PIAPTK.com MEGAsale!

In honor of People In A Position To Know Limited Edition Vinyl and Handmade Musical Artifacts, LLC's Fifth Anniversary, everything at www.PIAPTK.com is on sale (well, almost everything, the only exceptions are preorders or distro items). Even lathe cuts are on sale. LPs as low as 4.99, 7"s as low as $2.49. And ALL digital downloads are $1.99 for LPs and $0.75 for 7"s!

This sale ONLY LASTS FOR 24 HOURS! At midnight on Oct. 31st, all items will revert to their already low prices.

Band to Know: The Harlan Twins

I just stumbled across this band about 30 minutes ago thanks to a post by my internet buddy, Zach Klein. He generally has pretty good taste, so I take his recommendations seriously. The Harlan Twins, from Pittsburgh, have the kind of rootsy, spacey, harmony driven country folk sound that I love. I'm only halfway through their self-titled LP on Bandcamp now, and I'm already smitten. Comparisons are odious, as they say, but you've got the vibe of a co-ed The Band, with some sultry female vocals reminiscent of Cat Power balanced by some great Alt-countricana dude vox, backed up by jangly, twangy guitars that sound like The Unicorns meet Waylon Jennings. I'm really into it.

Why would I bother posting about a band I know nothing about, and haven't heard an entire album from yet? Because today and tomorrow only, you can get their first two records for free at their Bandcamp. So, I'll do more homework, and get more details on the band for a later posting, but right now, time is NOT on your side, so hurry over to The Harlan Twins bandcamp. My Kid Cudi-loving students are going to get really sick of hearing this album every day next week during class. But, hey, they should have brought their own headphones.

Good Saints Live Video

Two songs from one of the first Good Saints shows last week. Download their EP

The James Jackson Toth fronted Southern Colorado Song about "Colorado sibling fugitives the Dougherty Gang"



And San Antonio Missions with Doc Feldman at the helm:

Band to Know: The Blank Tapes: Big In Brazil

I first came across The Blank Tapes through their connection with artists like Graves, Little Wings, Gift Machine, Lee Baggett, etc.
The West Coast Stoner-Surf-Lounge scene is an incestuous one. Everybody plays on everybody else's records, and most "bands" are really only a main songwriter (in the case of The Blank Tapes, Matt Adams), with a revolving cast of friends from other bands or projects who play when they can and don't when they can't. This gives every album and live show a spontaneity and uniqueness that you don't get from bands with set lineups (unless maybe that band is Fugazi). Every show has a different setlist, different instrumentation, and can go either way: utter brilliance or total trainwreck. It's that unpredictability that makes it exciting.
These bands also tend to be pretty prolific. It's easier to record when you don't have to actually work around 4 specific people's schedules or when you can play all the instruments yourself. The Blank Tapes are no exception. Not only have the they released 6 Albums (most clocking in at 20+ songs, a couple of EPs, and who knows how many random tape, Cd-r, and compilation releases (I highly recommend the FREE Adams curated Universal Western Attractions) in the last 7 years, but Adams also records, produces and plays in bands like Dirty Birdy, Collin Ludlow, Sleepy Todd, and Sugar Candy Mountain. On top of all that, 2012 is gearing up to be a ridiculously busy year. They've already got 5 releases lined up:
Invisible Colors - A Split album with Magic Leaves - a collection of older recordings too rocking and random for any other release
An all new split album w/ Sugar Candy Moutain is "being recorded in Brazil, featuring the newest batch of songs, sexy, funny songs if i (Matt Adams) dare say so".
Vacation - A new album recently recorded at New, Improved Recording (tUnE-YaRdS, Thao & Mirah, Deerhoof).
Geodesic Domepiece - a stoner concept album recorded to 2" tape which will come out on April 20th, of course.
A couple albums of new and old 8 track recordings called SHA-LA-LOVE & and yet to be named one along with a hodge podge of other random recordings.

CHECK OUT THE BLANK TAPES BANDCAMP FOR $5 (or less) MP3 albums.

