Soft Abuse's 2010 in review / etc
Soft Abuse
Hello everyone:
As we all bid adieu to another year, I thought I’d write to recap the year that was for Soft Abuse. Lots happened & most it wasn’t well-documented, so here goes –
Ulaan Khol (Steven R. Smith) released album
#3, titled III, in March, thus completing his Ceremony trilogy. We produced a handful of Ulaan Khol Ceremony
boxes to house all three chapters.More UK is happening in 2011 via non-Soft Abuse outlets, keep yr eyes peeled...
Sonny & the Sunsets were invited to play WFMU’s CMJ gig & were courted by Fat Possum, who re-released their debut Tomorrow is Alright in August. Meanwhile, the LP was repressed by us & sold out (check some distributors or write me for a copy), the band played Pitchfork Fest in Chicago (my first time seeing them) & toured around. Look for more from the band next year – we wish ‘em well.
After the hardships in FP dealings, etc, I leapt at the chance to release some new songs from Car Commercials. It was fun to see Dan, Theresa & crew here in Minneapolis this summer, too. The CC single is still available, though copies are dwindling…
Another honor for the year came with releasing Donovan Quinn & the 13th Month’s second album. This one was a co-release with the legendary Shrimper imprint, and seemed to find some listeners despite an absence in action review-wise. It’s a killer record with some nice trimmings (beautiful art, DL code, lyrics!, heavier vinyl…). Got to see the man & other friendly faces in SF this year, which is always a treat…
2010 bequeathed the debut from Stefan “Pumice” Neville & Kraus’ Olympus project, a labor of love from the past few years for those two. This was a co-release with Stefan's Stabbies label; as always its easy & awesome to work with ol' stfn. We also got cassette reissues of two primo Pumice outings (Quo and Pebbles) into an unexpecting world.
Last but not least, SA closed out the year with two new releases from the utterly brilliant NY duo Pigeons, who also managed two killer releases for Olde English Spelling Bee earlier in ’10. Liasons is their most fully realized LP yet & Visions of the Valley more closely exposed the band’s pop side. In addition to all of these great records, Pigeons also toured (nearly) the whole USA with Fabulous Diamonds; the four gigs I was lucky to see were stellar all around.
Thanks to you all for the
support, again & again… Happy new year, too!
If anyone on this email list missed out on any new releases for the year, we’d like to extend a little discount offering for a few weeks: 30% off any of the new stuff from 2010 (recapped again below). To take advantage, send funds via paypal to in...@softabuse.com & be sure to include the records you’d like in the notes section. Drop me a line if you have any questions or are unsure about how to calculate..
Same as before, we’re also offering a CD sale on nearly everything in our catalog (recent releases excluded). From now until whenever, all applicable Soft Abuse CD releases are $5.00 ppd within the USA. Check it out! If you’re outside of the US & plan to buy more than three CDs, drop me a line for a discounted total.
Looking ahead into 2011, we’ve got a few singles lined-up to be issued straightaway. The first is from Horrid Red, an off-shoot of Teenage Panzerkorps. Their debut 12” on Holidays was recently pick of the day at German Vice, and the Pink Flowers EP follows nicely in a slightly more pop direction… Soon after, Primitive Motion will release their debut. Certain Materials features drugged-out dub pop with nods to the Door and the Window… A cool record… Each single will be fairly limited. Further ahead, we’ve got a new albums from Pumice, Brute Heart, Pigeons & more…
2010 Releases
PIGEONS Liasons CD / LP (SAB045) [purchase here]
““Pure" and “Trésor” fulfill Pigeons' promise of modern chanson, the former adorned with percussive nylon strums and the latter sung in a louche French drawl as much Edith Piaf as Brigitte Fontaine. This duo's greatest strength is the broad palette they're drawing from behind all the requisite well-bottom production, making the album a diverse, urbane affair.” – Tiny Mix Tapes
“This hypnotic listening experience is as pleasantly soporific and gently gritty as if Mazzy Star had been produced by Alex Chilton.” – Brainwashed
PIGEONS Visions of the Valley 7” (SAB043) [purchase here]
