previous year, had flopped commercially, although Pete Townshend, then in the midst of creating Tommy, had certainly been taking notes. Into this picture stepped a wealthy young Frenchman, Philippe DeBarge, who commissioned the group to record a new album--with him on lead vocals. Strange but true. The Pretties came up with a batch of sterling psychedelic gems, and the end result, never released at the time, has now seen the light of day. While not sounding as strong as Pretty Things frontman Phil May, DeBarge's raspy voice suits the material just fine. Detailed liner notes courtesy of Mike Stax, publisher of essential garage-psych 'zine Ugly Things, whose offshoot label is responsible for this disc's release.

DAN AUERBACH - Keep It Hid

On his debut solo album, the last thing Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach does is keep his ample talents hidden. Even without sidekick drummer Patrick Carney, he cranks up raw, bluesy garage-rock yet also channels his inner folknik on tracks like "Goin' Home". Other songs, like "My Last Mistake", are suffused with strong melodic hooks, all the while remaining crunchingly raucous. Auerbach recorded the album in his Akron, OH home studio, capturing the room's acoustics in spades. Let's hope he continues delivering the solo reverb-drenched goods from time to time.

FLAMIN' GROOVIES - Flamingo/Teenage Head

Courtesy of the excellent Rev-Ola reissue label comes this terrific two-fer of the Flamin' Groovies' seminal 1970-71 albums, Flamingo and Teenage Head. It was from the latter that Hamilton's punk-rockin' finest got their name--fittingly enough, since the Groovies proved themselves to be perfect punk precursors, all the while mining the rich, raunchy heritage of '50s rockabilly and R&B. Both albums feature snarling Stones-y originals, often out-rolling and rocking Mick Jagger and co. The careening covers (including a Randy Newman number!), slide-guitar playing, Roy Loney's snotty vocals, and overall bad-ass attitude make this disc as essential as The Stooges or MC5. And the Groovies' later power-pop excursions are not to be missed either, but that's a whole other story...

ANDRE ETHIER - Born Of Blue Fog

Released suddenly enough that not many yet know it's out locally (the Canada-wide date is Dec 9), this would be Andre Ethier's second confusingly-titled sequel, the sequel in that sense to Secondathallam and rumoured to be followed by a third and final Blue Fog recording already written. The main noticeable difference between this and its On Blue Fog forebear is the strings, which even join in on "Infant King"'s boogie blues. Most, uh, arresting is second-last track "Cop Killer", a ruffneck bummer of a tune whose subject is "ridden into riots" as Ethier laughs at the letdown, shouting out Jay-Z's "99 Problems" and adding the nod to his own problematic, crooned EZ-unease.

RODRIGUEZ - Cold Fact

Originally released in 1970, this album by Detroit's Sixto Rodriguez sank without a trace domestically, but curiously hit it big with listeners in Australia and South Africa. Cold Fact bears a Dylan/Donovan influence, and was co-produced by great Motown session guitarist Dennis Coffey. Kicking off with the dreamy acid-folk rock of "Sugar Man", a paean to a drug dealer, and the fuzz guitar crunch of the searing putdown "Only Good For Conversation", this disc bitterly reflects the harsh comedown of the hippie hangover. Caustic, socially conscious songwriting and hard-bitten vocals, along with some lovely orchestration, make for a lost classic well worth rediscovering.

ONEIDA - Preteen Weaponry

Part One in the threatened "Thank Your Parents" triptych first lays an almost Spacemen 3-like groove down, flattening out at the 5-minute mark just in time for some tuneful bass/guitar unison lines to peek out from the distorted drum thicket. Gusts of wrecked speakers then blow across the stereo field for the even slower, even dronier second part, where singing drifts in for a spell before breaking off in a fried-synth clipped motorik for the third and final fifteen-minute stretch. Honestly not likely to win many new converts, Preteen Weaponry still does a great job of showing off the ever-expanding, self-sufficent psych studio skills of these by-now old-school Brooklynites. 

QUEST FOR FIRE - S/T

With a note-perfect name and pedigree to match (two ex-Deadly Snakes, the drummer from recently-disbanded hardcore heroes Cursed, and a member of prickly punks No No Zero on bass), Quest For Fire has already amassed a fair amount of infamy in the past year, impressing much of this town's psych-savvy with a loud, extended and immersory live sound. On record, though, a broody sense of nuance balances out the rock-outs, suggesting a kinship with fellow vets The Unintended as much as with such stoned-age contemporaries as Comets On Fire, Dead Meadow, Black Mountain and Wooden Shjips.