Here are three exclusive demos of tunes that will be (or have been) rerecorded for Blank Tapes albums to be released in 2012.

The Blank Tapes - Exclusive Demos from PIAPTKBlog.com by PIAPTK

In a weird fluke that is the stuff that musician dreams (and jokes) are made of, a Blank Tapes song was licensed last year to be used in Brazilian candy commercial. The commercial and song were so popular, that a band that played house shows for 30 people in the US were soon on their way to Brazil to play large venues. They are currently in Brazil for the second time, check the dates here.

Daily Dose of Wooden Wand!

Sometime around Thanksgiving, the Wooden Wand Archives Vol. 3 6xLP boxset in beautiful, hand made and stained heavy duty wooden boxes will be shipping to the lucky 200 people who preordered them (a handful of these sets are still available at PIAPTK.com). Only 16 of the 70 previously unreleased or out-of-print tunes on this set were officially released digitally, because James wanted to keep the release as "vinyl-only" as possible. I, personally, felt these tracks (I sorted through 300+ (mostly good to great) unreleased tunes initially) were SOOO good, that people deserved to hear them, regardless of their turntable status. It is, after all, the digital age, and after a PIAPTK vs Wand, Best 3 out of 5 Scrabble Death Match, I won the rights to include a 16 song "Selections" disc.


DAILY DOSE OF WAND - Despite everything above, when I pitched a promotion idea for the brand new PIAPTK blog; "How about if I post a single song download from the Boxset, every day, for only 24 hours?" his reply was, "Sure! Post whatever you want!"

So here it goes:

Every evening, between 7 and 10 pm, from now until the boxset preorders ship, I will post a new, unreleased Wooden Wand tune from the upcoming boxset (and occasionally totally unheard rarities). I will leave the song up for streaming for 7 days, but will disable the download option as soon as I upload the new song the next day.

To get it kicked off, let's do THREE tunes!

Day One: Nothing To Declare
Daily Dose of Wand 10/26 - 01 Nothing To Declare by PIAPTK

Day One: Drill Myth Shit
Daily Dose of Wand - 10/26 - 03 Drill Myth Shit by PIAPTK

Day One: Easy Street
Daily Dose of Wand - 10/26 - 04 Easy Street by PIAPTK

New (classic Lineup) GBV Free Track!

Under the Bushes, Under The Stars was my first real introduction to Guided By Voices, when I picked it up in a used bin in 1997. It has remains my favorite GBV record to this. Imagine my excitement when Bob got the original boys back together last year. Maybe I'm a little late to the party with the announcement of their new record, Let's Go Eat The Factory, which is supposed to "pick up where Under The Bushes, Under The Stars Left Off". It is due out on Matador in January 2012, but today, RobertPollard.net posted The Unsinkable Fats Domino, the first single from the album.

New Glossary Record, "Long Live All Of Us"

Glossary is one of those bands that is extremely consistent. You always know what you are going to get. They don't try to "New Coke" it up. They've got a great formula worked out and they stick to it and work around it. Their brand of Americana Soul (think Wilco meets Van Morrison) really shows off the excellent songwriting of frontman Joey Kneiser while the music and arrangements come off as an easy group effort. Friends in a living room with a six pack (or 6) of cheap beer and an occasional smoke break.

I first came across Glossary in 2004, shortly after they released "How We Handle Our Midnights". I had heard the name through tours they had done with some Texas bands that I kept up with. I'd heard the name, heard good things, but never actually heard their music. I went to see them at a Wednesday Night showcase at SXSW and was blown away. I saw (stalked) them for the rest of the week and saw them 5 or 6 more times. I've been a fan ever since.

I was pretty excited to hear from Bingham Barnes (bassist in Glossary and Jescos (with James Toth of Wooden Wand & Tim Bracy of The Mendoza Line) that Glossary had a new record. "Long Live All Of Us" is the first Glossary album that was not recorded in a studio, under time constraints. Instead, they rented a house ("between a church and a "Meth house in the woods") and took their sweet time recording it themselves. And it shows.

