Releases

Magic Tuber Stringband - When Sorrows Encompass Me ‘Round ()

CS Edition of 200 Pro-Dubbed Cassettes. Bandcamp $8 Magic Tuber Stringband is Durham NC-based duo, made up of Evan Morgan and Courtney Werner. Their primary instruments are guitar and fiddle, but they are not married to these particular axes and follow their instincts when they feel other instruments are called for. Playing music with its bite rooted in the Piedmont tradition, Magic Tuber mostly write their own material, while exploring and expanding dynamics of string interaction that are as old as the hills. Treading a line that begins in equal parts of blues and Anglo-Scottish lineage, they introduce different motific elements at points. “Teo’s Farewell” has a central portion with a very Middle Eastern feel. “Wood Thrush Song” is a… Read more »

Kass Richards - The Language Shadow ()

LP Edition of 300 Re-issue / Co-Release with Good Cry Records $20 Reissue of the very limited debut LP by this Massachusetts-based musician. We first ran into Kass’s Good Cry label when she put out Jordan Perry’s eponymous debut, which we promptly reissued (FTR 376). And we are well pleased to be able to do the same for The Language Shadow — a most excellent album by all known metrics. Kass (who works with Meg Remy’s U.S. Girls) sings and plays guitar, dulcimer and small instrument-style percussion. Recorded at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango, her music has the clean, hard bite of a Northern Spy apple. Some of the songs are performed as elegant solos, but there are additional instrumental touches by several… Read more »

Jonny Kosmo - Pastry ()

LP Edition of 300. Co-Released with Dinosaur City Records OUT OF STOCK Jonny Kosmo, the Los Angeles (via New England) registered therapist and home recordist is a card carrying expert in the shape of your desire & the horizon of meanings your dreams catalyze. In his briefcase lives his weapons grade kaleidoscope, a 1972 mayfair recorder, and a neatly folded pair of pants that fits seamlessly to the shape of your longing. His armchair prescriptions for the zeitgeist hover ever present on his most recent LP Pastry which hits you Like 69 cc of heady nostalgia for a time he never lived in. The album is like if David Lynch’s Dr Jacobi and Stevie Wonder teamed up to make a… Read more »

PG Six - Live at the Tavern ()

LP Edition of 150. Bandcamp OUT OF PRINT While we wait for Aaron Rosenblum to finish up his album of field recordings, we sometimes ask him about various tapes he has recorded of other artists. These, he tends to provide more quickly. Thus, here is the first of what we hope to be a series of live shows by various artists, documented by Mr. Aaron. The artist in Pat Gubler, aka PG Six. The venue is The Tavern at Hampshire College. The date is March 30, 2001. This was still an early point in Pat’s solo journey, but the aesthetic documented here appears to be fully formed, and his playing is great on both harp and guitar. The set is… Read more »

Kohoutek - Jurad ()

LP Edition of 350 Co-Released with Cardinal Fuzz $21 While they have released a decent number of cassettes & CDs, Jurad is only the fourth vinyl album released by this long-running DC-to-Philly-based space-juggernaut. Recorded by a quartet iteration of the always mutating ensemble, the music on this one veers between the kind of psych-prog wallow for which Kohoutek is most often celebrated, and the less formally rockoid improvisational proclivities they sometimes display. The session for Jurad went down at Philadelphia’s Sex Dungeon studio in 2012 and resulted in three long tracks. The shortest one, “Cosmic Grease,” opens the B side in classic Kohoutek style. John Stanton’s guitar balances on the cusp of scum and space, spewing fat raw gobs of… Read more »

The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol - Stellar Remnant ()

LP Edition of 200. Co-Released with Cardinal Fuzz $23 When John Westhaver approached me with the idea of culling some tracks from the crucial ‘Shedding The Albatross’ 4xCDr edition for a vinyl LP (and yes folks in a place where money is no object we would do a 7xLP Box Set of this – i WISH i could do that). I obviously said Yes before the sentence was finished. John compiled this edition with 4 tracks culled from the soundboard recording of the Birdman Sound Show and added Navy Cut Blues from the Birdman Basement Rehearsal Space. As always TBWNIS bring their A-game (they always do – that is a given) but kudos to Wayne Coulis especially on capturing TBWNIS… Read more »

Matt Sowell - QuaranTunes Series No.015 ( / )

12″ Lathe. Edition of 21. Numbered. Riso Looseleaf cover / back art printed at Looky Here in Greenfield, MA. $60 Matt Sowell is a big guy with big hands who we met at the 1000 Incarnations of the Rose fest down in Takoma a couple years back. He let us release his fantastic debut LP, Organize or Die (FTR 541), and followed that up with this Zoom concert, broadcast from his home in Minneapolis on Friday July 24, 2020. Matt starts things off with few new tunes, which display some of the same multi-sector flow that marks the work of his guitar mentor, Peter Lang, as well as Lang’s fellow travelers at the Takoma Records HQ. Sowell’s compositions refer to this… Read more »

The Impenitents - Lip Therapy ()

CS Edition of 135. $6 How happy we are to present the debut cassette by this new, scrambled Massachusetts trio. The Impenitents line-up includes Salem’s always wonderful Andrea Pensado, whose previous releases for the label are the Without Knowing Why LP (FTR 203), Los Condenados’ Yeppers LP (FTR 126) both of which display different aspects of berserk invention mixed with pure charm. On Lip Therapy she is in charge of vocals and some electronics.  This is Erik Browns’s Feeding Tube debut, although he has shared releases with folks like Belltone Suicide, Noise Nomads and Limbs Bin while recording as Wish for Skin, Scald Hymn or one of his other various operational noise-handles. His job here involves electronics and scrap metal…. Read more »

Papa Lee God - QuaranTunes Series No. 018 ( / )

12″ Lathe. Edition of 27. Numbered. loose leaf cover and back art printed at Looky Here in Greenfield, MA OUT OF PRINT After having recorded the sheik of downfall creek LP (FTR 382) using the papa lord god soubriquet, this Tasmanian devil opted for a slightly diff handle for his live Zoom concert, which was broadcast from a secret lair on the morning of Saturday August 15 (although it was still Friday evening here in the Eastern U.S.) The music this time was different from the LP, but the mix of somewhat twisted roots music and avant garde proclivities was similarly canted and equally addictive.  One man, one guitar and one microphone. Apparently, you don’t need anything else. On this… Read more »

Matt Valentine Preserves - Galactic Ooze ()

LP edition of 300. Bandcamp link $21 Originally issued as a CDR on Matt’s own Child of Microtones label, the stone madness of this session was so overwhelming we begged him to let us do it on vinyl. Luckily for one and all, he agreed. Recorded here and there, with a variety of different ensembles. Galactic Ooze is one of the most fully warped missives from Planet MV, and that is saying something. While there is a certain continuity between the layered threads of MV’s deeply processed vocals and amazing stunned-noodle guitar figurines, the music here is always in flux. There’s lots of electronic jiggering which brings to mind the squeedle elements of Blows Against the Empire (still the apex… Read more »