SA news 01/10 : Ulaan Khol, Sonny & the Sunsets, more ...
Soft Abuse
Dear Soft Abuse email friends:
Greetings, 2010! Hope the year is treating you well so far.
We’re back with a new update, albeit a premature one. We’d like to let you all know of two pre-orders happening now at softabuse.com; both releases are due in March. First & foremost, the long-awaited final installment of Ulaan Khol’s (Steven R. Smith) brilliant, brutal & bewildering CEREMONY series is at last seeing the light of (winter’s) day. As expected, the third volume is his masterstroke; not only does this work ably tie together the other Ulaan Khol releases into a cohesive whole, it also stands alone as a groundbreaking, breathtaking amalgam of heavy Komische & basement freak-out psychedelics. We’re obviously boased when it comes to Smith’s work, but still feel comfortable declaring Ulaan Khol III to be a landmark release for the man. The album (CD-only) will be officially released 9 March, though those that pre-order thru us will receive their copies ahead of street date…
As an added Soft Abuse mailorder bonus, we’ve constructed a limited edition Ceremony box to hold each volume of the massive Ulaan Khol series. We hope to have images online within the coming week, but you should know that we’ve only made 75 of these… More info below.
We’re also taking pre-orders on the CD version of Sonny & the Sunset’s Tomorrow is Alright album, heretofore only available as a gorgeous LP release. We aim to ship these by 9 March as well, though may push the release backwards a week or two (you’ll be notified of this if it happens).
Be in touch with questions, etc about anything below, and as always, let us know if you want off this list.
for to the update -
NOW AVAILABLE [PRE-ORDER]
(click on the artist/title to purchase, obtain more info, hear a sample, etc)
ULAAN KHOL III CD (SAB038)
"'III' is as immediate as a truck with failed brakes crashing through your living room wall. The third and final installment of a trilogy entitled Ceremony, its opening moments rage and wail, with distorted guitars pulling out in front of the drums like hellhounds that have slipped their master's leesh. But this isn't a mono-dimensional freak-out. Smith paces himself, pulling back into brooding drones and pensive picking before lashing out once more. As befits a journey that's taken three discs to unfold, it ends with a grand gesture; the final melody is as epic as Roy Montgomery's mid-'90s work, and it unfurls over a landscape of blasted wah-wah licks and feeback that somehow reconcile The Stooges and Popul Vuh." - Bill Meyer, Signal to Noise
$11.00 ppd USA
$12.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$15.00 ppd elsewhere
Limited edition birch CEREMONY box; fits all three volumes of the Ulaan Khol Ceremony series. Edition of 75 screened / stamped boxes, handmade by artist friends here in Minneapolis. Available only through softabuse.com or from Steven R. Smith’s worstward.com web site. Purchase via softabuse.com at one of the Ulaak Khol release pages.
$5.00 ppd USA
$5.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$6.00 ppd elsewhere
STILL NEW
Tomorrow is Alright hits on all the right zones, from sly VU-like observations to the true bedlam explored by Holy Modal Rounders. All the while, Sonny’s pen is soaked with an EC comics sense of storytelling, touching equally on the macabre, the absurd, the humorous, and above all, the entertaining. A co-release with Secret Seven label out of San Francisco, the LP is limited to 500 copies. CD edition released in March 2010.
CD [pre-order]
$11.00 ppd USA
$12.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$14.00 ppd elsewhere
LP
$15.00 ppd USA
$17.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$25.00 ppd elsewhere
PIGEONS Lunettes 7” (SAB036)
Pigeons make sublimely blasted / incredibly hallucinogenic songs from their base up in Bronx, NY. The trio of Wednesday Knudsen (in disguise on the sleeve), Clark Griffin and Carter Thornton have been active for a few years, releasing miniture-run cassettes and lathe cuts for Griffin's sub-underground Moran Tape Label that dealt in skronk, warp & mystery. Their wayward song-based creations are just as ambitious, melding dissonance, crude electronics & chanson pop.
