Pinhead Gunpowder - West Side Highway

Tender Forever - Wider

Helms Alee - Night Terror

All Girl Summer Fun Band - Looking Into It

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Marnie Stern - This Is It...

Olehole - Hole Mole

sBACH - sBACH

Manda Rin - My DNA

Alias - Resurgam

These Arms Are Snakes - Tail Swallower And Dove

Tim Fite - Fair Ain't Fair

Audrye Sessions EP - Audrye Sessions

Foals - Antidotes

Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night

tip: Best Place To Go In Case Of Zombie Attack: The Big Longs at 51st and Broadway.

Punk Rock Reissues - Flipper / Zero Boys / Blatz & Filth

Water Records finally reissues all the old Flipper albums at once. One of the most creative bands of the original San Francisco punk explosion, Flipper's brutally redundant "sound" is both oppressive in its heaviness and liberating in its originality. Start with Generic, a classic in the art-punk canon, then experience Public Flipper Limited for a pulverizing dose of Flipper live.

In a fit of Midwestern pride, Secretly Canadian reissues the Zero Boys' Vicious Circle. When you talk about Reagan-era hardcore, this band is at the top of the list. While most of their peers slavishly perfected the loud fast rules that turned hardcore into one of the most boring and cliched musical genres ever, Indiana's Zero Boys upped the ante by adding incisive lyrics and hooks that stick in your head for days.

What? The Shit Split is back in print? It's about time. Pick a side to root for (since no one seems to like both sides). Either way, this is the kind of sloppy dirty punk rock that put the East Bay on the map.

Dutchess & the Duke - She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke

"I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar, then it meant that you were a protest singer." Usually indie kids playing at folk makes me want to stick icepicks in my ears. But these two ex-garage rockers (their pedigree includes The Flying Dutchmen and The Intelligence among others) are still flying the flannel despite going (mostly) acoustic. Melancholic songs about ugly situations, desperate times, and occasional redemption are arranged around uncomplicated but interesting melodies, which, despite the acoustic guitars, maintain a sharp rock'n'roll edginess.

Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In

Even John Dwyer's most puerile projects (anyone remember Ziegenbock Kopf?) have not been without a certain element of mad genius. But the latest direction for his deconstructed folk-cum-neo-garage project, Thee Oh Sees, is perhaps Dwyer's most fully realized. The production is drenched in de rigueur reverb and the tell tale sound of his tinny telephone receiver mic is still there, but everything really falls into place on this one. Perhaps it's the mellowing of age, or maybe it's just the development of real craft. Whatever, just do like Thee Oh Sees say and spend some time in their bedroom.

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

The creative resurgence that began with his contributions to the 2003 Fleetwood Mac release, Say You Will, reaches fruition on this excellent record. Buckingham's knack for combining eccentric studio experiments with soaring tunefulness is intact, and a couple of songs featuring John McVie and Mick Fleetwood suggest that a power trio version of Fleetwood Mac would be an exciting new direction.

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Always an excellent musician and singer, Noble Beast finds those skills married to Bird's most consistent set of songs. The result is an album that is distinctly modern but wouldn't sound out of place alongside progressive '70s folkies like John Martyn, Kevin Ayers, or singer-songwriters Paul Simon and Nick Drake.

Lissom - Nest of Iterations

Fennesz's Black Sea is an excellent return to form, and Lissom is the perfect companion. Sheets of hazy electronics form beautiful, mysterious soundscapes where shifting textures and layers reveal bell-like melodies and grainy, crackling space.

The Moore Brothers - Aptos

The continuing maturation of the The Moore Brothers as singers and songwriters is a treat to experience. The glorious harmonies and winding, impressionistic songwriting are intact, framed with excellent help from Kelley Stoltz and others. The comparisons to Robyn Hitchcock, Martin Carthy, Felt, and Simon & Garfunkel remain, but The Moore Brothers are truly themselves now.

