Monthly Archives: December 2018

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Joe Bataan’s career offers a true All-American success story.

Born on November 15, 1942 to African-American and Filipino parents in Spanish Harlem, Bataan briefly led a street gang and spent time in a correctional facility on a stolen car charge before emerging in the mid ‘60s to author his own unique blend of boogaloo, doo wop, and soul. Bataan’s sound caught the ears of Fania Records, who signed him for a string of eight successful albums before Bataan left to co-found the Salsoul label—he also came up with the name, a combination of salsa and soul—where he recorded three albums, of which this 1975 record was the first.

You’ll hear a little disco and funk mixed in with the salsa and soul on this release, whose “East Coast Side” and “West Coast Side” were recorded on opposite sides of the country. But no matter where Bataan laid down the tracks, he made sure to get the best musicians—playing on Afrofilipino is a veritable Who’s Who of session cats including Richard Tee, John Faddis, Cornell Dupree, Randy Brecker, and David Sanborn.

For the first-ever vinyl reissue of this classic Latin R&B album, we’ve given it a brand-new remastering (by Mike Milchner at SonicVision), and pressed up 1,000 copies in opaque yellow vinyl.

The enchanting new release from multi-instrumentalist Paul Farran aka The Camino Side Project has us feeling bitten by the travel bug.

The product of an extensive world journey, of movement & music is an intoxicating blend of jangling folk, blues, prog rock, Leonard Cohen-esque Zen wisdom, and lovely world instrumentation. Farran’s exquisite collaborations conjure moody, evocative soundscapes, while his deeply inquisitive lyrics prod at the deeper questions life poses, especially when you’re on a life changing trip across the earth with your wife and children.

The LP is a transformative exploration of life and family, documenting his clan’s travels across 4 continents, 11 countries and 14 studios over 18 months. It is imbued with a deep love of companionship and music that spans the four corners of the earth—a deeply personal artistic statement that manages to reflect all the contrast and beauty one would expect from such an extensive, ambitious an often-arduous journey.

The most shameful moment of my sad existence was not the night I came out of a drunken blackout to discover I’d just challenged an NFL-sized brute from my hometown to a fight, then had to literally beg him to not beat me to a pulp. Nor was it the time I ruined Christmas for my then wife by drinking too much sake, accidentally dropping half a gram of perfectly good powdered cocaine into a wet sink, and knocking over the Christmas tree before unceremoniously passing out.

No–and I still blush with horror to think of it–it was the time I ran into Thurston Moore in a Philadelphia record store, and noticing he was flipping through the John Coltrane albums sidled up next to him like an awe-struck schoolgirl and PRETENDED to know nothing about John Coltrane… just so he would talk to me! And this despite the fact that–get this–I wasn’t even a fan!

That was a personal low indeed, and–just to make things worse–I have often taken out my shame over this deplorable personal episode on poor Thurston and his band. After all, it wasn’t his fault I decided to be such a craven suck-up. He was just trying to be helpful.

With that out of the way, please allow me to say this: I still don’t like Sonic Youth very much. Sure I loved 1988’s epic and sonically streamlined Daydream Nation, but it was a stylistic outlier for the band, so to illustrate my aversion let us turn to an earlier (but also much-lauded) LP, 1985’s Bad Moon Rising.

At first glance, Bad Moon Rising has a lot going for it. Groovy scarecrow with blazing pumpkin head on cover, check. Groovy song titles portending cartoon chaos, anomie, and doom, check. Positively groovy Charles Manson tribute featuring the one and only Lydia Lunch, check! I mean, how can you go wrong?

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records is proud to present the 30th Anniversary release of Beetlejuice Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Danny Elfman.

Released in 1988, Beetlejuice is a horror comedy directed by Tim Burton starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, and Alec Baldwin. The plot revolves around a recently deceased young couple who become ghosts haunting their former home. Upon meeting a mischievous ghost named Beetlejuice that claims he can rid the couple of their home’s new inhabitants, a series of hysterical and spooky events occur that take the audience through afterlife limbos, orchestrated dances, and the meeting of lovable ghouls. The film has gone on to become a comedy classic.

