AFS v. 237 ~ The Most Adoptable Vinyl Orphans of '09!

Three main spotlights on this AFS...

* The Mattress tour is swinging through the West Coast home-stretch this week!
* Matt K. Shrugg has laid another vinyl-worthy golden egg on ephemeral CDR format!
* Perhaps the most momentous release of the DIY cassette label zeitgeist gets a side-long run!
Check below the playlist for more info on these...

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
or, if you have a slower/20th century connection
STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night!

(Email me if there are any downloading problems, please!)

PHOTOBOOTH | Kill the Weekend | Pretty Baby 7" | Raw Deluxe *new
JOHNNY ILL BAND | The Doctor | self-titled 7" | Kaboodle *new
WICKED AWESOMES | Turbo Future | Punk Holograms | Psychic Handshake *new
MATT K. SHRUGG | When I Fall | Instant Images CDR | Guiness Book of World Records *new
MATT K. SHRUGG | (We Aren't Here for) Yesterday | Mentor to Wall CDR | Guiness Book of World Records 2008
MATT K. SHRUGG | Bullshit Avenue | Instant Images CDR
THE INTELLIGENCE | Mister Children | split 7" w/ Unnatural Helpers | Dirty Knobby *new
UNNATURAL HELPERS | Confidence | split 7" w/ The Intelligence
CACAW | Snakehead | Get a Brain 12" | Permanent *new
ASMUS TIETCHENS & OKKO BECKER | Repartition Concrete | E | Dom 1988
MATTRESS | Lost & Found | Low Blows | Malt Duck *new
BROTMAN & SHORT | This Is Control | Joint Testimony 3" CDR | Hardscrabble Amateurs *new
BLACK MATH | Reading Mysteries | self-titled 7" | Lost Space *new
LOW RED CENTER | Trace Elements | self-titled 10" | SS Records *new
LOW RED CENTER | Test Tube | self-titled CDR | Instincto 2008
PINK NOISE | Flow Into the Void | Graffiti Youth | Kill Shaman *new
PINK NOISE | So Into You
CHROME | Electric Chair | Red Exposure | Beggars Banquet 1980
NOTHING PEOPLE | Boccioni's Mother | Anonymous | SS Records 2008
WHITE NOISE | Your Hidden Dreams | An Electric Storm | Island 1969
PRINCE RAMA OF AYODHYA | Celestial Jewelry | Zetland | no label *new
PRINCE RAMA OF AYODHYA | Suns of Bees
WARM CLIMATE | Lost Teeth/Organ Donor | Edible Homes CS | Stunned 2009
WARM CLIMATE | Cave In
WARM CLIMATE | Edible Homes & Gardens/Synth Pads for the Homeless
MANBOT | Manbot | self-titled 7" | NuVu 1981
ÉL-G | Al-Kado | Tout Ploie | SS Records *new
LITTLE CLAW | Frozen in the Future | Human Taste | Not Not Fun/Ecstatic Peace *new
MILK MUSIC | Pipeline | self-titled CS | no label 2009
STUPID PARTY | Closer | self-titled | Freedom School *new

Mattress is in the final stretch of his 8000-mile tour, so if you are in these Western USA cities and not at Gonerfest in Memphis, go see him! Y'know, he's more like a band now (w/ guitar and drums), but he's still the same anthemic minimal/weird/-wave crooner at the core, and the forthcoming Low Blows album is his best work yet, so surely all the fans of his earlier releases are gonna love it still.

Wed, Sep 23 in Tuscon, AZ
@ Hangart

Thu, Sep 24 in Las Vegas, NV
@ TBA?!?!?

Fri, Sep 25 in Los Angeles, CA
@ L'Keg Gallery
w/ Captain Ahab & Ezra (Gowns)

Sat, Sep 26 in Stockton, CA
@ Pretty Blue Presents Showcase
w/Religious Girls and Casy & Brian

Sun, Sep 27 in Sacramento, CA
@ The Hub
w/ G.Green, Mom, & Subordinate (Clause)

Fri, Oct 2 in Portland, OR
@ Berbati’s
(record release)

Matt K. Shrugg's newest solo CDR is yet another full-fledged should-be-classic if it will ever come out on vinyl. I said that last November, too, when he gave me the Mentor to Wall disc, but as of yet, these are still our secret, I guess. On Instant Images, Matt varies the pacing between his usual manic energy and some deft slower (if only slightly) numbers that point toward Arthur Lee. Its favored foot still pushes off from the familiar 90s territory, but then it propels it forward to the future of garagepunk with some of the niftiest jazz-damaged drumming to still pack a bludgeoning wallop, a couple moments of well-integrated saxophone squalling, and even a foray into advanced mathematics that is just totally WTF?!?!, yet totally perfect. I'll show you that one next week, although it'll surely be unfair to whatever bands I bookend around it. Tonight's sample tastes include what passes for mature balladry (it still smokes, though!) and the most anomalous track--the blippy 8-bit-shambling "Bullshit Avenue"--which seems to carry the special touch of one Lars Finberg of The Intelligence. So, let's say you're among the growing ranks of garage turkeys that's rolling with the changes, but you have your limits to how much pop sweetness or acoustic guitars or boyish charm you can handle. Well, stop complaining about the last however many Jay Reatard records and hitch up to the Matt K. bus. He's still punchy and crunchy as Teengenerate with the animalistic intensity and the VU-meter-pinning production. He doesn't need to punch a fan to show he's the man. It's just that evident in his riffs and in this face-melting sound.

I've had a few fave cassettes of the last few years during this cassette label zeitgeist which is overtaking my shelves, but this one in particular--Edible Homes by Warm Climate--struck me immediately upon first listen as the one cassette release that is most worthy of preservation on a more enduring format such as vinyl. About a dozen listens later, I'm still sure that this is the most momentous cassette-only release of this age, and it will be a damn shame if some discerning record label doesn't issue this properly on vinyl LP. Warm Climate achieves such an incredible mastery of so many moods and styles that it would be uncommon for any band...let alone just one guy in Los Angeles! Fans of Bowie, Comus, NWW, Legendary Pink Dots, and Syd Barrett would all find something to like here. And if you like 'em all, you probably have never heard these elements all so seamlessly combined in such a compelling way. Stunned's artful and precise packaging is also a treat to behold. I gotta grip of late-spring/early-summer tape releases from them, and they all look incredible and sound pretty swell, too. Put me down for one-of-everything-from-now-on!

My crystal ball says that these vinyl orphans are future eBay-gold and touchstone records of this halcyon age which shall be cited as influential by the best bands of tomorrow. If you care about your prestige or like to gloat because you think music must always be a competition, it's not too late to hitch up now and say you were there from the giddy-up (as if that's something you should rightfully take credit for). But only if you really enjoy great music, okay?