WOODS-Sun and Shade, MATT VALENTINE and new HERBCRAFT LPs available NOW via woodsist mailorder

[woodsist]

WOODS- "Sun and Shade"- CD/LP/Cassette

"Woods is a two-headed dog asleep on the porch and a butterfly on the
windowsill... a Janus, a Gemini and a screen door. The sun wont fade
and the earworms will not leave, but the jams go on too long for the
girl in the back who wonders if her friends are at another bar. Still,
the ballads always make her cry. Woods is up there relaying the Woods-
feel: Folk-rock, fuzz, tambourines, tapes and raw lunch pulled
straight from the yard. Pop songs and other things: Sun and Shade."-
Glenn Donaldson

"Loose, shuffling and tuneful, the abridged Woods experience sounds
more like Wowee Zowee than Workingmans Dead, but it hits just the
right contradictory note of tight arrangements and breathing-room
playing to get that back-porch, weird America vibe."- Pitchfork


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ORDER FROM iTUNES
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sun-and-shade/id431172941


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MATT "MV" VALENTINE- "What I Became" LP

If string theory is correct, this is approximately the thirteenth
album Matt Valentine has released that definitely shouldnt be filed
under a group name (Tower Recordings, Bummer Road, Golden Road, etc.).
On the other hand, if string theory is correct, this might also be his
11,000th album. The truth, one suspects, is somewhere in between.
Since bedding down in southern Vermont at the dawn of the century, MV
has been as cussedly prolific as anyone. The gout of LPs, cassettes,
CDRs, singles and 10-inches emerging from Maximum Arousal Farm has
dwarfed the output of everyone cept maybe Sunburned or Thurston.
Regardless, there can never be enough MV LPs in the world, and What I
Became is a beaut. Most of it is as solo as Satan, apart from
percussionist Jeremy Earl (of Woods fame), whose presence is sometimes
felt more than heard. Erika EE Elder and Mike Muskox Smith also pop
up on a track, but the general approach here is as naked-and-loaded as
the soul of Icepick Slim. As usual, MVs tunes and procedures beggar
easy generification. Elements of deep forest psychedelia brush against
Crazy Horse guitar / vocal flourishes that explode to reveal volk-
based form mayhem at its hickiest. My particular fave here is PK Dick,
a paean to nth dimensional logic in the form of a Swedish psych-folk
readymade. My son prefers the haunted-Harvest-vibe (his words) of
Ave. B. My wife goes for the Seventh Sons approach offered by Sweet
Little Indian Girl (always a fave with the ladies). And my daughter
nods in the direction of Continuing the Good Life for reasons she will
not explain. I suspect its the hooty vocals, reminding her of teen pop
giants like The Shins and Of Montreal, but she aint sayin. All this
just goes to show that What I Became is a fun album for the whole
family. It will soothe your savage breasts. It will turn your evil
mother-in-law into a porpoise. It will wash yr dishes and darn yr
socks. Darn them! Motherfucker, who else would do that? Nobody, Jack.
Cept MV. This guy has the magic touch. And it has never been displayed
better than here. Just get the fucking rec. Or prepare to go sockless.
Kind of a no-brainer, eh? -Byron Coley

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HERBCRAFT- Ashram to the Stars LP (HS005)

One of the most gifted abstract sonic pilots from the Vacationland
stable, Portland, Maine, artist Matt Lajoie enjoys a larger-than-
Sasquatch reputation for his free folk personality and unpredictable
takes on Spectrasound techniques. Although he and his merry band are
one of the most charismatic tribes of the New England underground you
gotta see them live they blossom from psychedelic occurrences that
lead to bursts of pacifist oblivion which can only be redeemed inside
their studio output. The momentum Lajoie deploys in his polar
expressions indicates a supply of time-manipulated balance. An
accretion of bucket brigades warping wildly at first breath, generally
considered a condition of primitivism, this is searchlight abandonment
with purely spirited jams more akin to the tapers pit than slam
continuance. In fact, the only thing slammed here (other than the
muted poetry echoing like buoys in Golowins harbor) are the in the red
meters on fire signs from fire music providing ease with earth, wind
and air. Long may we inhale. This is a heady atmosphere, an atmosphere
for heads, and it not only delivers the contempo dreamlike aspect at
the apex of its form, but transcends it to those revolving with them.
Take this fucker for a spin.- Matt Valentine, Vermont, 2011

"... stunning navigation of druggy Matthew Valentine / Spectrasound-
styled psychedelic folk, with a thick smoke of F/X masking some
fantastic rural rock that at points sounds like a 90s underground take
on Skip Spences Oar or a Dead bootleg on Majora. Either way this is a
solid winner."- David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

"Meandering in the best possible way, Herbcrafts Road to Agartha
sounds like it bloomed fully formed from a thick wall of weed smoke."-
Sam Hockley-Smith, Fader

"Pure psychedelic indulgence in the greatest of terms and a great
extension of Lajoies work in Cursillistas."-Raven Sings the Blues

"... blissed-out, bonged-to-the-eyeballs psych-rock of the highest
calibre."-Norman Records



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