WORLD FAMOUS NYC NOISE ROCK TRIO TO DROP NEW ALBUM “WRECK” ON MARCH 20, 2012!

      Legendary NYC rock powerhouse UNSANE has completed work on its long awaited new album, titled “WRECK“. The seventh full length recording of the band’s storied career will see a March 20, 2012 release date via Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Today, Decibel premieres the brand new UNSANE track “Ghost“, noting that the song “perfectly captures the tension, brutality and nervy edge” of the band’s celebrated live performances. Check out the Decibel premiere of UNSANE‘s “Ghost” at this location!

Pitchfork recently gave music fans a first-listen to the new UNSANE record, premiering the heavy-handed new song “No Chance” – check it out now at this location!

Posted in: song premieres on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

San Francisco Shoegazing Six Piece Shapes Sensational Sonic Soundscapes; Set to Release New LP “Pipe Dreams” on March 13!

Bay Area post-shoegaze sextet WHIRR will release its debut full length Pipe Dreams on March 13 via Tee Pee Records. Recorded in Palo Alto, CA at The Atomic Garden (Grayceon, Rocky Votolato) the ten song effort generates suspenseful songs of soothing, razor sharp guitar textures backed by soft, cooling vocals. Today, Pitchfork gives music fans a first-listen to the new WHIRR material, premiering the new song “Home Is Where My Head Is” while calling the band “lush, dreamy noise-pop”. Check out the Pitchfork premiere of WHIRR‘s “Home Is Where My Head Is” now at this location!

WHIRR‘s celestial sound has been described as “if My Bloody Valentine decided to cooperate with Sonic Youth” and has drawn comparison to influential acts such as Slowdive, Lush, Ride and The Cocteau Twins. With Pipe Dreams, the band’s supercharged spirit rejuvenates the ’90s shoegaze sound, providing a widescreen update for the post-millennial era.  WHIRR‘s wall of lush guitars, breathy vocals, dreamy synth and thunderous drumming propel listening ears into a near-cinematic realm where instantly catchy melodies and emotional, enveloping atmospheres hang perfectly in the balance.  The sound of WHIRR is a totalizing crush when texture and volume hit perfect balance and bright pop melodies wander through dark, dense guitar noise.  Twenty years after My Bloody Valentine awed music fans with its now-classic “Loveless” LP, WHIRR takes hold of the reins and let’s its fluid, immaculate surge of drones and reverberations light the way.

“We’re all really excited about how the record turned out and are excited for people to hear it.” says WHIRR guitarist Nick Bassett.  “Pipe Dreams is far superior to our previous music in many ways. It’s much more dynamic and diverse, and the songwriting has matured greatly.”

The track listing for WHIRR‘s Pipe Dreams is as follows:

1.) Reverse
2.) Junebouvier
3.) Bogus
4.) Flashback
5.) Formulas and Frequencies
6.) Home Is Where My Head Is
7.) Toss
8.) Hide
9.) Wait
10.) Reverie

WHIRR has also announced U.S. tour dates in support of Pipe Dreams, leading up to an appearance at the 2012 SXSW Festival in Austin, TX. The live dates are as follows:

March 9     Los Angeles, CA    The Smell (w/ DNF, Deafheaven & Marriages)
March 10   Phoenix, AZ             The Trunk Space (w/ Deafheaven & Marriages)
March 11   El Paso, TX              Low Brow (w/ Deafheaven & Marriages)
March 13   Denton, TX               Rubber Gloves (w/ Deafheaven & Marriages)
March 14   Austin, TX                 SXSW
March 15   Austin, TX                 SXSW
March 16   Austin, TX                 SXSW
March 17   Austin, TX                 SXSW @ Iron Bear (121 West 8th St. & Colorado)
March 18   Austin, TX                 SXSW
March 20   Albuquerque, NM   Gasworks

“a true-sounding neo-shoegaze group. They’ve taken the melodies and textures from the shoegaze genre and stylings and pushed them forward with a punk sensibility.  Needless to say, I am hooked.” - THE FIRST FIVE

“shoegazey gorgeousness” – BROOKLYN VEGAN

     ”Recommended if you like My Bloody Valentine & Slowdive.” - ALTERNAPOP

     “(Whirr) are more than aware that you can easily turn your guitars up full and ride a distortion pedal until your ears bleed but it won’t account for anything without that underlying melody that pulls every piece inwards, succeeding in a formula of unforgettable hook-laden tracks.” – BLIPSTYLE