The soundtrack by composer Danny Elfman and featuring two tracks by Harry Belafonte is instantly recognizable. Waxwork Records is excited to present the complete soundtrack, remastered, and pressed to 180 gram colored vinyl with deluxe packaging for the 30th Anniversary of the film.

Beetlejuice 30th Anniversary Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Features The Complete Soundtrack Re-Mastered, 180 Gram “Beetlejuice Swirl” Colored Vinyl or 180 gram, Half Black and White Vinyl, Artwork By Justin Erickson of Phantom City Creative, An Art Print, and Deluxe Packaging.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | The remarkable Matthew Sweet, one of the great protagonists of Power Pop of the last quarter of a century, is celebrated by the release of a double CD set featuring two of his finest albums Blue Sky on Mars (1997) and In Reverse (1999).

Produced by Brendan O’Brien and Matthew Sweet, Blue Sky on Mars is a more synthesizer-dominated record than Sweet had cut in a while, but still scores highly on the tune-o-meter, with the likes of the Surf-flavoured “Come To California,” the melodic ballad “Until You Break,” and the chunky “Where Do You Get Love.” By contrast, In Reverse sees Sweet turn his focus on the kind of symphonic pop of Phil Spector, Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, and The Beatles of Magical Mystery Tour. It was the recipient of much critical acclaim at the time of its release (May 2000), and is acknowledged as one of Sweet’s crowning achievements.

Since the release of In Reverse, Sweet has made three very successful collaborative albums with Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, Under The Covers Vols 1—3, as well as releasing several well-received solo albums, including a new album for 2018, Tomorrow’s Daughter. Blue Sky on Mars / In Reverse by Matthew Sweet is a mid-price double CD set released on the Retro World reissue division of North London indie label, Floating World, on Friday, January 18th 2018.

Well, it’s National Just Say Fuck It Day (check your calendar!) and what better time to cobble together a few slapdash comments (you know, in lieu of a real review) about a band I’ve hated since the first time I heard “Roxanne”? So without further ado, here goes!

1. The Irish writer Brendan Behan once quipped, “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse.” Which basically sums up my feelings about this band.

2. The Police’s bread and butter was cultural appropriation. Nothing wrong with that–they were never punks and they had to steal from somebody. I’m listening to 1981’s Ghost in the Machine, and what a sleek machine of cultural appropriation it is! We’re talking an overproduced saloon car with faux reggae seats. And a horn that, instead of honking, plays snazzy jazz horn arrangements.

3. Like most deep spiritual seekers who discover Eastern religion with their penis, the tantric-sex loving Sting has a lot to say about living in the material world. And like most celebrity spiritual types who seek to spread the message of spiritual detachment from the material world, Sting makes me want to seek Vairagya in a cheeseburger.

4. On the very, very reggae (and very, very boring) “One World (Not Three)” Sting sings, “One world is enough for all of us.” I approve the sentiment, I really do, but I would ask that my small parcel of it be sound-proofed.

5. Whenever The Police show up, whether it be at a party or on my car radio, they immediately arrest my fun. And then fail to read it its Miranda rights.

Read More »

Harms is the brainchild of Jake Harms who took a hiatus from his other band, What Moon Things, to create the highly personal debut album Aquarium. His emotionally loaded, forlorn musings evoke late ’80s gothic rock, particularly the work of The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen.

“Car Outside” is the kind of unrequited love song that feels so unbearably lonely, it becomes comforting. Jake’s dire indie pop yarns are spun out over a hypnotic, tape saturated back beat, couched in a bed of jangling, angular acoustic guitars. The sound is pressurized yet languid, making me feel the album’s title, Aquarium, is more of an overall mood than a physical reference to a particular location.

“In the end, as an artist, I’m always hoping that people accept my broken shit and that it resonates and makes people feel closer to the vulnerable parts of themselves,” Harms reflects. Indeed, the vulnerability of his tunes makes for a perfect self-reflective soundtrack and offers an incredibly insightful glimpse into a much less-guarded artistic vision then we are used to hearing from the indie rock world.