Various Artists - Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long

Something about the stark graphic design, lack of liner notes, and vinyl-only status helps make these collections of old time blues, folk, country, and more a real music-centric experience. Instead of a history lesson, collector fetishist box-checking, or Luddite grumpiness we can drop the needle and have the magical, mysterious sounds of the past revealed to us as living expression.

Starfucker - Starfucker

The best thing out of Portland since lumberjacks... Does that make sense?

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Delicious tween pop from Brooklyn.

Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes

Super catchy indie-pop goodness from our neighbors to the North!

Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

My personal favorite of 2008. Own it again, on vinyl!

The Bad Plus - For All I Care

You may remember The Bad Plus for their amazing version of Aphex Twin's "Flim." You will remember them in the future for their breathtaking versions of Nirvana's "Lithium," Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," and The Flaming Lips' "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" among nine other show-stopping tracks.

tip: Check out: Man/Miracle, No'S, Sister Grizzly, and The Dashing Suns. Best bands in the Bay.

Doomtree - Doomtree

Self-Righteous

Hand Over Fist - Hand Over Fist

Self-Destruction

Heiruspecs - Heiruspecs

Self-Improvement

Johnson & Jonson - Johnson & Jonson

Self-Respect

Various Artists - Obsession

Self-Induced

Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night

The Cramps - Live at Napa State Mental Hospital

R.I.P. Lux Interior.

The Daily Void - Identification Code 5271-4984953784-06564

The Nixe - The Nixe: 1980-81

Frustration - Relax

Masshysteri - Var Del Av Stan

Animals & Men - Never Bought, Never Sold

Mo-Dettes - ...The Story So Far...

Einstürzende Neubauten - The Jewels

Miss Ludella Black feat. The Masonics - From This Witness Stand

The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent

I'm a "50 Year Old Man," AH!

Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire - Thatcher's Children

Swann Danger - Swann Danger II 12" EP

Needles - Twisted Vision

Låt den rätte komma in / Let The Right One In

tip: TIP: SEND DONATIONS TO JIM :: PO BOX 11273 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94611.

Encounters At the End of the World

After a chance viewing of some underwater footage shot in Antarctica by musician and scuba diver Henry Kaiser, filmmaker Werner Herzog decided to make the ultimate trip down under and ended up producing this film that explores life on, over, and under the polar ice cap via a number of the residents who populate some of the most extreme terrain on earth. This is no standard "nature" documentary, as Herzog seems as fascinated by the researchers and their stories as the actual wildlife and landscape. As Herzog dryly states early on in his narration, "this film will have no fluffy penguins."

It does, however, have an eclectic collection of people, otherworldly locales, and wildlife that goes from mammoth to microscopic. Amongst the researchers and staff that Herzog encounters during his visit are seal scientists, undersea biologists, vulcanologists, and neutrino hunters, as well as the guy who runs the Frosty-Boy soft-serve ice cream machine at the main Antarctica settlement. Herzog also captures the extremes of the polar environments, from sub-polar ice tunnels where the temperature drops to 70 below to an active volcano that still has a pool of molten magma churning in it. Some of the most amazing footage here was shot under the polar ice by Kaiser and more often than not captures images that would not be out of place in a sci-fi movie. Likewise, a segment on a group of seals includes some of their underwater calls, which sound like a fat-sounding analog synthesizer being randomly triggered-off.

Extra features on the two-disc set include an interview of Herzog by fellow director Jonathan Demme; a commentary track by Herzog, Kaiser, and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger; extra footage shot both above and below the ice; and a South Pole "exorcism." The latter feature also includes some of the free-form psychedelic guitar, of Kaiser who, along with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, scored the original music for the film.