     “they have set the bar extremely high. It’s shoegaze. It’s loud as fuck. It’s really good.” - ABSOLUTE PUNK

 ”Although barely a year old, Californian six-piece Whirl seem as if they’ve been playing together most of their lives, cocooned away honing their sound waiting for the right time to unleash their carefully orchestrated wares.” – DROWNED IN SOUND

Posted in: Featured, song premieres, TEE PEE RECORDS on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Los Angeles psychedelic prog-rock band ANCESTORS will release its new album In Dreams and Time on April 10 via Tee Pee Records. Recorded in east LA’s Infrasonic Sound (Queens of the Stone Age, Best Coast, Xasthur), the record showcases the band’s most accomplished music to date and a creative sound that morphs from thunderous cacophony to soul-searching peaks and valleys as towering riffs collide with bleak beauty and deep wells of light and dark.

“In Dreams and Time’ feels like the culmination of everything we’ve done so far,” says ANCESTORS guitarist Justin Maranga.  ”The record incorporates elements of everything that we’ve come to feel that Ancestors is, as well as new things that we’ve never tried. We’re hoping that it will tie together fans of our previous albums “Neptune With Fire”, “Of Sound Mind” and “Invisible White” who may or may not have connected one release or the other, while hopefully helping us reach a new audience.  We’re excited about it.”

     ANCESTORS formed in 2006 and instead of “choosing between prog rock or heavy rock,” merged the styles to create music rife with atmosphere, tension and raw human emotion.  On In Dreams and Time, the band fuses the primal aggression of their earlier work with the advanced dynamic sensibilities of the new, gazing into the infinite horizon to provide innovative, atmospheric thinking-man’s music.  From the moment the album’s lead track “Whispers” comes on like a collapsing star, SoCal’s reigning kings of heavy psych unleash spacious, bombastic sound that unveils layer upon layer of vintage tones, spectral atmospheres, skin-crawling ambience and swirling keyboard swell over a body of crushing, full-contact rock.  A record of limitless depth, In Dreams and Time swings from the exceedingly beautiful to the punishingly physical in seconds flat.

The track listing for ANCESTORS’ In Dreams and Time is as follows:

1.) Whispers
2.) The Last Return
3.) Corryvreckan
4.) On the Wind
5.) Running in Circles
6.) First Light
ANCESTORS have also announced the addition of new drummer Daniel Pouliot (Horse the Band, ex-Bleeding Kansas) to its ranks and have been confirmed for both the 2012 Desertfest and the 2012 Roadburn Festival, where the band will share the stage with Killing Joke, Michael Gira, Chelsea Wolfe and more.  

In addition to Maranga and Pouliot, ANCESTORS features Nick Long (Bass, Vocals), Jason Watkins (Organ, Piano and Vocals) and Matt Barks (Moog & Modular Synthesizers and Vocals).

Posted in: New Albums, TEE PEE RECORDS on Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Legendary NYC rock powerhouse UNSANE has completed work on its long awaited new album, titled “WRECK“. The seventh full length recording of the band’s storied career will see a March 20, 2012 release date via Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Today, Pitchfork gives music fans a first-listen to the new UNSANE record, premiering the heavy-handed new song “No Chance” – check it out now at this location!

Posted in: Featured, song premieres on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

AWARD-WINNING HARD ROCK TRIO JOURNEYS TO “THE WITCH CITY” TO RECORD NEW LP

Oakland, CA hard rock band HIGH ON FIRE has entered Salem, Massachusetts’ GodCity Studios to begin tracking their as-yet-untitled new album. The world renowned group featuring drummer Des Kensel, bassist Jeff Matz and guitarist / vocalist Matt Pike (also of legendary stoner metal trio SLEEP) is collaborating with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou on the new effort; the band’s sixth studio recording and follow up to 2010′s Snakes for the Divine which debuted at #62 on the Billboard Top 200 and has been called “wonderful” by The New York Times and “an exhilarating rush” by The Chicago Tribune.  A mid-2012 release date is expected via eOne Music.

“We are really stoked about recording this album,” said Jeff Matz when asked for comment. “The new songs are turning out absolutely punishing; there are some seriously sledgehammer riffs on this one!  Working with Kurt has been awesome as well.  He’s super easy to work with and is full of good ideas. The sounds that the guy gets are ridiculous and raw as f*ck but also clear and HUGE. I think this album will capture the essence of the band really well. It’s still early in the process, but so far it’s sounding amazing.”       