THE BEES - Sound Selection

As well-rounded as you'd expect from a lot whose songcraft so suavely synthesizes styles into gently beatwise, tuneful pop form, Sound Selection is a mix compilation a la Late Night Tales or Back To Mine, valuing feel and, well, selection over perfect blending and matching. Soulful choral consternation from the Staple Singers and Redbone goes one-for-one with late-golden-age hiphop for the front half of this sequence (maybe even poking fun at comp-curation vanity in choosing De La Soul's "Ego Tripping, Part 2"), and the band's own "Left Foot Stepdown" fits right in after a double-dose of reggae.

SPIRITUALIZED - Songs In A & E

The first thing one can't help noticing is how worn Jason Pierce's voice has become, the result of a 2005 brush with respiratory failure from which he has slowly recovered. It's a transformation severe enough to make certain songs on In A & E sound like the work of another singer entirely, especially on rimtap rocker "I Gotta Fire", where Pierce's raspy whine matches the wah guitar accompaniment like a modern Malcolm Mooney sparring with Michael Karoli. It's at moments such as this or "Yeah Yeah", when J. Spaceman's frailty is most exposed but he belts out a hearty rock'n'roll howl regardless, that these Songs are at their most vital.  

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - My Bloody Underground

It's easy to only ogle A. Newcombe's uglified track titles without paying much more mind ("Who F*cking Pissed In My Well?"), but the songs speak for themselves, often in contradictory tongues (ie. the artiste-ic austerity of solo piano piece "We Are The N*ggers Of The World", [apocryphally?] written at 9 years old). The ostrich guitar pecks on "Infinite Wisdom Teeth" and jawharp 'n' Marrakesh drums in, uh, the one about the well are swell, but the BJM's best served dipped into their baked bread and butter with some downer breakbeats and gauzy swirl, as on amorphous heaver "Who Cares Why?".

THE BLACK KEYS - Attack & Release

Full disclosure: it was only after being floored by what a college radio host announced after airing it as their last record's first number, Magic Potion's "Just Got To Be", that this writer paid this pair any mind. No such immediate attention-grabbers here, but the more diffuse feel focuses attention on the details Danger Mouse adds. Things first get overtly hip-hoppy on "Psychotic Girl" and, like "Strange Times" before it and the following "Lies", it's that spooky-ooky digi-dust at the changes that lets you know who's at the console.

SLIM TWIG - Derelict Dialect

Although we've had Slim's 2007 EPs Whiite Fantaseee and Dissonant Folk here in the shop since December, this earlier one, recorded with Dale Morningstar in '06, is news to us, so we're not quite sure if this was ever self-released in limited number, or just a matter of waiting for the right time (and label). With more and more local showgoers catching word of and getting wooed by the man live in both solo band and duo form as Tropics (even doing double-duty with both projects recently at CMW), Paper Bag were wise to sign Twig and his personal, wordplay-wise, goofy/aloof brand of dark dandy mantras.

THE DIRTBOMBS - We Have You Surrounded

Doubling up on bass and drums with two band members apiece gives the Dirtbombs a uniquely full garage-rock sound, with the kits often L-R'ed for a, um, surrounding headphone experience. Mick Collins and crew touch on a variety of sub-styles with We Have You..., but when they ditch the soul-stained punk completely and veer off into dancier territory, the fuzziness and campiness at hand bring to mind not Detroit but instead Wax Trax!-era Chicago a la RevCo/Thrill Kill Kult. Stick around for eight-minute near-album-closer "Race To The Bottom", a synthesized feedback squall worth waiting for.

SILVER APPLES - Contact

This is the second album released by NYC's The Silver Apples in 1969. This group are known for building a crazy system of audio oscillators that provided most of their driving bass beats, and mixing them with drums and poetic lyrics. Contact is full of minimal psychedelic electronic elements, drones, dissonance, pulsing beats, raw emotions and BANJO!  I love that they layered the banjo into the bassy beat mix, something that makes them stand out from the likes of  Spacemen 3 and Suicide, whom the band are often compared to. Tracks like "Ruby" and "Confusion" showcase the use of banjo, and "I Have Known Love" could quite possibly be one of my favourite songs of all time. Bassy Banjo Goodness!

DEAD MEADOW - Old Growth

At this point, the already-converted know what they're getting when it comes to Dead Meadow. Now that they've expanded their audience of early adopters with those (this writer included) who jumped aboard in time for the recent reissue of the first two albums, it's the perfect opportunity for the band to capitalize on this rekindled interest with a new record. More diverse than the casual fan of their stony side might expect, the handful of pared-down/acoustic numbers on Old Growth makes for a varied listen that keeps the proceedings from strictly focusing on the flat-out riffery they've made their name with.