“Within a minute of listening to the smoothly sultry “The Postcard” off of Bronx-based Pigeons tour single Visions of the Valley, I’m ready to pack my bags, catch the next flight to Paris, hunker down in a cafe and chain-smoke as I read Flaubert. The smoky, mature voice emanating from singer Wednesday Knudsen, layered alongside an impossibly sexy guitar riff and smooth back percussion brings to mind Air’s amazingly intimate “Playground Love.”” - Sick of the Radio
OLYMPUS Bold Mould LP (SAB041) [purchase here]
“This whole album is a sort of greatest hits of the passage of time, or more like what time can do to the medium it’s captured on. You wouldn’t even necessarily put the melodies together as coming from the same artist, Bold Mould is merely a Smithsonian compilation of different classic examples of this deterioration, like Decasia in audio form.” – 7 Inches Blog
DONOVAN QUINN & THE 13TH MONTH Your Wicked Man LP (SAB040) [purchase here]
“San Francisco’s Donovan Quinn is weathering a moment in time when his music is a little out of fashion, and we are all at a loss for this. In my year, it was the best singer-songwriter record I’d listened to and had an urgent poignancy for my own lost generation. I hear all the bad and lovable things about my friends in this area of the world throughout this record. It comes on a real healthy slab of vinyl too.” - The Bay Bridged
CAR COMMERCIALS Prisoner of Type 7” (SAB042) [purchase here]
“Somehow it’s still comforting that Big Dan and his friend David are still hammering away at new Car ‘Mersh, and actually coming somewhere in the vicinity of songs with melodies on side B while they’re at it. Shook teenage awkwardness, like the Supreme Dicks after atomic wedgies and the kind of gym class shower hazing that might bring about criminal charges.” - Still Single
ULAAN KHOL III CD (SAB038) [purchase here]
“Because it is often so heavy, the best moments on III turn out to be the quieter moments, when Smith cuts most of the pedals and lets his six-string go to work. The final three songs are the best example, not least of all because they are paced perfectly: “Untitled [6]” lures you in with a fried-out build-up, a comparatively quiet strum that ascends to the dizzying heights of a jet engine roar, on par with anything else he’s done.” - Dusted Magazine
SONNY & THE SUNSETS Tomorrow is Alright LP (SAB039)
“The real reward of Tomorrow Is Alright is that this isn’t just a batch of half-baked slacker madrigals. Smith is a storyteller, best displayed on “Stranded” or the shadowed doo-wop of “Chapters,” and his tale (though there’s no arching concept) feels like what might have occurred had the Manson family made good and pulled through the harsh reality to believe in the religion of surf.” - The Agit Reader
(We’re technically sold out of this one, but have a few copies of the CD and LP on hand if you missed the boat and/or wanna avoid Fat Possum. Email me at soft...@gmail.com)
PUMICE Quo CS (SAB029) [purchase here] & Pebbles CS (SAB022) [purchase here]
“His music is buzzing and beautifully fractured, seemingly floating into an unfinished world, a world longing for more of his creation. “Quo” was initially released in 2008 and is now available on cassette since this summer through Soft Abuse.” - Sally Fork / Lea Mandana
HAPPENING SOON
HORRID RED Pink Flowers EP 7” (SAB044) [more info here]
PRIMITIVE MOTION Certain
Materials EP 7” (SAB046) [some info here]
PUMICE Pebbles LP + DL (SAB022) [remastered / reimagined (?)]
HAPPENING A BIT LATER…
BRUTE HEART tba CD/LP
PUMICE tba CD/LP/CS
….more
NEW DISTRO
BRUTE HEART Brass Beads LP + DL [Self-Released (USA), 2009]
Brute Heart (Crystal Myslajek, Jackie Beckey & Crystal Brinkman) craft tense, distinct and often alien sounds with bass, drums, viola & voice (all three sing). Informed by the fringes of post-punk, art rock, dark folk & other idiosyncratic strains, Brute Heart’s warm, mysterious music evoke recollections of White Magic, Family Fodder, Quix*O*Tic, The Raincoats and Grass Widow. Brass Beads, released via the band’s own private press imprint in late 2009, finds Brute Heart ably shifting through several modes. Hypnotic, danceable yet gloomy punk movements crash against swaths of extended Eastern-influenced melodies. Coaxed by the haunting echo of viola, an impelling rhythm of bass and spiky typewriter-esque drums, and the trio’s spoken / moaned / sung vocals, the nine songs on Brass Beads offer an unconventional and incredibly memorable listen. Edition of 300 with DL coupon.