     HIGH ON FIRE‘s work on the new album follows more than a year and a half of world touring in support of Snakes for the Divine which included multiple North American headlining jaunts and international festival appearances as well as tours alongside friends and peers in Metallica, Slayer, Mastodon and The Melvins, the latter of which saw the trio caught in both the February 22, 2010 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand and the powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami in Tokyo, Japan on March 11. The popular U.S. group was unharmed, but shaken after surviving its second natural disaster in sixteen days and was able to return to its native Oakland a few days later.  NBC Bay Area spoke with HIGH ON FIRE frontman Matt Pike following the Christchurch earthquake.  That interview can be seen at this location.

     Tentative song titles from the new HIGH ON FIRE LP include “Serums of Liao“, “Madness of an Architect“, “De Vermis Mysteriis“, “Spiritual Rites” and “Warhorn“. Early reports mark the new record as “direct, eye-opening and powerfully supernatural.”  More details on the album will be made available in the coming weeks.    

“a beautiful, untamable kind of band” - THE NEW YORK TIMES

     “These Bay Area lifers have so fully internalized metal’s sweep that the genre’s catalog could go up in flames, and as long as the transcendentally intense “Snakes” survived, we’d be able to reverse-engineer the music’s history.” – SPIN

     “music heavy enough to unbalance the Earth’s rotation…Pike is one of the best guitarists you will ever hear…one the best live bands you will ever see.”   - CHICAGO TRIBUNE

         ”High on Fire are the sort of band who put devils or skulls or snake-demon ladies on their album covers just because those things are awesome, not because they illustrate any larger cultural point.  And five albums in, they’re very, very good at generating awesome on demand…High on Fire do it right.” - PITCHFORK

         ”it’s not often something rocks this hard…stadium-sized” - STEREOGUM

     “magnificent…one of the best bands in the business.” - THE ONION

      ”a band that eats Motorhead, drinks Sabbath, and bleeds Slayer, and Snakes for the Divine proves that they are at the absolute pinnacle of their game” - SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

      “High on Fire are the new Mötörhead. The trio never falter” - ALTERNATIVE PRESS

       “majestic…monolithic-sounding…on the cusp of attracting a much larger audience than ever before.” - POPMATTERS

      ”Oakland’s (and possibly Earth’s) heaviest band, High on Fire, is ready for its close-up.” – SF WEEKLY

Posted in: Featured, New Albums on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Bay Area post-shoegaze sextet WHIRR will release its debut full length Pipe Dreams on March 13 via Tee Pee Records. Recorded in Palo Alto, CA at The Atomic Garden (Grayceon, Rocky Votolato) the ten song effort generates suspenseful songs of soothing, razor sharp guitar textures backed by soft, cooling vocals.

WHIRR‘s celestial sound has been described as “if My Bloody Valentine decided to cooperate with Sonic Youth” and has drawn comparison to influential acts such as Slowdive, Lush, Ride and The Cocteau Twins. With Pipe Dreams, the band’s supercharged spirit rejuvenates the ’90s shoegaze sound, providing a widescreen update for the post-millennial era.  WHIRR‘s wall of lush guitars, breathy vocals, dreamy synth and thunderous drumming propel listening ears into a near-cinematic realm where instantly catchy melodies and emotional, enveloping atmospheres hang perfectly in the balance.  The sound of WHIRR is a totalizing crush when texture and volume hit perfect balance and bright pop melodies wander through dark, dense guitar noise.  Twenty years after My Bloody Valentine awed music fans with its now-classic “Loveless” LP, WHIRR takes hold of the reins and let’s its fluid, immaculate surge of drones and reverberations light the way.

“We’re all really excited about how the record turned out and are excited for people to hear it.” says WHIRR guitarist Nick Bassett (also of San Francisco black metal band Deafheaven, whose debut album “Roads to Judah” was named as one of NPR’s “Best Metal Albums Of 2011″).  “Pipe Dreams is far superior to our previous music in many ways. It’s much more dynamic and diverse, and the songwriting has matured greatly.”

