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Black Moth Super Rainbow
Eating Us (grave045) cd
05.26.09

Tracklisting:
Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise
Dark Bubbles
Twin Of Myself
Gold Splatter
Iron Lemonade
Tooth Decay
Fields Are Breathing
Smile The Day After Today
The Sticky
Bubblegum Animals
American Face Dust

With The Lava Children’s self-titled debut, the listener is immediately aware they’re hearing something completely uncommon. In fact, The Lava Children are something completely uncommon.
As the music industry becomes ever more jaded and manufactured and music is treated like so much invaluable garbage to be traded and tossed about freely, it seems like hearing something that sounds totally new is becoming less and less of a regular occurrence.
Here you’ll find no familiar “classic rock overtones.” There are no hackneyed “angular guitar tones”- in fact, you’re only occasionally reminded that you’re even hearing instruments. From the dreamy, weirdly programmed Colecovision-on-the-fritz nonsense of opening track, “I Am a Pony,” to the underwater opium cabaret wash of “Particles,” to the discordant, drunk music box stagger of “Troll,” every track on this mini-lp bears the same distinctive stamp of not sounding a whole lot like anything else you’ve heard.
This music may have been found inside a rotting old fish, plucked from a muddy, overgrown swamp and encrusted with plankton and river rot. It could have been stuck in an ice block in the far-flung pitch-black night of the frozen tundra or growing out of a patch of moss and fungus on the side of a mighty California redwood tree. It could’ve been found buried in an Egyptian desert wasteland, firmly clutched to the now-hollow chest of some bygone dusty old corpse… and it just might be cursed. Hell- maybe it’s from space, or some kind of message from the future.
But fact of the matter is it’s made by a couple of Oklahomans who are soon to be Texans...Though that doesn’t make it any less of a fascinating listen.
Close your eyes, turn off all the lights, and turn this album up. See if the little hairs on the back of your neck aren’t immediately standing at full attention as you find yourself awash in weird, half-remembered memories of playing with a dog you had when you were five years old, deep in the swiftly darkening woods and far from home.

The Appleseed Cast
Sagarmatha (grave041) 2xlp
02.17.09

Sagarmatha, the seventh full length by Appleseed Cast, finds the band self-assured and largely home-recorded, indulging in the creation of their art beyond the pressures of hype or doubt that compromise younger and lesser bands. It seems that they understand that for a band that's been making music for ten years to sound fresh, their ideas must be fresh. Sagarmatha integrates the more anthemic sensibilities of Two Conversations (mainly in the very catchy vocal melodies) and the density and distorted rock moments of Peregrine with the experimental tendencies of both Low Level Owl records. While LLO alternated noise and song over two records, pushing and pulling the listener in and out of the din and the narrative, Sagarmatha is a world where the melodic vocals and knotty delayed guitars Appleseed Cast is known for are supported by (and can't exist without) the ambient noise, electronic beats, bells, percussion, and keyboards the band has grown to love. They've been pegged with various genre names over the years, most of which they've outgrown and outlived. At this point, I think they are best described as weavers: of sounds beautiful and horrible, always intriguing, and of stories in sometimes inscrutable but always evocative lyrics. Their songs draw you in immediately, but demand multiple listens, which is how it should be I think, and is why they've inspired such a loving and long-lasting following. They've weathered many storms of fashion. Sagarmatha is mountain-climbing music, Appleseed Cast are mountain-climbers. Sagarmatha is epic in scope and sound, evoking the horror and beauty of nature, the sublime. A band bred by the ocean and born in Kansas is unafraid to stare into the void of sea or sky. As points of reference, I suggest this record fits somewhere between the intersection of Low and the Flaming Lips, Can and the Postal Service, or Fugazi and Sigur Ros.

First pressing (1000 copies) comes colored in a Maroon with purple splatter 2xlp with one bonus track not found on the cd version.

BMSR rarities comp.

Both the vinyl and cd come with a scratch n sniff cover!!

Tracklisting:
Zodiac Girls (Pony Version of 7" Single)
I Saw Brown (Pre-BMSR from 1999)
Black Yogurt (with Mike Watt)
Milk Skates
Happy Melted City
One Day I Had An Extra Toe (Esopus Magazine Compilation)
We Are The Pagans (Dandelion Gum Outtake)
Changing You All
Just For The Night (by Laura Burhenn, BMSR Remix)

Vinyl comes with a bonus track!!

Dreamend is the main musical output of Ryan Graveface, Graveface Records' owner/sole employee and part time guitarist for psychedelic oddballs Black Moth Super Rainbow. Since its’ inception in 2002, Graveface has released albums by Monster Movie (ex-Slowdive), The Loose Salute (Mojave 3 side project), Kid Dakota, Appleseed Cast, Art in Manila (ex-Azure Ray), Octopus Project, BMSR and many more.

The Long Forgotten Friend's 14 songs (10 songs on the cd version) are loosely based on stories and memories of a relative from the far past, whose tragic life has metamorphosed into legend over the course of time. This is music to listen to while driving through abandoned cities and ghost towns, imagining their disintegration. Rather than drums making the melody as on their previous efforts, banjo and vocals are at the foreground of the landscape. The drumming is minimalist, almost spastic and, as always, the guitars are the ghosts. Dreamend has taken a darker, folky, more nightmarish road than before. Some evidence of this can be found on the tracks Your Kiss, Scratch and Deathwatch Carnival 1965. Conversely, they have found themselves with more poppy, almost sing-alongs than ever before (see Are you Waking and The Tulip Staircase).

Appearances by Toto of the Octopus Project and Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota add some outside sounds, while Darren and John Congleton's (see Explosion in the Sky, Modest Mouse, etc) mixing bring them all together.

Listeners are encouraged to buy the vinyl version as it includes the cd version for free, contains 4 extra songs-16 minutes worth of music, a handmade pop-up gatefold by William Schaff (GYBE!, Okkervil River etc), and an extra cd of demos and alternate versions. The cd version comes packaged in a 15pt chipboard gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet of photos by Christy Romanick.

Jordan Geiger, songwriter of Minus Story, trumpet player for Shearwater and resident of Lawrence, Kansas, brings you his bedroom-pop solo album, Oh, Ramona.

Influenced by the sounds of The Flaming Lips song from which the name Hospital Ships is drawn, Geiger's debut exudes a seasoning of classic influences including John Lennon, The Zombies, and ELO to produce a bedroom pop symphony.

Exploring relationships both failed and ongoing with friends, lovers, and pets, Geiger delicately teases the listener with his boyish tenor of a voice. In the background, muted horns swell, pianos twinkle, and percussion marches in step.

Mixed mostly by John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Modest Mouse,The Mountain Goats, The Polyphonic Spree), Oh, Ramona is the culmination of over two and half years of writing and recording. Highlights include the upbeat opener "Bitter Radio Single," the symphonic majesty of "I Want It To Get Out," the tender "Girls," and the truly pet sounds-influenced title track.

This record comes packaged in an 18pt chipboard gatefold sleeve and is lovingly hand assembled by your friends at Graveface Records.