Wharf Cat Records

*If you order Deluxe LP + T-Shirt Include your T-shirt size in other info section at checkout.

On the What’s This? LP, CS Cleaners deliver 11 tracks of warped, day-glow art punk that lash out at the absurdity of contemporary living. The band is influenced by NYC downtown music from CBGB’s diverse first wave through no-wave’s mutations and deconstructions. But while CS Cleaners might have a sound rooted in music that can be severe at times, they are by no means taking themselves seriously: What’s This? is dance music first and foremost, albeit a form wild enough for these extreme times.

Edition Details:

• DELUXE 2XLP + 7” VERSION IS ON RED VINYL IN A THICK, TIP-ON GATEFOLD JACKET W/ ATTACHED 28 PAGE BOOK. IT COMES WITH A BETTER OFF DEAD B/W BLACK 7” ON RED VINYL, AN ADDITIONAL BOOKLET BY LA PESTE’S PETER DAYTON & MARK KARL, AN 11” X 14” POSTER, AND A LA PESTE PIN.

• LIMITED EDITION 2XLP IS ON BLACK VINYL IN A THICK, TIP-ON GATEFOLD JACKET W/ ATTACHED 28 PAGE BOOK.

• COMPACT DISK COMES W/ 28 PAGE BOOKLET.

La Peste was Boston’s first true punk band. I Don’t Know Right From Wrong tells the full story of La Peste with a presentation of the band’s unreleased studio and loft recordings along with the two tracks that were officially released during the band’s run. The material in this compilation comes from the studio session that produced the Better Off Dead 7”, their 1979 session with The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, a 1979 session at Electro Acoustic Studios, 4-track loft recordings and the the band’s very first studio sessions in early 1977.

Book/Booklet: Long Form Essay by Andy Cush. Micro-Essays by Greg Hawkes (The Cars), Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), Peter Prescott (Mission of Burma), Clint Conley (Mission of Burma), Pat Place (Bush Tetras, Contortions),Willie Loco Alexander (The Lost, Boom Boom Band, The Velvet Underground), Richard Parsons (Unnatural Axe), Malcolm Travis (Human Sexual Response), Curt Naihersey (The Kids, Pastiche) & Richard Mendelson (Engineer of Ric Ocasek Sessions).

*If you order Deluxe LP + T-Shirt Include your T-shirt size in other info section at checkout.

On the What’s This? LP, CS Cleaners deliver 11 tracks of warped, day-glow art punk that lash out at the absurdity of contemporary living. The band is influenced by NYC downtown music from CBGB’s diverse first wave through no-wave’s mutations and deconstructions. But while CS Cleaners might have a sound rooted in music that can be severe at times, they are by no means taking themselves seriously: What’s This? is dance music first and foremost, albeit a form wild enough for these extreme times.

DELUXE EDITION LP IS ON STARLIGHT BLUE VINYL AND COMES W/ A SIGNED POSTER.

LIMITED EDITION IS ON BLUE VINYL.

On Blinking as the Starlight Burns Out Paula Kelley explores her reverence for the dark edges of pop music, crafting a deeply personal song cycle informed by her career as a musician, song-writer and arranger. Channelling some of her most treasured pop-noir classics by Judee Sill, Colin Blunstone and Big Star, the songs on her first album in almost 20 years are filled with heart-wrenching melodies and layer-upon-layer of lush, kinetic instrumentation. Despite her status as a shoegaze pioneer and her career writing and arranging pop music, Blinking as the Starlight Burns Out does not retread past glories, but rather shapes the often psychodramatic tales in Blinking’s songs into a singular and personal vision of indie pop music.

*If you order Deluxe LP + T-Shirt Include your T-shirt size in other info section at checkout.

On the What’s This? LP, CS Cleaners deliver 11 tracks of warped, day-glow art punk that lash out at the absurdity of contemporary living. The band is influenced by NYC downtown music from CBGB’s diverse first wave through no-wave’s mutations and deconstructions. But while CS Cleaners might have a sound rooted in music that can be severe at times, they are by no means taking themselves seriously: What’s This? is dance music first and foremost, albeit a form wild enough for these extreme times.

SPECIAL EDITION IS ON GREEN VINYL COMES W/ TAPE & PIN

LIMITED EDITION IS ON BLACK VINYL

From their conception in 2017 through the NOPE Tape series, P.E. existed as an experiment in co-conspirited collaboration. Oh! continues to cast a wide net, featuring an expanded lineup from their original formation, including Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces on the lead single “Color Coordinator.” The resulting music ranges wide as ever, from the jubilant grooves of the title track and “Color Coordinator” to “The Fiction Writer”- a tender duet between Veronica Torres and Jonny Campolo - through the city pop sounds of “(Do You Like) So So” and “Purple On Time,”and into the abstracted beyond.