The track listing for WHIRR‘s Pipe Dreams is as follows:

1.) Reverse
2.) Junebouvier
3.) Bogus
4.) Flashback
5.) Formulas and Frequencies
6.) Home Is Where My Head Is
7.) Toss
8.) Hide
9.) Wait
10.) Reverie

WHIRR will announce spring U.S. tour dates in support of Pipe Dreams imminently.  The band is expected to make an appearance at the 2012 SXSW Festival in Austin, TX in addition.

WHIRR features Nick Bassett (guitar), Joseph Bautista (guitar), Alexandra Morte (vocals / keys), Sergio Miranda (drums), Loren Rivera (guitar / vocals) and Eddie Salgado (bass).

     ”a true-sounding neo-shoegaze group. They’ve taken the melodies and textures from the shoegaze genre and stylings and pushed them forward with a punk sensibility.  Needless to say, I am hooked.” - THE FIRST FIVE
     “shoegazey gorgeousness” – BROOKLYN VEGAN 

“Recommended if you like My Bloody Valentine & Slowdive.”- ALTERNAPOP

“(Whirr) are more than aware that you can easily turn your guitars up full and ride a distortion pedal until your ears bleed but it won’t account for anything without that underlying melody that pulls every piece inwards, succeeding in a formula of unforgettable hook-laden tracks.” – BLIPSTYLE

“they have set the bar extremely high. It’s shoegaze. It’s loud as fuck. It’s really good.” - ABSOLUTE PUNK

“Although barely a year old, Californian six-piece Whirl seem as if they’ve been playing together most of their lives, cocooned away honing their sound waiting for the right time to unleash their carefully orchestrated wares.” - DROWNED IN SOUND

Posted in: Featured, New Albums, TEE PEE RECORDS on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Austin, TX psychedelic garage rockers THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY have signed with NYC’s Tee Pee Records and will release their self-titled debut The Saint James Society on February 7, 2012.  Recorded at ATX’s Cacophony Recorders (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, Roky Erickson), the four song EP delivers electric rock music that brilliantly connects the dots between the late ’60s British blues-based bands and the brooding atmosphere of early ’80s post punk resulting in a hypnotically powerful sound the fabulous five-piece has coined “Pentecostal Desert Glam“.  Today, The Austin Chronicle premieres the quintet’s new music video “Reflections“, calling the band’s sound “three-mile-wide psych rock”. The video was lensed by Adam Schlender for Sneaky Giants Productions and was shot at east Austin night spot Cheer Up Charlie’s, deftly capturing THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY‘s bombastic live performance.  Check out TSJS’ “Reflections” video now at this location!

“We had no idea Adam was shooting video. I had invited him to come shoot stills for our press kit,” says THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY vocalist / bassist Brandon Burkart. Then he just let the live feed rip and we were left with a tripped out video of an actual live performance. He was able to film what it feels like inside of our collective head. Talented guy…”

THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY fuses a “raw energy” sound with the pseudo-mysticism of The Doors and the guitar-orchestrations of classic hard rock, skillfully synthesizing these musical touchstones to create their debut EP.  An energized recording bursting with a muscularity as fuzzy-headed and adventurous as their off-stage exploits, the group’s darkly iridescent, kill-your-idols vibe is a fist-punching yelp of energy that demands to be heard at maximum volume.  When the swagger of front man Brandon Burkart aligns with the band’s heavy-footed rhythms, ticking-time-bomb beat and stunning twin vocal tandem of rebel queens Elza Burkart and Candice Bertalan, the resulting musical statement mainlines the thrill of defiance straight to the listener’s heart.  Placing their steps in the petrified footprints left by the Velvet Underground and the slightly fresher ones of Spacemen 3, THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY reduces the blues to one nasty lick pickled in distortion.  Meet your new favorite band.

“A long road led from San Francisco to Austin, with melodies summoned from litter and glitter,” Burkart dishes. “The Saint James Society erupted into the eternal evening. We are Pentecostal Desert Glam for the dawn of the apocalypse.”

The track listing for The Saint James Society is as follows:

1.) Reflections
2.) The Ballad of the White Horse
3.) Of Silver & Gold
4.) The Devil, an Angel and a Broken Window

The Saint James Society is available for pre-order purchase HERE and HERE.

THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY will take its “big show” on the road, kicking off a month long U.S. tour this Friday in Albuquerque, NM.  Tickets in each city will cost no more that $5 with select free shows along the way and many of the gigs will be “all ages” efforts so that as many music fans as possible can catch this fast-rising Austin band’s potent live performances. The 30 date trek is shaping up as follows:

February 3      Albuquerque, NM      Orchid Chamber
February 4      Phoenix, AZ                Lost Leaf / No Cover!
February 5      Prescott, AZ                Lyzzards Prescott
February 6      San Diego, CA           Ruby Room
February 7      Los Angeles, CA       The Three of Clubs
February 8      Santa Monica, CA      TRiP / no cover!
February 9      Atascadero, CA          Last Stage West / All ages // No cover!
February 10    San Francisco, CA    Bottom of the Hill (w Orchid, Castle, & High Horse)
February 11    Arcata, CA                   The Alibi / No Cover!
February 13    Chico CA                     The Maltese / No Cover!
February 15    Eugene OR                 Luckey’s Club Cigar Store
February 16    Astoria, OR                  Hazel’s Tavern
February 18    Seattle, WA                 Comet Tavern
February 19    Moscow, ID                 John’s Alley
February 20    Boise, ID                     The Bouquet
February 22    Las Vegas, NV           Beauty Bar
February 23    Las Vegas NV            Double Down
February 24    Albuquerque, NM      Winning Coffee / all ages // no cover!
February 25    Santa Fe, NM             Cowgirl BBQ
February 26    Amarillo, TX                The 806 Lounge / All ages // no cover!
February 27    Dallas, TX                   2826 Arnetic
March 4           Austin, TX                    Cheer Up Charlie’s (w/  The Ripe, Black Tabs, The Pushmen, and more!)

Posted in: TEE PEE RECORDS, video premieres on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Legendary NYC rock powerhouse UNSANE has completed work on its long awaited new album, titled “WRECK“. The seventh full length recording of the band’s storied career will see a March 20, 2012 release date via Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label.

Recorded by the band and producer Andrew Schneider at Brooklyn’s Translator Audio (Pelican, Keelhaul, etc.), “WRECK” is an unfettered burst of pent up emotions and frustrations channeled into song and an unflinching glance into a type of life others probably should not lead.  From the shock and awe of the LP’s lead track “Rat” and the stunningly damaged “Decay” to the doom and gloom of the heavy handed “No Chance” and through to the transcendental brainwork of “Stuck”, UNSANE‘s “WRECK” is darkly abrasive and poetic music delivered with a fearsome intensity.  A punishing, but ultimately tuneful album, realistic in subject matter and as engaging as it is abrasive, “WRECK” features UNSANE at its legendary best. Chris Spencer‘s vocals and lyrics positively ache with fear and loathing (resembling the sound of a man trapped in the New York Subway system) while his searing Telecaster howl and pulverizing chords wreak havoc over Vincent Signorelli‘s drums and Dave Curran‘s muscular, thick as lava bass lines.  UNSANE celebrates its 20th anniversary by delivering the darkest and most personal record of its celebrated career; “WRECK” is the band’s defining moment.

“Making the album “WRECK” has been amazingly cathartic. Not only musically, but personally,” comments Spencer. “Writing with Dave and Vincent is always great, and having been together so long made it easy to focus on what musically and lyrically would sum up this period of time. Recordings about modern urban life. The constant noise, confrontation, stress and alienation that goes with it, and the dysfunctional ways people try to deal with it. The death, drugs, attempted suicide and completely degenerative behavior of those around us really left a mark. I really was feeling like I needed to get it out of my system. There are some moments of redemption, but more often than not things did not end well. As the world population reaches seven billion it’s impossible not to feel the overcrowding.”

The track listing for UNSANE‘s “WRECK” is as follows:

1.) Rat
2.) Decay
3.) No Chance
4.) Pigeon
5.) Metropolis
6.) Ghost
7.) Don’t
8.) Stuck
9.) Roach
10.) Ha Ha Ha (* Flipper cover)

Upon the release of the new LP, UNSANE will team up with punk rock legends THE MELVINS for what promises to be one of the year’s most anticipated underground rock tours. The like-minded bands will launch the 21 city trek on April 11 in San Jose, CA and will collaborate on an über-limited tour 7″ EP featuring each band covering a song from the other. The tour-only vinyl release will feature cover artwork from Amphetamine Reptile Records founder Thomas Hazelmyer.