Check out "Trouble Won't Last Always" and "Keep It Coming"

Songs from "Long Live All Of Us" by Glossary by PIAPTK

New Turner Cody LP "The Radioman Sessions"

Turner Cody gets lumped into the "Anti-Folk" scene, perhaps because of his appearance on the genre-naming Rough Trade compilation, or maybe because of tours he has done with Adam Green, Herman Dune, etc. Or perhaps because of his turn playing the title character in Jeffrey Lewis' hilarious video for Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror. Regardless, the always dapperly dressed Cody has a depth of style that most Anti-Folkers don't. And his new album, The Radioman Sessions, definitely run the gamut, sylistically.

According to Cody himself "(A) soundtrack to the film that never was, "Radioman Sessions" navigates the NYC of the imagination, from 2nd st and the Bowery to the Hudson river, all night cheap hotels and New Jersey. These songs are subtle meditations on the desperation, grit and ultimate redemption of the urban experience. Musicians include Sam Grossman, John Dydo, Kevin Thaxton, Tim Love Lee, Jon Natchez, Mike Termini. Produced by Dan Myers."

It features nine tracks with 5 songs followed by 4 alternate, stripped down versions, which all come off as completely different songs, despite identical lyrics. "Ounce of Gold", has a Hanna Barbera jungle cartoon theme meets Tom Waits-at-his-silliest vibe. "Weary to the Bone" is reminiscent of Dylan's best late 60's rockers. And you can almost picture a 30's crooner singing the Tin Pan Alley influenced "2nd Street". George Jones wishes he'd been given "City Walls", though I doubt even he could have done the countryish ballad any better. And finally, I have no idea WHAT to compare the frantic, paranoid "Hey Jim", but it's good...

Check out both versions of "Weary to the Bone"
Turner Cody - Weary To The Bone by PIAPTK

New Benoit Pioulard 12" and tour

Newly transplanted Seattlite, Thomas Meluch, AKA Benoit Pioulard, has just released a new 12" EP called "Benoît Honoré Pioulard Plays Thelma"on Desire Path Recordings. It's limited to only 300 copies.

He will also be touring in November, where he will have copies of the Thelma 12" and the Through The Fractured Lens/An Absolute lathe cut 7" (only 66 made!) available for sale.

BENOIT PIOULARD TOUR DATES:
10/29/2011 Philadelphia PA St. Mary’s Hamilton Village
10/30/2011 NYC NY West Park Presbyterian Church
10/31/2011 Montreal QC Casa del Popolo
**11/1/2011 Toronto ON Drake Hotel** Record Release Party for Thelma. There will also be a special performance from Kyle Bobby Dunn.
11/2/2011 Pittsburgh PA The Warhol at Carnegie Museum of Art
11/3/2011 Cincinnati OH Southgate House
11/5/2011 St. Louis MO Off Broadway
11/6/2011 Chicago IL Lincoln Hall
11/7/2011 Minneapolis MN Cedar Cultural Center
11/10/2011 Seattle WA The Triple Door
11/12/2011 Portland OR Holocene
11/14/2011 San Francisco CA The Independent
11/15/2011 Los Angeles CA The Satellite

Stream "Calder" and BP's Soundcloud:
Calder by Benoît Pioulard

R. Stevie Moore Collaborates with Ariel Pink!

The godfather of mid-fidelified-beyond-prolific-home-recording, R. Stevie Moore is not as weird in real life as you might imagine if you heard his music and knew his story ( which is soon to be a documentary). I know. He came over to my house and hung out on the trampoline in my back yard and ate Doritos. It does, however, take a certain mindset and eccentricity to record as obsessively and for as long as Stevie has.

In his latest collaboration (He has previously worked with Mike Watt, Billy Anderson on this PIAPTK released 7", Dr. Dog, Jad Fair, MGMT, etc etc.) he's teamed up with reverby-soft-rock-weirdo Ariel Pink. The album isn't complete, but Stevie's already sharing some of it on his SoundCloud site. It sounds exactly like you'd hope it would... a nice hybrid of Pink's swirling ambience with sawtooth synths and Moore's PowerBritPop sensabilities. Actual songs interspersed with repetitious and weird musical interludes.

