let's fly kites.

family might are a bunch of teenage doods making scrappy sloppy emotional punk that is perfectly suited for summer bike rides & drinking sweet tea on porches & high fives & loving yr friends & smiling at strangers. here's to teenage romance & hand claps & bear hugs & screaming at the top of yr lungs because it reminds you that yr fucking alive. support these guys in any way that you can. fuck, support heartfelt diy punk in any way that you can.

secret handshakes.

the other part of my mid nineties trifecta. & i never got a chance to see any of these three bands, which is still a bummer for me to this day. i think all three of these bands resonate so much with me because they are extremely emotional & have a lot of really sweet quiet/loud/quiet parts that i think speaks to a teen's heart. & now i'm almost thirty, but these records have such a great air of nostalgia for me. plus who doesn't like air drumming to anthemic dc inspired bombastic angular shit? if you don't like this, you might not have a heart.

i've crossed the dutchman's path.

the hal al shedad are one of my all time favorite bands hands down. in the same echelon as roadside monument & the vehicle birth who are bands i always thought of as leaps & bounds ahead of their peers but never got the recognition they deserved. dark mathy angular post hardcore in the louisville vein, but with a style & flair all their own. i'm not sure why all the people who are downloading the world records aren't downloading my mid nineties posts? any suggestions? comments are welcome. don't be an idiot, just download this & thank me later.

Yaln‡zlar R‡ht‡m‡.

this is for the cats who aren't familiar with erkin koray. y'all really should be. he was one of the major figures in turkish psych rock, and pretty much pioneered rock & roll in turkey in the fifties. this contains three albums of pure manna to help soothe yr world weary souls when yr feeling down in the mouth.

another hung over work day blues.

sorry for the lack of posts, i have been going out every night, then sleeping till i need to go to work. anyway, iamspoonbender is one of my favorite groups ever. they were on gsl if that means anything to anyone. i always felt they had their own aesthetic & sound, but i guess you could describe them as the point where motorik, cold wave, & mid nineties synth punk meet. definitely good to listen to when you need to dance in the morning because life just seems so bleak when yr head is pounding.

neu wavve.

i'm pretty sure that when one of those gross dirty filth/blatz fucks comes up to you & yells in yr face that punk isn't fucking dead you square, that the mutant is talking about this album. this is punk as fuck in the immortal words of andrew kenny. i grabbed this ages ago from the owl, which i think might have been poached from another blog... moootant soundz i think? ghostycapital? regardless, just get this & be delighted in the far superior sounds of haniwa chan. kind of like polyphonic spree without the robes & better songs.

bb come back.

james ferraro is really hit or miss, but has had flashes of brilliance like this lo-fi warped mutant glue sniffing pop masterpiece. & if yr reading this right now man, don't get bummed. make a new grippers album.

steel sings through the night.

i know y'all are probably thinking what's up with all of the foreign psych records? well, i have to meet the needs of my constituency, plus everyone enjoys getting trill every once in a while right? perfect for those codeine nights when yr digging on some pied piper at the gates of dawn vybez. dutch steez from the sixties, grab this, & realign yr vision.

secrets behind the wall.

continuing right along, here is another post for the bros out there. some really fantastic japanese psych from 68' for slow sunday mornings that help you unwind for the psychonauts out there. you may know him from his later outfit flower travellin' band. definitely recommended if you like to get weird in the words of brother flash.

walking through the set of a giallo thriller.

another thing you should know is gialli is my favorite genre of film, & the soundtracks for them are fucking legit. gianni ferrio is my favorite composer, & this is one of my favorite albums from that cat. real smooth sweet jams that make you feel like yr hanging out in Rome running down a dark alley one moment & then cruising around on a boat with the sun shining on yr face the next. this is the fucking jam y'all.

mr. walking drugstore man.

more hot fire from shinki chen. this cat is blowing my mind wide open. admittedly the lyrics & vocals are really really terrible, but the music itself is fucking incredible. if this was instrumental & released now, southern lord would be sucking their dicks to release this.

mountains of backmasked lysergic dirges.

shinki chen is the japanese jimi hendrix. he put out this beast of a fucking psych record back in 71'. this record will literally melt yr face. this post is dedicated to my brother who's into this sort of astral traveling. godspeed man.

walking on water.