The UNSANE / MELVINS spring U.S. tour is shaping up as follows:

April 11     San Jose, CA            The Blank Club
April 12     San Francisco, CA     Great American Music Hall
April 13     Los Angeles, CA        The Troubadour
April 14     San Diego, CA           Casbah
April 17     El Paso, TX                House of Rock
April 19     Austin, TX                  Mohawk
April 20     Houston, TX               Warehouse Live
April 21     New Orleans, LA        One Eyed Jack’s
April 23     Orlando, FL                The Social
April 24     Gainesville, FL            Double Down Live
April 25     Atlanta, GA                The Loft at Center Stage
April 26     Charlotte, NC              Amos’ Southend
April 28     West Chester, PA       The Note
April 29     New York, NY             Webster Hall
May 1       Milwaukee, WI             Turner Hall Ballroom
May 2       DeKalb, IL                   Otto’s Nightclub
May 3       St. Louis, MO              The Firebird
May 4       Nashville, TN                Exit In
May 7       Dallas, TX                    Trees
May 9       Santa Fe, NM              Santa Fe Brewing Company
May 11     Santa Ana, CA             Galaxy Concert Theatre

“music that reflects life on the streets of the East Village. It’s dirty, noisy and cluttered. This is not an insult; it’s UNSANE’s musical objective.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

     ”If success in metal were measured by the degree to which an act is the centerpiece of sadistic, forceful entertainment, Manhattan’s UNSANE would be gold. These are young men so tough that if they swing at you and miss the wind gives you pneumonia. Plus they wear baseball caps made of cold-pressed tin!” – VILLAGE VOICE

     ”UNSANE is a powerhouse unmatched” - VICE

“the sounds of a subway coming to a stop, perhaps crushing a head…UNSANE hasn’t lost a step” – PITCHFORK

“foul and fascinating…UNSANE revolutionized noise rock” - ALTERNATIVE PRESS

“The noise-band movement UNSANE pioneered in the late ’80s now boasts a voluminous roster, but these trailblazers still scorch the path with more intensity than their acolytes.” – CLEVELAND SCENE

“New York’s audio answer to bloody street accidents and nasty warehouses…UNSANE’s grating early-’90s noise rock hits as abrasively now as then.” – BALTIMORE CITY PAPER

Posted in: New Albums on Monday, January 16th, 2012

Bloomington, Indiana’s RACEBANNON will release its new album Six Sik Sisters on January 24, 2012 via Tizona Records.  ”Capable of killing the weak on first listen,” the album was recorded in Salem, MA by executive soundscapist Kurt Ballou (Trap Them, Nails) of Converge at GodCity Studios and mastered at apocalyptic audio levels by the venerable Alan Douches (Tombs, Kvelertak) at New York’s West West Side.  The Onion A.V. Club gives extreme music fans a special treat, rolling out the new RACEBANNON song “Thee Brother” and prefacing the premiere with “Don’t say we didn’t warn you” (!!).  Check out “Thee Brother” now at this location!

Brooklyn Vegan also recently debuted the new RACEBANNON cut “Thee Plea“, noting that “Racebannon doesn’t fuck around”. Check out RACEBANNON‘s “Thee Plea” now at this location.

RACEBANNON‘s Six Sik Sisters delivers nine soul-withering waves of sonically barbaric extreme music.  Long known for their sanity-splintering releases for labels such as Level Plane, Secretly Canadian and Southern and collaborations with some of Earth’s most extreme musicians (including MERZBOW, the universally recognized God of Noise), Six Sik Sisters is a stripped-down affair yet clear and massive sounding and proves the band to be at its hungriest, heaviest, and most venomous.  The album’s tempos surge to both the fastest and downright burliest in RACEBANNON‘s 15 year history with impetuous results: warped speed-metal riffs colliding with Sabbath-esque knuckle-drag alongside breakneck warpspeed drumming that falls only a tad short of grindcore. The “noise” facet of the band’s previous work is now singularly incorporated into the songs and one has to wonder whether riffsmith James Bauman has been reviling in Dark Angel, Exodus and other classic Combat-core staples of his youth as his speed-picked riffs attain an intensity and ferocity like never before.

Circling a running theme “about plague and witchcraft”, the record batters the listener against pulse-pounding rhythms while resident cult-leader Mike Anderson pushes his lucid squalls and verbal exorcisms to new heights a midst the occult backdrop of a story “cloaked in the black plague” that runs through to the album’s brain-pummeling completion. The record’s uneasy artwork was created by Tom Denney (Cannibal Corpse. Kylesa) and is the perfect accompaniment to RACEBANNON‘s unnerving sound.  This is not “feel good” music! Pure punishment!!  Glorious!!!

