Vinyl Pressing available now on Bandamp! Three long years have passed since The Evanstones last release. Three years of toil and sweat and horrible smells. Now, by popular demand, and as was predicted in the scrolls, The Evanstones bring you more of what you, the discerning listener, didn’t even know you were craving so desperately. But you were. Oh yes, you were. And we here at Evanstones world HQ heard your silent pleas, even before you plead them and responded with great haste combined with glacial deliberation to bring you what many are predicted to call the Surf Album of the Decade! Or at least some of you.
New vinyl pressing: HILL SPIRITS are an energetic folk quintet from the fabled hills of southern Ohio. While at some points boisterously uplifting and at other times stirringly mystical, Hill Spirits have become known for their passionate live energy and wholesale love for lifting their voices in song together. Based in Athens, Ohio, the group has forged deep musical bonds over the course of a decade in a multitude of musical projects ranging in sound from psychedelic rock to acoustic to neo-soul, eventually finding home in the Appalachian folk modes of their forebearers. In the course of their work diving into the revival of both Americana and old-world folk styles, Hill Spirits seem to have found a way to communicate with other realms, creating spaces during performances that summon restless spirits to join in a spirit-dance.
Hill Spirits’ self-titled debut album is a showcase of the kind of original songs that set them apart from the contemporary folk scene. Drawing on the inspiration of characters from fable and American folk history, the album visits a grown-up gun-blazing Red Riding Hood in the bawdy “Red Rider” and an indentured Irish-American Civil War soldier in the heart-wrenching “Giving Hand”. An energized fiddle wails and reigns supreme in sentimental “Cold Frosty Mornin” and thunderous “Elzics Farewell”, and a sultry rhythmic swagger takes the reins in “Out with the Gaslamps”.
Hill Spirits are Kyle Lyons (Knux) on banjo, Eric (the Reverend) Osborne on fiddle, George Joseph van Fossen (Old Dutch) on upright bass, Benjamin Stewart (O’Burteen) on guitar and mandolin, and Brother Hill on lead vocals, guitar, and Irish bodhran.
In addition to the new album, be sure to check out the Hill Spirits Gin available from West End Distillery in Athens, Ohio (if that’s your tipple). Hill Spirits was the first band we have worked with to pick up their own records via a private airplane – kudos!
Blues music is revered for its timelessness. The best blues – no matter how old – sounds as fresh and visceral today as it did when first recorded. The high-energy electric blues trio GA-20 – guitarist Matt Stubbs, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman – know this well. The band’s dynamic self-penned songs sound and feel as fresh and real as the old blues they love and perform, including songs by Otis Rush, J.B. Lenoir, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells and especially their favorite, Hound Dog Taylor.
Legendary six-fingered Chicago bluesman Theodore Roosevelt “Hound Dog” Taylor always knew how he wanted to be remembered, declaring, “When I die they’ll say, ‘he couldn’t play shit, but he sure made it sound good!’” His first full length recording in 1971 was also the first album on now world-famous Alligator Records, Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers. In fact, label president Bruce Iglauer founded Alligator for the sole purpose of recording and releasing that album.
Now, Colemine Records – working in partnership with Alligator Records – will release GA-20’s new full-length album, Try It…You Might Like It! GA-20 Does Hound Dog Taylor, featuring 10 songs written or performed by the Chicago blues legend. From the fiery first single and album opener “She’s Gone” to the blistering “Sadie” to the all-time Hound Dog classic “Give Me Back My Wig”, GA-20 deliver one electrifying track after another.
Cub Scout Bowling Pins hop in the “Magic Taxi”, turn on the AM radio and time travel 40-45 years back in time for Clang Clang Ho! The project is mysteriously presented, but it’s a thinly-veiled alias of the ridiculously prolific and talented Guided By Voices. Minus the usual punk & prog influences, there are strong whiffs of bubble gum, psych and soft rock with sugary doses of ornate baroque pop.
In the fateful year of 2020, Vincent John and Maxwell Perla of Eraserhood Sound were fortunate enough to stumble upon the score to the long lost, never completed 1974 Italian film Riblle Di Mare. It was not long before they realized they had discovered an opus, written by legendary film composer Sandro Galileo in what was to be his final soundtrack. Only it never came to pass. The film was abandoned before it could be completed, and the ashes of Galileo’s final work were swept aside and forgotten. Until today. Eraserhood Sound is proud to present Ribelle Di Mare in all its glory, produced and performed by house band Fantasy 15 in their signature “Synth & Soul” sound. Enjoy the nine stunning tracks that follow, which range in style from dramatic Philly Soul balladry, Spaghetti Western r&b, and Italian library funk.
On Mixed Up, Four80East took a selection of classic tracks from our cellar, distilled them to their essence, then infused them with House flavors to create a contemporary mix that’s bold yet smooth. Grab it while this limited edition 180 gram vinyl pressing is still available!