Check out "Stevie Pink Javascript" below.
SteviePink Javascript by kukluxglam

Hear a LOT more at their Sound Cloud.

Shortly before Stevie came by my house for the whole Doritos on the trampoline thing, he spent some time down the street at Dub Narcotic, a little studio that has recorded a couple albums you might have heard of, like One Foot In The Grave, This is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, Black Candy, etc.

I Just Wanna Feel You is typical of recent Stevie... Unabashedly and Unashamedly Sexy. Lyrics like "I just wanna feel you... I wanna use my hands" would certainly creep you out if Stevie said them to you in person without knowing who he was. I've been fantasizing about making a Christmas movie with Stevie as a hired Santa Claus working a bachelorette party. His only lines would come straight from his lyric sheets. Oliver, Francis, college RTVF major... call me, let's get working on this. It will blow "It's a Wonderful Life" out of the water.

It is, potentially going to be released sometime in the near future as a K Records 7". It was recorded with the amazing Tropical Ooze who has been touring as Stevie's support and band since he began touring earlier in the year. Amazingly, after 50+ years of recording, he had never done a proper tour! Strangely enough, Tropical Ooze turned out to be the band of a long-lost friend of mine from college. Hipstertown is a small world.

I Just Wanna Feel You ~ R. Stevie Moore by kukluxglam

Scud Mountain Boys Reunite!

According to a typically-snarky-and-long-winded-email-filled-with-inside-jokes-I'm-outside-of, from the Pernice Brothers email list, one of my favorite alt-country bands from the 90s, The Scud Mountain Boys, are reuniting!

Well, they are playing a handful of shows (which may or may not lead to additional dates, anyway), none of which is anywhere near my side of the country. So, my joy at the reunion is also filled with deep sorrow at my inability to attend. I'm really hoping my daughter learns to talk soon that I can train her to ask her mom for tickets to the Washington, D.C. show for her first birthday.

SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS REUNION TOUR-ISH

Friday, Jan. 13, 2012
Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

Saturday Jan. 14
Brighton Music Hall, Boston, MA

Sunday, Jan. 15
Pearl Street Clubroom, Northampton, MA

Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012
Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA

Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012
The Black Cat, Washington, DC

FOUND SOUND - Hayseed Boys - Meddleander

Far and away one of the most interesting and bizarre demos I've ever received at PIAPTK is the Hayseed Boys album "Meddleander". Hayseed Boys are apparently an experimental "collective" (sometimes including Mark Morrison of Lazer Zeppelin and LAKE) that provides a backing score to thrift store answering machine tapes. Hailing from inland California, they have found the holy grail of dimwitted, insane, trashy and criminal monologues. If there is anything that shows like Jersey Shore and Dog the Bounty Hunter have shown us, it's that people LOVE to watch low-brow people do low-brow things in the name of "reality".

Meddleander is chock full of meth heads, pill freaks, jail birds, murder, intrigue, hot spaghetti, and inappropriate uncles being PAINFULLY real, never expecting to have an audience. This tiny slice of their life (all taken from a single answering machine tape) has been rescued from obscurity, and it makes you feel so much better about yourself, regardless of your current situation. All of these messages are tastefully interspersed with lo-fi tunes, avant garde manipulation, bizarre circuit bent keyboard bloops, etc.

Download the whole album here:

Hayseed Boys - Meddleander MP3 Album.

Check out "Dollar Eighty" below:
Hayseed Boys - Dollar Eighty by PIAPTK

New Good Saints EP (with JJ Toth)

Good Saints is a new band from Kentucky, Featuring James "Wooden Wand" Toth, Derek "Doc" Feldman, Newt Newsome, David Chapman (insert obligatory Lennon joke), and Mark Rush

Toth's recently recorded LP, "Briarwood", attributed to Wooden Wand And The Briarwood Virgins (AKA The Gum Creek Killers) hasn't even come back from the pressing plant yet, and the silkscreen ink isn't dry on the 6xLP Archives boxset (both coming soon on PIAPTK), and he already has a new EP with Good Saints.

