Monthly Archives: May 2020

The only time I saw legendary DC hardcore crowd displeasers 9353, vocalist Bruce Merkle spent the entire set tied to a chair. If that doesn’t give you an idea of how extraordinarily bizarre they were, listen to their music.

Like fellow scene outcasts No Trend, 9353 went out of their way to mock the unwritten shibboleths dictating the behavior of the Dischord Records crowd. 9353 gave the old middle digit to sincerity, seriousness, self-righteousness, responsibility, common decency, virulent puritanism, inbred tribalism, and sexually repressed male teenage hormonal rage. No wonder many of your earnest Emo progenitors hated the black-hearted jesters in 9353–they didn’t flex your head so much as fuck with it.

I was as much a victim as anybody. If my finely tuned sense of the absurd was in accordance with theirs (the repeated mantra of “Famous Last Words” goes “It’s okay, it’s not loaded/I’m a good driver, don’t worry honey”), their music befuddled me. It was totally out of sync with the times, and just the sort of thing to piss off audiences looking to see the latest Positive Force band do some fancy sermonizing. 9353 may as well have crash landed on the National Mall in a UFO, before emerging in paisley leisure suits.

Stylistically speaking, the songs on 9353’s 1984 debut To Whom It May Consume run the gamut. “Color Anxiety” and “Spooky Room” are mutant new wave fuckabouts. “Famous Last Words” and “Ghost” evoke John Lydon and Public Image Ltd. “Egnossponge” is a spaced-out Krautrock extravaganza. “Test Life” and “Industry” are warp-speed loony-tunes jaw droppers.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | A reissue of Ian F. Svenonius’s cult-classic debut essay collection, including brand-new writing in this expanded edition.

A new, expanded collection of essays and articles from one of the mainstays of the Washington, DC, underground rock and roll scene, The Psychic Soviet is Ian F. Svenonius’s groundbreaking first book of writings. The selections are written in a lettered yet engaging style, filled with parody and biting humor that subvert capitalist culture, and cover such topics as the ascent of the DJ as a star, the “cosmic depression” that followed the defeat of the USSR, how Seinfeld caused the bankruptcy of modern pop culture, and the status of rock and roll as a religion. The pocket-sized book is bound with a durable bright-pink plastic cover, recalling the aesthetics of Mao’s Little Red Book, and perfect for carrying into the fray of street battle, classroom, or lunch-counter argument.

Ian F. Svenonius is the author of the underground best sellers The Psychic Soviet, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group, and Censorship Now!! He was also the host of VBS.tv’s Soft Focus, where he interviewed Mark E. Smith, Genesis P. Orridge, Chan Marshall, Ian MacKaye, and others. As a musician he has created more than twenty albums and countless singles in various rock and roll combos (Chain & the Gang, Weird War, The Make-Up, The Nation of Ulysses, etc.).

“In a sense the book is Mr. Svenonius’s love letter to the good old days of do-it-yourself punk concerts, though it’s cleverly disguised as a series of Marxian essays.”
—New York Times

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the documentary American Dharma, Academy Award-winning Director Errol Morris faces off with controversial political strategist and former Donald Trump advisor, Steve Bannon.

Favorably characterized as “gripping,” “rousing,” and “sinister,” Paul Leonard-Morgan’s score for American Dharma adds a dramatic tonal charge to the film’s unsettling subject matter, enveloping Morris’s incisive interrogation of Bannon in tenebrous suspense. Assembling a bricolage of ambient industrial and orchestral flourishes, Leonard-Morgan interlaces a deliberate, undulating sonic texture to acutely critique Bannon’s malignant brand of masculinist demagoguery that the film seeks to expose. The American Dharma Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP Version is now available for pre-order on Light in the Attic Records and will be released on June 5, 2020.

ABOUT PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN | Paul Leonard-Morgan’s unique cinematic style of fusing orchestra with electronica has put him in high demand as a film composer, a producer and arranger for bands, and has led him to win a BAFTA award, and receive Emmy & Ivor Novello nominations.

Prior to working in film, Leonard-Morgan produced and arranged for acts including Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Mogwai, and No Doubt. However, it was his groundbreaking score for Relativity’s Limitless, a paranoia-fueled action thriller starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, that solidified him as a major player in the film music industry and was later nominated for the prestigious World Soundtrack “Discovery of the Year” Award in Ghent. His first Emmy nomination came in 2016 for the CBS TV spinoff of Limitless, helmed by Marc Webb (Spiderman, 500 Days of Summer).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Nearly 40 years since the release of their last album, ABBA are celebrating their entire studio discography with an 8LP box set that features each of their ground-breaking records for the first time on colored vinyl, and with replica LP artwork. Due for release on July 3, ABBA: The Studio Albums is an essential release for fans of one of the greatest pop groups of all time. 

