Minimal Wave Records wrote:
We’re very proud to announce a new release by the UK duo known as The KVB via our sublabel Cititrax. Combining shoegaze guitars, minimal synth melodies, hypnotic drum machine rhythms and reverb drenched vocals, The KVB was first formed in 2010 as the solo project of Klaus Von Barrel. He was later joined by his girlfriend Kat Day, who added synthesizers and abstract visual elements. Their sound can be described as dark, layered, complex and moody – an icy atmosphere juxtaposed by the warmth of distorted guitars.

Aside from actively touring, they have had quite a few releases in this short time span, including a limited edition cassette on FLA Records (“The Black Sun”), a 10” vinyl EP on Downwards Records (“Into The Night”) and two releases on Clan Destine Records (“Subjection/Subordination” and “Always Then”). Inspired by what we heard on these releases along with the recent inclusion of Dayzed on Downward’s So Click Heels Compilation, we felt the time was right to present a full length album of The KVB’s latest material. The record will be pressed on 180 gram ultra clear vinyl, housed in a high gloss printed heavy sleeve, limited to 999 copies. Sound samples linked below.

Aside from the 8 tracks featured on the Immaterial Visions LP, we’re also happy to announce that there will be a limited edition vinyl release of remixes of select tracks from the album. The release will include remixes by Regis, Silent Servant, In Aeternam Vale, and Shifted and will be available as a 12” EP. More news on this soon.
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The Chrome Cranks are renowned for their raw, dark, and fiery live performances, and they were regarded as one of the leading acts in the 1990s punk blues movement in New York City. The Chrome Cranks’ singular brand of dark, unhinged punk blues has been cited as a key influence by a growing number of younger acts, such as The White Stripes and Cat Power. Covers of songs by The Chrome Cranks as done by other bands are relatively commonplace, and several are being assembled into a tribute album tentatively entitled Collision Blues.
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Brand new. Feeling lonely and abandoned 80s style. Hope to here more from Prayers soon. It’s a Nice video clip too.

Ol’ man Eagle is back, floatin’ Apocalyptically on a Whaleheart down the Dream River. Eight gentle percolations fire the pressure-cooker of life, dialing us into the Callahanian mind- and soul-set. Deep like aqua, soulful like man and animal alike.
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Trigger on savingcountrymusic.com wrote:”Yes, yes, and yes!

No ladies and gentlemen, Western Swing is not dead; not when Davy Jay Sparrow is on the job, doing his level best to keep the distinguished country music sub-genre fresh and fun by forging ahead with his fast-paced and frolicking take on one of country music’s original modes.

davy-jay-sparrow-all-nite-longSince Sparrow released his last album Olde Fashioned, he’s migrated west from Indiana to Portland, OR and traded in his “Well Known Famous Drovers” for a gaggle of “Western Songbirds”. Together they have released a stellar and entertaining album called All Nite Long complete with dancing horn sections, Sparrow’s spellbinding vocal acrobatics, 11 all new original songs, and two delicious traditionals. Put it all together and you have one of the most entertaining albums released so far in 2013.”
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Chris Kelsey wrote on AMG: “Free jazz has not produced many notable guitarists. Experimental musicians drawn to the guitar have had few jazz role models; consequently, they’ve typically looked to rock-based players for inspiration. James “Blood” Ulmer is one of the few exceptions — an outside guitarist who has forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer is an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman’s vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which essentially subverts jazz’s harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint. Ulmer plays with a stuttering, vocalic attack; his lines are frequently texturally and chordally based, inflected with the accent of a soul-jazz tenor saxophonist. That’s not to say his sound is untouched by the rock tradition — the influence of Jimi Hendrix on Ulmer is strong — but it’s mixed with blues, funk, and free jazz elements. The resultant music is an expressive, hard-edged, loudly amplified hybrid that is, at its best, on a level with the finest of the Harmolodic school.”
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When we spoke with Jonathan Rado from a Minneapolis hospital last month, he was having a pretty hard week. Physically speaking, Rado was in good health—he was at the hospital to visit his Foxygen bandmate Sam France, who had broken his leg onstage the previous night only a few minutes into the performance. The broken leg was one of a handful of crises on Rado’s plate that week, as headlines circulated about a tell-all Tumblr post from a former touring vocalist, a festival “meltdown,” and a subsequent string of canceled festival dates while France’s leg healed. While this particular week was probably one of Rado’s most stressful in recent memory, scrutiny from the music press is familiar to him and his band.

When we do get around to the purpose of the call, his upcoming solo record Law and Order, Rado describes the album and its writing process as “stuff I would laugh at” and that he “doesn’t think much about it at all.” It’s easy to take those pull quotes out of context, but he’s actually describing a pretty organic songwriting and home recording practice, which takes place entirely—including a full drum set—in his current bedroom in New York and his childhood room in California.
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Black Joe Lewis, the Austin-based screaming-soul guitar player that won us over with help from his band The Honeybears on 2009’s Tell ’Em What Your Name Is, is back with his first album since 2011.

Eight of the tracks on the album, entitled Electric Slave, were recorded at Austin’s own Church House Studios and produced by Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Cat Power), while the additional three songs were recorded at Elmwood Studios in Dallas and produced by John Congleton (Explosions in the Sky, St. Vincent).
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In 1979, JOHNNY THUNDERS, legendary Heartbreakers and New York Dolls guitarist, teamed up with WAYNE KRAMER, also legendary guitarist of Detroit’s seminal MC5, to form ‘GANG WAR’, an alliance that lasted the best part of a year. Although Gang War released no records and at the time they got little attention, in retrospect the collaboration is looked on as a ‘rock fantasy’ supergroup. These live recordings bear testimony to this unique partnership between two renowned rock guitar icons.

Gang War came about shortly after Johnny released his ‘So Alone’ album, and Wayne was not long out of jail after serving two years of a sentence of four for a coke bust. Arriving in Detroit with the Heartbreakers, Johnny met his teenage idol Wayne who jammed with them at the gig. Johnny stayed on, moving his family to Michigan and pledging his future to Gang War. They toured regularly and recorded a couple of demos with a view to getting a deal, but they couldn’t get record company interest and after eight or nine months they split.

Thomas Paul ‘Tompall’ Glaser (September 3, 1933 – August 13, 2013) was an American country music artist. He was born in Spalding, Nebraska in 1933.[1]Active since the 1950s, he recorded solo artist and with his brothers Chuck and Jim in the trio Tompall & the Glaser Brothers. Tompall Glaser’s highest-charting solo single was Shel Silverstein’s “Put Another Log on the Fire”, which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts in 1975 and appeared with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Jessi Colter on the album Wanted! The Outlaws. The Glaser Bros. also were back-up singers for Marty Robbins in the 1950s. Glaser died August 13, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, after a long illness.
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