$6.00 ppd USA
$7.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$9.00 ppd elsewhere
THE DEADNOTES Orange Trumpet LP (SAB034)
"What attracted me to this band on first sight – trained in the “school of error” as practised by Maher Shalal Hash Baz and all those other naive orchestral delights, accomplished keyboards man Leighton Craig of the firm belief that where drummers went wrong was when they first started crossing their arms over – is what still attracts me to them: belief, brevity, melody, resonance, a fondness (acquired from having lived through it) for the early 80s post-Go-Betweens/early Fall mannerisms of derelict Brisbane nightclubs. Stuart Busby not only wields a trumpet like Brighton’s own Alistair Strachan (Hamilton Yarns, Crayola Lectern) but understands the absolute necessity of controlling (or not controlling) the sound. Guitarist/drummer Eugene Carchesio – an accomplished, exhibited visual artist in his own right – much favours the “play once, move on” approach to creating and inventing new songs that can’t help attract simple me. One of Eugene’s favourite musicians is Jad Fair. How can I argue with that?
I’m reminded of Monks, Moondog, 4 Gods, Flipper.
Too often noise musicians deliberately eschew melody – as if to admit for a fondness for such is a weakness. The Deadnotes are as unreconstructed and wilfully abstract as the most experimental among us, but at the heart of the music is (usually) a melody, a structure, a beating heart." – Everett True
$15.00 ppd USA
$17.00 ppd Canada / Mexico
$25.00 ppd elsewhere
HAPPENING SOON
DONOVAN QUINN & THE 13TH MONTH Your Wicked Man LP (SAB040) [released April 2010]
SONNY & THE SUNSETS I Wanna Do It 7" (SAB042) [released April / May 2010]
ARTIST NEWS
CAR COMMERCIALS
David and Daniel are, I think (?!) working on recordings for a Soft Abuse 7”. David also recently completed a composers residency at Issue Project Room.
PIGEONS
The band has completed recording for their forthcoming Soft Abuse full-length. We hope to release the new material in late spring / early summer. Rumors of a spring tour have been circling, more info soon… Their brilliant Si Faustine LP will be released by Olde English Spelling Beein the coming months.
PUMICE
Upcoming recordings include a 10” for the French label Doubtful Sound, as well as an LP + deluxe DL version of Pebbles (in the near-ish future).
SONNY & THE SUNSETS
Sonny Smith’s art show, 100 Records, opens at Gallery 16 in San Francisco this April. More information soon. New 7” singles coming in the next few months via Empty Cellar, Soft Abuse, and Future Stress labels. The band will be playing several shows at SXSW 2010 as well…
LIVE EVENTS
PIGEONS
02/04 - New York, NY - Webster Hall Studio (with Alice Cohen)
SONNY & THE SUNSETS
01/21 - Bellingham, WA - WWU (with Fruit Bats)
01/22 - Seattle, WA - Vera Project (with Fruit Bats)
01/23 - Portland, OR - MIssion Theater (with Fruit Bats)
THIS MAILING LIST
The Soft Abuse mailing list is very sporadic, and used to notify folks of new releases, tours and the like. If you'd rather not receive these sorts of updates, please write li...@softabuse.com & asked to be removed. To join the googlegroup version of this mailer, visit the contact page on our site & enter yr email address…
SEMI-CURRENT LISTENING
TAKU SUGIMOTO Miemai Tenshi LP (Weird Forest)
MOTHER OF FIRE Lambs LP (Self-Released)
KENDRA SMITH Guild of Temporal Adventurers 10" (Fiasco)
DANTE & THE LOBSTER Wonders CD (Self-Released)
DANIEL HIGGS Hymnprovosations for Banjo LP (Ideal)
THE FRESH & ONLYS Second One to Know 7" (Woodsist)
WILLIE LANE Known Quantity LP & 7” (Cord-Art)
BLACK TO COMM Alphabet 1968 LP (Type)
Many thanks,
Chris / Soft Abuse
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SOFT ABUSE
www.softabuse.com