Across eight studio albums released over eight years, ABBA established themselves as a truly boundary-pushing force in music. Dominating the charts throughout the ’70s, and continuing their winning streak into the early ’80s, the Swedish four-piece redefined what pop music was capable of, with each new album charting an astounding artistic progression. Four decades after their last release, 1981’s The Visitors, their music remains a fabric of our culture, with stage shows, cinematic blockbusters, and even themed restaurants bringing ABBA to new generations of fans.

Taken together, these eight albums represent one of the most stunningly creative runs in pop music history, setting the bar for all those who followed in ABBA’s wake.

Included in ABBA: The Studio Albums are:

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“I will never forget the first time I heard music on vinyl. It forever changed the way I hear music which in turn changed my life.”

“It was 2007 and I had just turned 16 and gotten a car. I had also just gotten my first home recording setup for Christmas (a Digidesign 002 for the nerds) and was starting to hear records differently… less as a listener and more as a piece of art that somebody made. At some point I decided to get Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning on vinyl. I think I mostly decided to do this because I wanted to drive across town to the record store (The Disc Exchange) in my new car and tell my friends!

When the record came in I drove to get it and also bought a crappy record player because I didn’t even have one at this point. I remember the few days before this because I had to get some speakers and a receiver as well, so I drove around collecting everything I would need from friends.

One of the big moments came when I returned home from the record store. My dad saw me carrying everything into the house and was blown away by the fact I thought vinyl was cool. He was kind of making fun of me, but also said he had a few records in the attic that I could have so I went and grabbed the ones I recognized. It was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, The Beatles’ “White Album,” and I think a Styx record.

Okay, so I finally got down to the basement where I had my little recording setup. I laid everything out on the floor and eventually figured out how to wire the speakers. This was the moment. For some reason I decided to put an old record on first, I guess to save the moment of listening to Bright Eyes in case something was wrong. I chose Fleetwood Mac… good decision!

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Oliver Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer and bandleader. Oliver was born into a musical family in Missouri (his brother was a saxophonist who played with Cootie Williams in the 1940s, and his sister sang and played piano) so he began learning to play the piano when he was six and started on the saxophone at the age of eleven.

In 1947 Nelson already started playing in local bands in and around the Saint Louis area. After his military service Nelson returned to Missouri to study music composition and theory. Upon completing his education and getting his degree, Oliver moved to New York City, playing with Erskine Hawkins and Wild Bill Davis, and working as the house arranger for the Apollo Theater. In the late 1950s he was the leader of various groups and began recording for Prestige Records. From 1960 to 1961, he played with legendary artists such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington before joining the Quincy Jones big band (touring both in the U.S. and in Europe).

After recording many successful records on various labels he had already made a name for himself as a distinctive composer/ arranger and moved to Los Angeles where he started composing background music for television and films (including large productions such as Columbo and The Six Million Dollar Man). He also arranged Gato Barbieri’s music for Last Tango in Paris.

Next to his own recordings…in the following decade Oliver Nelson has worked as an arranger, writer and instrumentalist on large ensemble albums for artists such as Thelonious Monk, Leon Thomas, Burning Spear, and Louis Armstrong. Next to his Prestige and Impulse! albums he also recorded for big labels such as Capitol, Columbia, and Verve Records. Nelson produced albums for big acts from the likes of James Brown, The Temptations, and Diana Ross. Oliver Nelson’s work was sampled on records by Moby, Beastie Boys, DJ Shadow, J Dilla and countless others. But he is perhaps best remembered for his 1960 Impulse! album The Blues and the Abstract Truth, often regarded as being among the most significant recordings of its era. Oliver Nelson was unfortunately lost to the world of Jazz in 1975 when he died aged 43 from a heart attack. He left us with an impressive legacy…to say the least.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | It’s hard to overstate the importance of Fanny’s 1970 debut album.

For the first time, a group of women (sisters June and Jean Millington, Alice De Buhr and Nickey Barclay) wrote and sang their own songs, played their own instruments and, perhaps most importantly, rocked just as hard as any male band out there. And, as the first all female band signed to a major label (Reprise) and with superstar producer Richard Perry at the board, these four women became perhaps L.A.’s biggest “buzz band,” landing repeated bookings at the Whisky-a-Go-Go with a who’s who of rock’s glitterati in attendance.

But, without a reference point with which to review them, the rock press was less than kind, often dismissing them as a novelty act. Fanny would have to become that reference point, and so they did for the generations of female rockers to come after them, from Joan Jett to Girlschool to Courtney Love and beyond. They were truly the Godmothers of Chick Rock.

Now, Real Gone Music is proud to reissue, for the first time ever on LP, the self-titled debut release from Fanny, complete with the original gatefold album art and in a white vinyl pressing limited to 700 copies.

“My earliest memory of vinyl is a peculiar one, in that it is not associated with a singular moment, but rather tied to a once-a-year family tradition.”

“As a child of the late, late ’90s, vinyl was not a common occurrence in my childhood—the market having been overtaken by tapes, and then CDs. However, there was an annual occasion where my dad would pull out some records, and I remember it well. Growing up in a Catholic household with family ancestry from New Orleans and a father who had lived there for a handful of years, Mardi Gras was a big holiday for us. Every year as a kid I would get excited for king cake, and just as important to the tradition as the food, I would get ready to dance to one song in particular, on vinyl.