$15.00 ppd USA
$17.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$25.00 ppd elsewhere
PUMICE Pumice 10" [Doubtful Sounds (FR), 2010]
Restock!
"Great new outing by this one man New Zealand duo (he ain't heavy, father, he's my imaginary brother). Stefan Neville and ghost partner Jon toss out a pair of form-destructive dives into the dumpster of eternity. Total smoulder. The final track is a jittery acoustic ballad, widly out of sync with the rest, but perfectly at home in a world that once knew The Tall Dwarfs." - Byron Coley
PUMICE Worldwide Gullet CDR [Nyali (UK), 2010]
"Some of the songs are so blasted that the only real comparison is early This Kind Of Punishment or even Galbraith’s Morse LP. Cross that with instrument destruction that’s as nod-out beautiful as any Dead C fade-out and you’ve got the go-to Pumice album of choice. Hand-numbered edition of 107 copies. Highly recommended." - David Keenan
SUNKEN New Zealand Eels LP [Emerald Cocoon (US), 2010]
"Sunken's previous two albums on Pseudo Arcana were long form chord-organ driven flights into the heart of the ecstatic blaring sun. Their first vinyl release New Zealand Eels however, is a tentacle shot from the abyss to drag the sailors back down into the service of the lurker in the deep. Bleak, black and completely drowned, New Zealand Eels beams five submarine tracks from the lost to the lost through the milky darkness. With the vocal melodies pushed to the foreground and the instrumental origins of the music obscured as never before by damaged baby monitors, power starved dictaphones, tape saturation and spring reverb, Sunken are now finally, truly lost to the abyss. Two drowned sailors invite you to breathe in the water, forget about life on the surface and lay down with the kraken amidst the curling weeds. Edition of 300 with free digital download. Thick reverseboard sleeves with art by Stefan Neville." - Emerald Cocoon
2010 FAVORITES
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI Before Today (4AD)
THE ART MUSEUMS Rough Frame (Woodsist)
BLANK REALM Deja What? (Bedroom Suck) [reissue]
DADAWAH Peace & Love (Dug Out) [reissue]
FABULOUS DIAMONDS Fabulous Diamonds II (Siltbreeze)
THE FRESH & ONLYS August in My Mind (Captured Tracks)
THE FRESH & ONLYS Play It Strange (In the Red)
FROG EYES Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph (Dead Oceans)
THE FUCKIN’ FLYING A-HEADS Swiss Cheese Back (DeStijl) [reissue]
GROUP INERANE Guitars From Agadez Volume 3 (Sublime Frequencies)
HOME BLITZ Out of Phase (Richie)
MICHAEL HURLEY Blue Hills (Mississippi)
JEREMY JAY Splash (K)
KITCHEN’S FLOOR Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress (Bedroom Suck)
TED LUCAS Ted Lucas (Yoga) [reissue]
JULIAN LYNCH Mare (Olde English Spelling Bee)
THE MANTLES Pink Information (Mexican Summer)
MARK MCGUIRE Living With Yourself (Editions Mego)
MOTHER OF FIRE Mother of Fire (DeStijl)
NAKED ON THE VAGUE Heaps of Nothing (Siltbreeze)
JOANNA NEWSOM Have One On Me (Drag City)
BILL ORCUTT Way Down South (Palilalia)
PIGEONS Si Faustine (Olde English Spelling Bee)
PUMICE Pumice 10” (Doubtful Sound)
ROB JO STAR BAND Rob Jo Star Band (Pomme) [reissue]
RUSSIAN TSARLAG Open Casket (Hot Releases)
TAKU SUGIMOTO Miemai Tenshi (Weird Forest) [reissue]
SUN CITY GIRLS Funeral Mariachi (Abduction)
KURT VILE Square Shells (Matador)
VOICE OF THE PUPPETS I Don’t Wanna Know 7” (Sing Sing) [reissue]
WOODS At Echo Lake (Woodsist)
Thanks again,
Chris / Soft Abuse
P.S. Let me know if you'd like off of this mailing list...
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SOFT ABUSE
www.softabuse.com