Ry Cooder - The UFO Has Landed

Over 40 years into a career where he's played everything from quirky Asian pop to foot-stomping zydeco, The UFO Has Landed collects some of the best of Ry Cooder's solo efforts and film soundtrack work onto a two-disc, 34-track collection. Selected and sequenced by Cooder's son Joachim, the set leans a little heavier on Cooder's first five albums, where his basic M.O. was to re-imagine forgotten or overlooked songs past and present and put them in new musical settings, drawing on a variety of roots music traditions for jumping off points. Often pigeonholed as a blues player for his deft and nuanced slide playing, Cooder effortlessly weaves influences as diverse as Tex-Mex, Gospel, Hawaiian, and R&B into his music, making it into a seamless whole. Also getting a fair amount of disc space here are selections from Cooder's numerous albums of soundtrack work, including the somber title piece from Paris, Texas. A previously unreleased workout on Wilbert Harrison's Let's Work Together as well as comments on each song from Cooder, make this a must have for fans and not a bad place to start for the uninitiated. Now if they'd only follow this up with a collection of some of his more notable session work, i.e. the Stones, Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, Shoukichi Kina, etc., etc., etc.

Various Artists - Juke Joint Boogie: Country and Rockabilly Classics, Snatch & Grab It: 33 2/3 Edition Rhythm & Blues Classics, Country Boy's Dream : Country, Western, Bluegrass & Instrumental Classics

To celebrate their 33rd anniversary re-issue specialists Bear Family have released these three ultra-cheap ($6.98 + tax), ultra-tasty (vintage country, bluegrass, rockabilly and rhythm & blues,) and ultra filling (33 tracks on each album) collections culled from their extensive catalog. The only downside is that you'll probably want to get full-length albums by many of these artists once you get a listen to these sets.

Various Artists - DR. Boogie Presents Ethnic Authentic Electric: SHIM SHAM SHIMMY

Fantastic 30-track compilation of some of the best post-WWII blues, boogie and jump by a lot of artists you might of heard of and even more of you probably haven't. If you're a fan of early Chess or Sun Records pre-Elvis output this should be in your collection.

Various Artists - 20 Years History - The Very Best of Syllart Productions

Another amazing deal! This time a five CD set of African music from the Syllart record label for less than five bucks a disc. There's one CD each for Senegal, Congo, Mali, West African Dance, and a disc simply titled Roots. There's a wide range of artist and styles here, so while you might not like everything, it's hard to imagine a better collection of African music for the money.

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Feels like you are floating in a vat of futuristic life-giving goo - very dreamy and full of wonderment. You should really give it a listen.

Cool Kids - Bake Sale

Good old-school sounding Hip-Hop with 808-type beats, but for the millennium generation, really. I swear to gosh, you should really try checking it out for at least a second.

Kassin + 2 - Futurismo

The final in a trilogy of albums from the Brazilian trio, where each artist takes a turn at leading the group - including Caetano Veloso's kid Moreno. It has a bit of everything from the vast array of styles Brazil has to offer - that is - from samba to bossa nova, to a bit of psychedelica. Tudo Bem, I really recommend just giving this one a little try.

Tom Zé - Estudando O Pagode - Na Opereta Segregamulher E Amor

This is one of the latest from Tom Zé, a champion of the Tropicalia movement in Brazil. Though it came out around 2005, I only recently checked it out and felt it was worth mentioning, considering it had been registering below my radar and was of the highest quality. It is an operetta filled with varying political interests - check online for synopsis - and contains all kinds of whistles, brays, and electronic glitches for your ear enjoyment. It is a nice piece and you should really try hearing it at some point, if not purchasing it from our store.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

This a fairly popular rock album, and if you haven't heard it already, go and give it a listen - you will be pleasantly surprised by the eclectic sound these two young men manage to create. Please try it, you'll like it.

Moral Orel, Vol. 1: The Unholy Edition

This is from 2005, but I just recently began watching it. Very funny. At first viewing (within a few minutes of the first episode) it seemed to be another agnostic/atheist attempt at bucking a conservative religious upbringing by putting down Christianity. But one must watch further as it is much funnier and more interesting than this initial simple knee-jerk reaction. Great stop-motion animation too. Have fun!

tip: Be at least cordial with one another, it helps the process along.