“This is an excellent reissue of 78s first recorded from 1929 to 1951 in France of Franco-Creole Biguines from Martinique. This CD issue contains a generous 23 selections (9 more than the 1988 LP issue). There is a similarity to some of the calypso and New Orleans jazz of the same era, but Martinique has its own sound, rooted in the rhythms of its indigenous dance, the biguine. This music was recorded by Martiniquans living in Paris on major labels of the era. The premier musicians were Alexandre Stellio on clarinet, Ernest Leardée on violin, and trombonist Archange St. Hillaire who performed together and fronted their own groups. This is a pleasing collection of exciting Caribbean music (my mother, who grew up dancing to beguines [Spanish spelling] in her native Virgin Islands, loves it too!) that never has failed to lift my spirits.”

-Kerry Blech

another great find from yesterday's exploits. moving from the south i'm not used to all of this cold weather, so i've been searching out warm blooded music & this is just what i needed. kick out the jams!

a picture postcard.

a mid nineties comp of the who's who of the creme de la creme of indie rock/emo. i listened to this so much, and had a few of the actual seven inches that comprised this comp. sometimes i get really sad i sold off most of my collection via ebay & skylab (does anyone even remember that website?). if you were ever into jade tree, polyvinyl, crank, or caufield, then grab this & grab yr old cardigan & horn rimmed glasses & get ready to shed a few tears.

summering in crete.

another great find from a friend in the west. reminds me a bit of gypsy folk, especially taraf de haidouks, but with a much more mediterranean vibe to it. ridiculously good, this is another one i just had to share with y'all.

venezuelan heat.

all praise go to the almighty hawaiian who wishes to remain anonymous for dropping this in my lap. this shit is fucking crazy good, sounding like a south american free design with a little more oomph in all the right places. i can not recommend this enough! dude gave it to me a while back, and finally got around listening to it earlier tonight, & just had to post it for y'all to grab. get this now & don't sleep on it like i did!

the ghost of alan lomax's beard.

found this today while out and about enjoying the rare sun that seattle has to offer these days. definitely warms the spirit to hear these soul fire jams. don't be fooled by the terrible cover art, this is legit & should be in yr library. the ram gopaul track is especially enchanting. alan lomax may be one of the greatest men to have ever lived, & his contribution to music is both impressive & awe inspiring.

fire in the jungle.

this is for flash. machito is a new find for me, & this was extremely difficult to find. i had to stroll down some very nefarious russian alleyways to find this burner, & lovingly assemble & fix tags & information for y'all. definitely in line with tito & sabu. if you dig those cats, then you'll be all over this. definitely a day starter.

prophesying the end times.

so there isn't very much information floating around the internet currently about this release other that it was put out posthumously after the pigs sniped koresh. two pretty decent songs, and a great sermon in the middle, especially when he snarkily puts down amy grant. i like to loop it when i sleep as it's rather comforting... his voice is very soothing. he's extremely charismatic when he speaks, but not on the same level as my hero jim jones. if you like weird records, then this will scratch yr itch.

sperm ridden burden.

roadside monument were always a terribly under appreciated band. they always got stuck with the stigma of being on tooth and nail, which profoundly impacted people's opinions of them, and also the fact that they were always considered an "emo" band versus what they were really were, a louisville band birthed in the wrong city at the wrong time. the pacific north west never was and still isn't ready for the emotional catharsis that is inherent in their music. and if this seems like overblown praise, wait till you hear the release in sunken anchor. i got into this band because of their prior band, mr. bishop's fist was featured on the helpless amongst friends comp, and i really dug the chunky mid nineties hardcore they were playing. then i bought eight hours away from being a man and was instantly hooked by sperm ridden burden because at fifteen in 1997 i was really into ebullition, mountain coop, shit like that. i never got the chance to see them... i'm not sure why. i was constantly going to shows at the time, maybe they just never came down? anyway, this album remains one of my favorites to this day. jonathan ford's bass parts are probably the best thing about this album, but the guitar and drums... i take that back everything about this album is perfect. it is one of the few records i can play the entire way through over and over again and never get tired of it. i also included i am the day of current taste, which is way more angular and just as good but different. trust me, you'll be thanking me later for this one.