New Blackout Beach LP due soon, hear / buy now!

The mighty Blackout Beach are back to the recorded world this month with the epic and exquisitely-titled Blues Trip. Not only is the record a retelling of the brilliant 2011 LP Fuck Death (Dead Oceans), it also captures, for the first time on record, the live "blues trio" (Carey's description) sound the band has been exploring for the last year or so. The trio in question is Carey Mercer (guitar, voice), Melanie Campbell (drums), and Dante De Caro (bass). Dan Bejar stopped in to sing a bit here & there on the record, too. The Fuck Death songs may have lost the ambitious and serpentine arrangements, but the unconventional nature of the music remains with these raw versions. Mercer and co. are fully embracing Australian post-punk moves here, more completely and less intentionally than ever referencing Crime + The City Solution, The Bad Seeds and The Moodists... 

The LP version will be released in about two weeks via Soft Abuse. Pre-order a copy here. I'll be shipping them ASAP.

The digital sales are happening now (!), via the band's own Bandcamp page, where you may also stream everything, too, of course. Check it via the link or below...

 

New music from Nathan Bowles

Our man Nathan Bowles stopped in for a few performances at this year's (inaugural!) Couch By Couchwest festival. Neither song appears on his debut LP, A Bottle, A Buckeye, and yes, both are excellent.

Exiles From Clowntown, coming soon

Greetings, 2013!

As many of you may have read in the online pages of (the great) Blastitude, 2013 will bring the debut LP from Exiles From Clowntown via Soft Abuse. I couldn't be more ecstatic about this... Though there's no firm release date or music to share, or anything like that, I wanted to announce this happening and pass along a link to the very active Greatdividing Soundcloud page as a means to stay current with the group (& their associates). The video below should whet all appetites for the impending LP, too... Brilliant. More information to come...

2012 favorites at Soft Abuse HQ

Another year come & gone in a flash, and another list to sift thru... It's been a long, strange year for yours truly, and just like every other, it's been filled with heaps of great music. Here's a list of my favorites, in no particular order. Pictured below is Soft Abuse intern Cookie, seen assisting in Myrrh LP assembly...

Full-lengths

Josephine Foster - Blood Rushing (Fire)

Mad Nanna - I Made Blood Better (Negative Guest List)

Robust Worlds - Emotional Planet (De Stijl)

Marielle V. Jakobsons - Glass Canyon (Students of Decay)

Crazy Spirit - Crazy Spirit (Toxic State)

Tronics - Love Backed By Force (re, WYR)

The Clean - Oddities (re, 540)

Richard Youngs - Amaranthine (Mie)

Richard Youngs - Core to the Brave (Root Strata)

The Fresh & Onlys - Long Slow Dance (Mexican Summer)

V/A - Time to Go (Flying Nun)

David Kilgour - Here Come the Cars (re, De Stijl)

Helm - Impossible Symmetry (PAN)

Donovan Quinn - honkey Tonk Medusa (Northern-Spy)

Kirschstein - Kirschstein (Brave Mysteries)

Modra - The Line for the Men's Room (Savage Quality)

The UV Race - Racism (In the Red)

Willie Lane - Recliner Ragas (re, Humito)

Willie Lane - Guitar Army of One (Cord-Art)

Sky Needle - Rave Cave (Negative Guest List)

Horrid Red - Nightly Wreaths (Terrible)

Sic Alps - Sic Alps (Drag City)

Myrrh - Hymns (Lighten Up Sounds)

Marielle V. Jakobsons - Glass Canyon (Students of Decay)

David Novick - David Novick (Sun Sneeze)

Fabulous Diamonds - Commercial Music (Chapter)

Lower Dens - Nootropics (Ribbon)

Tim Coster - Ocean Liner (Albert's Basement)

Maxine Funke - Felt (Epic Sweep)

Sean McCann & Matthew Sullivan - Vaniy Fair (Recital)

Carol Kleyn - Takin the Time (re, Drag City)