It was “Mardi Gras Mambo” by the Hawketts (1954), and this recording became a huge part of my very young childhood, as I remember being 5, 6, and 7 years old and asking my dad to play it over and over again. Being my earliest memory of vinyl, I remember watching him turn on the turntable, pull out the record, and drop the needle, only to pick it up and drop it again and again and again to please my young sisters and I begging to hear it again. Something about it being on vinyl made it even more special: it was ceremonious, dancing, and listening to that song was its own event.

It’s not usual that music is its own event in our lives: it usually exists in the background. Throughout my childhood, I am grateful to remember tons of incredible music—by songwriters that to this day I count as influences like Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Teddy Thompson, etc. However, most of it exists in my memory in the background: as the soundtrack to a lazy Sunday afternoon. As the entertainment for a long car ride to Florida. The music blasting out of the speakers on the patio as my parents pulled weeds in the backyard.

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Since 1997, Finland’s Sasu Ripatti, better known as Vladislav Delay (amongst other handles), has been impacting the electronic scene across numerous substyles and with Jamaican dub a key influence on his overall thing. In 2018, he was a participant in the sessions that produced the Nordub album, alongside the celebrated and inarguably essential Jamaican rhythm section-production team of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. 500-Push-Up, a new record on vinyl and compact disc from the Sub Rosa label, is a reunion combining the rudiments of dub with extensive electronic expansion. A wonderful trip beyond, it’s out May 15 with two bonus tracks on the CD.

Amassing releases that have been tagged as techno, house, glitch, and ambient, Sasu Ripatti is a prolific man. In addition to Vladislav Delay, he’s recorded as Sistol, Uusitalo, Luomo, Conoco, and even under his surname Ripatti, with the music spread across a number of labels, including Mille Plateaux, Huume, Leaf, Staubgold, Halo Cyan, Raster-Noton, ~scape, Semantica and most recently, Cosmo Rhythmatic.

But Ripatti’s considerable output is dwarfed next to the productivity of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, who are cited in Sub Rosa’s promo description for this release as the “most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo.” A look at their stats on Discogs proves sizable enough to quash any debate over the claim. It’s basically a cinch that even casual fans of Jamaican music made in the last quarter of the 20th century have heard the work of Sly and Robbie.

The duo has also played a role in numerous non-Jamaican releases as well, ranging from Bob Dylan to The Fugees to Marianne Faithfull to Joe Cocker to Grace Jones to No Doubt. And as the intro above mentions, Sly and Robbie’s vitality has carried over deep into the new century; in 2018 alone, they have at least five full-length releases where they are co-credited. That includes the Nordub 2LP/ CD cited above, which found them co-billed with Norwegian trumpeter Nils-Petter Molvaer as his countryman Eivind Aarset and Ripatti were featured artists on guitar and electronics, respectively.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Queens, New York based Mike Henneberger is excited to announce the pre-order of his first book and music memoir Rock Bottom at the Renaissance: An Emo Kid’s Journey Through Falling In And Out Of Love In And With New York City. The book is due for an official release on June 9th and is now available for pre-order at rockbottombook.com.

Rock Bottom at the Renaissance is the debut memoir from Mike Henneberger, an Emmy-winning producer and music journalist with credits from Comedy Central, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Spin, and Vice. Though the bulk of the book is set in a hotel room during a weekend of self-imposed isolation and self-destructive introspection, and navigates the dark tunnels of Henneberger’s booze and drug-addled mind, it’s much larger in scope—taking in much of his past. Henneberger tells us of his Texas childhood defined by divorce, sibling rivalry, and an instability that forced him to navigate the most important years of a young man’s life without any sort of compass.

He takes us through his minor successes—touring in bands, launching a magazine, and performing stand-up comedy—as he wonders if the sense of confidence instilled by those accomplishments is actually delusion. We get a glimpse into his time in the U.S. Army, which rather than increase his sense of purpose, only increased his chemical dependencies and triggered mental illness. And at the heart of the book, are Henneberger’s quests to find love, and, perhaps most importantly, his relationship with music and its power to get us through life’s toughest moments.

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“In Halifax, NS where we grew up, there was a small all ages venue called The Pavilion where touring bands would come play every weekend and smaller local bands, usually high school aged bands, would get the opportunity to open.”

“It was really cool for a small city like ours to get all these touring bands from across North America to come play every weekend and even cooler that we’d have the opportunity to open up for these established bands when we were that young.

I worked a part-time job I hated but I’d save up my money so I could get merch from the touring bands coming to town. I was in high school and didn’t have a credit card so it was my only opportunity to get merch from these bands and a lot of them would come with vinyl records.

I didn’t know a whole lot about vinyl but I became addicted. I thought it was really cool to have the artwork as big as it was and most bands packaged something on the inside that you wouldn’t normally find online like an artwork/photo booklet.

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