Salem ended up feeling like the ideal town to make a record about plague and witchcraft, said Bauman. “Go figure; we were right down the street from the graveyard of the Witch Trials called “The Burying Point”.  We were finally able to bring out the intensity and the volume on this record that we were looking for with some of our past albums and when we were all sitting in the basement at Godcity the first time we listened to the whole album as a band and I said to everyone, ‘This is f**kin’ scary!’”

The track listing for RACEBANNON‘s Six Sik Sisters is as follows:

1.) Thee Plea
2.) Thee Apology
3.) Thee Interlude
4.) Thee Brother
5.) Thee Truth 
6.) Thee Solo    
7.) Thee Challenge   
8.) Thee Desperate 
9.) Thee End

In addition to Anderson and Bauman, RACEBANNON features Chris Saligoe (bass) and Brad Williams (drums)

“Racebannon embeds the vocals in dense, grinding sheets of cacophony. Monstrous drums and guitar stomp through the songs, from chords like waves smashing beach houses…and a little of what a preacher might call the “steel wheels of Lucifer”: records played either backwards or slowed to a warped pitch like the voice of the dark master. Racebannon sticks your head right into the noise, just as their words pull you through the bowels of fame, lust and desire.” - PITCHFORK

 ”The worlds needs more Racebannon. The deranged noise-core unit takes notes from 90s greats like Unsane, Melvins, and Today Is The Day, co-opting the latter’s nihilistic and destructive disposition. Racebannon doesn’t fuck around” – BROOKLYN VEGAN

     ”a total genre gangbang with metal, hardcore, sludge and art-rock all getting chances to unload…drums like a zombie pounding on your roof and guitar sounds that are either caterwauls of feedback or riffs heavy enough to sting your gums.” - DECIBEL

     ”Racebannon’s rock is a well-bred bastard” - VICE

Posted in: song premieres on Friday, January 6th, 2012

Austin, TX psychedelic garage rockers THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY have signed with NYC’s Tee Pee Records and will release their self-titled debut The Saint James Society on February 7, 2012.  Recorded at ATX’s Cacophony Recorders (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, Roky Erickson), the four song EP delivers electric rock music that brilliantly connects the dots between the late ’60s British blues-based bands and the brooding atmospheres of early ’80s post punk resulting in a hypnotically powerful sound the fabulous five-piece has coined “Pentecostal Desert Glam“.

THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY fuses a “raw energy” sound with the pseudo-mysticism of The Doors and the guitar-orchestrations of classic hard rock, skillfully synthesizing these musical touchstones to create their debut EP.  An energized recording bursting with a muscularity as fuzzy-headed and adventurous as their off-stage exploits, the group’s darkly iridescent, kill-your-idols vibe is a fist-punching yelp of energy that demands to be heard at maximum volume.  When the heavy swagger of vocalist / bassist Brandon Burkart aligns with the band’s heavy-footed rhythms, ticking-time-bomb beat and stunning twin vocal tandem of rebel queens Elza Burkart and Candice Bertalan, the resulting musical statement mainlines the thrill of defiance straight to the listener’s heart.  Placing their steps in the petrified footprints left by the Velvet Underground and the slightly fresher ones of Spacemen 3, THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY reduces the blues to one nasty lick pickled in distortion.  Meet your new favorite band.

 ”A long road led from San Francisco to Austin, with melodies summoned from litter and glitter,” Burkart dishes. “The Saint James Society erupted into the eternal evening. We are Pentecostal Desert Glam for the dawn of the apocalypse.”

 The track listing for The Saint James Society is as follows:

1.) Reflections
2.) The Ballad of the White Horse
3.) Of Silver & Gold
4.) The Devil, an Angel and a Broken Window

Just prior to the release of the EP, THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY will take its “big show” on the road, kicking off a month long U.S. tour on February 2 in San Antonio. The band is expected to debut new music from the EP imminently and will film a video for the song “Reflections” in the coming weeks.

      THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY is: Brandon Burkart (Bass // Vocals), David DuBois (Guitar), Elza Burkart (Vocals // Percussion), Candice Bertalan (Vocals // Percussion) and Jeremy Hayes (Drums).

Posted in: New Albums, new label signings, TEE PEE RECORDS on Friday, December 9th, 2011