Gunn-Truscinski Duo - Ocean Parkway (3 Lobed)

John Marks - Untitled (Art of This)

Michael Hurley - Back Home With the Drifting Woods (Mississippi/Nero's Neptune)

Mole House - Mole House (Night-People)

Factrix - Schientot (re, Superior Viaduct)

Gareth Williams & Mary Currie - Flaming Tunes (re, Blackest Ever Black)

The Compass Rose - The Simulation District (Ekhein)

Xwave - Cities on Flame (Little Big Chief)

Ali Farka Toure - Ni Foli (Social Music)

Zomes - Variations Vol. 1 (Imminent Frequencies)

Aloonaluna - Bunny (Hooker Vision)

Singles / EPs 

The Bowles - The Bowles (Kye)

Southern Comfort - Silver and Gold (Black Petal)

Mad Nanna - I Hit a Wall (Quemada)

Mole House - Hey Come My Way (Quemada)

Tronics - Shark Fucks (re, WYR)

Brute Heart - Fever (M'Lady's)

Woods - Cali in a Cup (Woodsist)

Twerps - Work it Out (underwater Peoples/Chapter)

Sharon Gal - Melancholic (American Tapes)

CUFFS - Private View (Ride the Snake)

Black Tambourine - One Two Three Four (Slumberland)

Bilders - Moderation (re, Unwucht)

Ulaan Khol - Los Angeles EP (Worstward)

Dadamah - Violet Stains Red (Yellow Electric)

Eric Copeland - Car Alarm (PPM)

Brain Tumors - Fuck You Forever (Deranged)

Sic Alps - Battery Townsley (Drag City)

Ruined Fortune - Bulls Eye (RIP Society)

& finally, a recap of Soft Abuse releases from 2012, listed chronologically

Pumice - PUNY

Suspensers - Too Dumb to Live, Too Stoned to Die

Ulaan Markhor - Ulaan Markhor

Myrrh - Myrrh 

Mad Nanna - My Two Kids

Nathan Bowles - A Bottle, A Buckeye

Tilth - Angular Music

Threads - Tall Building

Myrrh unleash debut LP & plot summer tour

Sub-underground duo Myrrh have been dealing their own strain of blown-out doom for a few years; calmly inducing heavy feedback & thud beatitudes armed only with drums and viola. Their heavy, stoned & repetitive / tranced instrumentals summon the corpses of Pärson Sound and Skullflower (and of course Sabbath and Earth) with nary a puff of derivative smoke. 

Comprised of Jackie Beckey (Brute Heart) and Andie Mazorol (Mother of Fire), Myrrh construct paeans around crushing  riffs and thick atmosphere. The eight untitled dirges that comprise their debut were recorded in haste, and promptly issued on cassette by Myrrh themselves. Dubs were made to order & sold at shows, long after the initial master was lost. Soft Abuse facilitated a necessary remaster and vinyl edition that peels back a layer of murk without comprising the din. Lovingly presented with an art print, poster and gratis download, the first book of Myrrh is among us. 

Pre-order the self-titled Myrrh LP here (release date is August 21)...
Since making their debut, Myrrh has expanded to a trio, with Jason Millard (Lighted) on lap steel. Myrrh are pummeling weirdos on tour now; below are the dates (all with Skoal Kodiak) - catch them in yr zone:

07/19 - Baltimore, MD - Floristree (with Speaker)

07/20 - Brooklyn, NY - Death By Audio (with Alien Whale)

07/21 - Providence, RI - Bldg 16 

07/22 - somewhere in Maine..?!

07/23 - Allston, MA - Thee Bandit Ship

07/24 - Philadelphia, PA - Space 1026

07/25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Grubb's Metal Shop

07/26 - Chicago, IL - Reversible Eye Gallery (with Mayor Daley - LP release gig)

07/27 - Milwaukee, WI - Impala Bar (with Didier and DJstacian)

07/28 - Minneapolis, MN - Palmer's Bar