Check out "Driftwood on the Fire" at the Good Saints bandcamp.

But don't call this a "side project" and don't request any Wand songs at the shows, because Good Saints is more than the sum of it's parts. They have three distinct songwriters and vocalists; Toth, Newt Newsome, and Derek Feldman, each one having a powerful and distinct voice that fits neatly in with one of the classic outlaw country archetypes.

Good Saints is just a local band made up of regular guys with regular jobs, just put together to have a good time and play music, with no real ambitions of touring or being commercially successful. But these modest ambitions belie the true potential of the band. The "Driftwood on the Fire" EP sounds like what I'd imagine it is; three songwriters bringing in songs and having their buddies play them. But given the strong writing, I would expect that by their next batch of recordings they will have developed into a recognizable, collaborative style. While the 6 tunes found here are relatively mellow, and not exactly what you'd call barnburners, you definitely get the vibe that these guys could really tear it up in a live setting. I wouldn't want to be paying their bar tab, though.

Check out their Reverbnation page for upcoming Kentucky-area shows.

Graves - Summr Bummr LP on St. Ives

A new LP from my favorite pacific northwest songwriter on one of my favorite labels. Greg Olin's long-running lazy lounge pop band, Graves, has a new LP on St Ives. St Ives is the vanity vinyl side label from Secretly Canadian. All records are pressed in quantities of 300 or less and all jackets are handmade. They've released records from Animal Collective, Microphones, Mt. Eerie, Fruit Bats, Impossible Shapes, etc.

As is pretty typical of the more recent Graves records (Easy Not Easy (one of my favorite albums of all time), Seldom Slumber), Summr Bummr really plays with the traditional idea of how albums are "supposed to be". There are tunes that repeat with minor variations (O O O Around The World), instrumental reprises, and complete reworkings of tunes into alternate versions (Lazer Show and Hollywood). Lazer show and Hollywood shows up in two completely different incarnations on Summr Bummr, but also appeared on the PIAPTK Records Digest 4x5" Bookset in a version that was even more wildly different than the two here. Summr Bummr also features two songs that had previously been released on a four-way split LP with Karl Blau, Nate Ashley and Gift Machine. Magic Mountain, like most of the revisited songs here has been revamped to be even more mellow than it's predecessor. The Motown-style backing vocals really add a different feel to this version. Summr Bummr's closer, Weed Out The Trips, shares an identical title with a song from the 4-way split, but the comparisons stop there. The Summr Bummr version is COMPLETELY different, lyrically and musically. Olin must really like the phrase, because Weed Out The Trips was also the working title of an album with another of his projects, Solid Home Life with Lindsay Schief of LAKE, which will be coming out soon on PIAPTK, Fin Records, and Lost Sound Tapes.

Summr Bummr seems to be a concept album about coming into adulthood. Lyrical themes of homework, missing the bus, skipping class, mailing thank you notes, etc help recall the excitement and uncertainty of the summer after high school graduation, without ever becoming cheesy or overly nostalgic.

While you are at it, check out Olin's new band, Au Dunes, at their Bandcamp and download their new EP, 73's and 88's for free. While Olin still writes and sings the songs for Au Dunes, the listless, drifting, melodies of Graves, have been replaced by a more upbeat swagger reminiscent of The VU or The Stones. Some of the tunes would fit in really well on a Nuggets compilation.


Au Dunes - 73's & 88's - 02 Sugar Cubes by PIAPTK

Hello!

Welcome to the PIAPTK blog, the sister arm of the brother label, People In A Position To Know Limited Edition Vinyl Recordings and Handmade Audio Artifacts.

It will focus on the interests of it's proprietor and his friends. It will feature posts about handmade releases, obscure but amazing artists, found sounds, out of print 7"s, MP3s, etc. .