Until Real Gone Music reissued it in early 2021, The Outer Limits had only come out briefly on vinyl in Europe. This album offers the unique blend of atonal riffs, off-time tempo changes, and sci-fi imagery that made this Quebec band such a shining star in the Canadian metal scene. The Outer Limits features a great cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Nile Song’ (Voïvod had covered ‘Astronomy Domine’ on their 1989 album Nothingface), but without question the album’s centerpiece is the winding 17-minute song ‘Jack Luminous,’ which is something of a prog-rock masterpiece. This reissue comes with a jacket and inner sleeve boasting lyrics and drummer Michel Langevin’s illustrations.
Enterprising composer and musician Eddie Suzuki made his own path throughout his lifetime. Born on October 4, 1929, Suzuki worked as a young shoeshiner in 1940s Honolulu, saving enough money to take piano lessons. In high school, he lead a big band orchestra of 16, and sometimes up to 40 members. By the age of 18, he owned a piano shop that pivoted to become Honolulu’s top guitar store.
For Eddie Suzuki, music always came first. In 1973, after performing and composing songs for many years, Eddie Suzuki and his group, New Hawaii, recorded the now impossibly rare album, High Tide.
The LP is “not a rock-out”, local music journalist Wayne Harada ruminated in a 1973 review. “Rather, it’s one man’s vision — and version — of the now Hawaii.” A seasoned mix of psych, Hawaiian, and pop sensibilities, the music on High Tide gave the listener a look into Eddie’s singular vision celebrating the sights and sounds (and spirit) of Hawaii.
AGS-036 from Aloha Got Soul highlights two top tunes from the album. “City of Refuge”, an island psych rock rarity that burns blissfully like the Hawaiian sun. “Fly To Waikiki”, a playful, romanced tune about Hawaii’s most famous destination.
Eddie Suzuki’s New Hawaii: Laurence Harada, guitar John Schulmeister, bass Gary Fittro, drums Nani Kuaiwa, vocals Eddie Suzuki, vocals, Hammond organ, Arp synthesizer.
New Vinyl pressing! The Dap-Kings’ electro-sax space warrior returns with a groove-heavy sequel to All My Relations, Vol. II: Baca Sewa, an expressive, transcendental voyage through the archives of his indigenous roots and beyond. Drawing on ancestral memories and family histories to wrap new flesh around the bones of history, this album is a bold, semi-autobiographical work that leads us deeper into the annals of family histories, mythology and the cultural imaginary.
“Baca Sewa” is Cochemea’s original family name prior to Spanish colonization. The melody was composed by Anthony Gastelum and features vocals and drumming by the Baca Sewa Singers- a group composed of several generations of family members. The album runs thick with sonic tributes and remembrances. “Chito’s Song” is a contemplative, ethereal tribute to a beloved uncle. “Curandera” conjures the memory of the irrepressible healing power of medicine women. “Black Pearl” recalls his great grandfather, heir to a legacy of indigenous peoples enslaved as pearl divers in the Sea of Cortez.
Leading a 7-piece ensemble composed of New York’s top percussionists and members of Daptone’s rhythm section, Cochemea has created his own world of emotional textures and rhythmic possibilities, a musical and spiritual synthesis made possible through his deep reverence of the horn and the music and traditions preceding him. Vol II: Baca Sewa – is an offering and continuation of Cochemea’s explorations, part of a musical process of cultural reclamation and healing through connection, relations, memory and imagination.
New independent artist vinyl pressing! Alexandra Riorden’s debut LP Angel City Radio is an abstract chronicle of the tumultuous healing process one endures after experiencing trauma, wrapped in a smoke-scented velvet curtain of shimmering indie-rock. Progressing like a Lynchian dream sequence, each song on the record takes the listener down a different hallway in the labyrinth that is recovery; some dark & menacing, others somber & reflective, but all moving towards empowerment and self-reliance. “The process of healing is not linear, it’s cyclical,” says Riorden. “You experience a trauma and then a lot of different things come up and you hopefully make progress, but it’s not just like it’s over and you’re done. Things come up again and again, but every time they do you’re getting stronger and making strides towards healing.”
After tracking the record with co-producer Max Collier Goldenstein, Riorden worked with mixing engineer Jason Quever (Beach House, Mikael Cronin, Cass McCombs) and mastering engineer Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Haley Heynderickx, Grouper) to smooth the edges and shape Angel City Radio into an ethereal psych-pop masterpiece.
While healing inherently stems from a place of darkness, Riorden navigates the process with an air of hopefulness throughout Angel City Radio, never lingering in the dark too long and always moving towards something more empowering. The album is less despairing and more a journey of self-love, reassurance, and finding trust in the world.