Releases March 6, 2026

Mastered by Carl Saff
Artwork by Miles Wintner, Center Labels by Nora King
Manufacturing by AtoZ Media

About the Scribble Benefit Compilation
Funds raised via the sale of the Scribble benefit compilation will go toward providing mental health services to musicians. Scribble is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit counseling center and community events venue located in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Scribble's counseling center is located at 5531 York Blvd and provides sliding scale mental health services for individuals, couples, families and groups. You can learn more about Scribble’s therapy services here. The positive effects of community and artistic expression on mental health are well-documented. However, to our knowledge, Scribble is the first and only organization in the US to combine professional therapy services with a fully-operational music and arts venue. It's never easy to do something that's never been done before, and Scribble relies on the support of community members to make it possible.
Tracklist:
1. Meernaa - “House on a Hill”
2. GracieHorse - “Won’t Let You Down”
3. Lily Konigsberg - “Is It Over (demo)”
4. Little Wings - “Speed Bead Master”
5. Dream School - “Acrobat Heart”
6. Dougie Poole - “Port Authority Hymn (live)"
7. Jonny Kosmo - “Shoot”
8. Pearl and The Oysters - “Randi (demo)"
9. Joey Agresta - “The Way The Music Sounds”
10. Jackson MacIntosh - “Running After You”
11. Alex Izenberg - “April Showers”
12. Garcia Peoples - “Tubby’s Jam”

“Fools” b/w “Fools (demo)”

250 hand-numbered 7”s featuring hand screened jackets.

“Fools” is from an album to come in 2026. “Fools” is a classic shoegaze swooner w/ layers of gliding guitar beneath gentle vocals from Greg Ackell & Paula Kelley. “Fools” was mixed by Chris McLaughlin (Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Bon Iver) who melds the gauzy textures and stomping beat.

The band play in L.A., San Francisco & NYC in November to support “Fools.”

DELUXE EDITION IS ON WHITE VINYL AND COMES WITH T-SHIRT AND COASTER. HAND NUMBERED EDITON 1-50. *****NOTE YOUR T-SHIRT SIZE AT CHECK OUT!******

SPECIAL EDTION IS ON ORANGE MARBLE VINYL AND COMES WITH COASTER.

LIMITED EDITION IS ON BLACK VINYL.

On his new live album At Tubby’s, Dougie Poole and his band (Mike Etten on electric guitar and James Wyatt Woodall on pedal steel) present stripped down live versions of some of his most treasured songs, recorded in September 2024 during one sold out show at beloved Upstate NY venue Tubby’s Kingston.

We are excited to be releasing Mongkok Duel in the Americas and EU.

Progressing from Gong Gong Gong’s long-standing Rhythm n’ Drone collaborative series, Mongkok Duel showcases the distinctive aesthetics of both groups, building a shared language of cyclical motorik rhythms, evolving drones, textural sound effects, snarling guitar and growling bass hooks.

• DELUXE EDITION IS ON SWIRL VINYL & COMES WITH 24" X 24" POSTER & T-SHIRT. ***SPECIFY T-SHIRT SIZE AT CHECK OUT IN THE ‘ADDITIONAL INFORMATION’ SECTION***

• SPECIAL EDITION IS ON WHITE VINYL AND COMES WITH 24" X 24" POSTER.

• LIMITED EDITION IN ON WHITE VINYL.

• 3LP + 7” BUNDLE CONTAINS DELAWARE (YELLOW VINYL), 1991 (WHITE VINYL), HARD LIGHT (BLACK VINYL) & WHITE DRESS 7” (BLACK VINYL)

Following the release of Drop Nineteens’ first album in 30 years, Hard Light and the re-issue of their 1992 shoegaze masterwork Delaware, we are excited to announce the official release of Drop Nineteens’ 1991. This LP comprises the band’s first two demo sessions which were mailed out via cassette to labels in 1991 finding their way to the UK music press and generating instant buzz and an ensuing feeding frenzy to sign the band. After signing with Caroline Records Drop Nineteens decided to write an entirely new record, Delaware, for their first official release, leaving the songs on 1991 behind, frozen in time.

Swells of layered guitars and buried vocal harmonies adorn these tracks, displaying Drop Nineteens when the comparison to their UK contemporaries like Slowdive and Ride were apt. 1991’s songs, recorded with a low fi charm, show an ambitious young band capable of writing songs filled with texture and hooks, on the eve of their breakthrough with Delaware.

• SHIPS NOW!

• DELUXE EDITION IS ON BARBERSHOP VINYL & COMES WITH KICK THE TRAGEDY” T-SHIRT AND BUMPER STICKER. ***SPECIFY T-SHIRT SIZE AT CHECK OUT IN THE ‘ADDITIONAL INFORMATION’ SECTION***

• SPECIAL EDITION IS ON DAFFODIL VINYL AND COMES WITH BUMPER STICKER.

• LIMITED EDITION IN ON DAFFODIL VINYL.

• 3LP + 7” BUNDLE CONTAINS DELAWARE (YELLOW VINYL), 1991 (WHITE VINYL), HARD LIGHT (BLACK VINYL) & WHITE DRESS 7” (BLACK VINYL).

“Delaware set Drop Nineteens squarely in a league of their own” - Pitchfork

A - White Dress

B - White Dress (demo)

The band follow up the official release of the 1991 album with their first ever 7”, White Dress b/w White Dress (demo). The 7” features the band’s cover of the Lana Del Ray classic in two versions. It comes on the anniversary of the band’s digital release of “White Dress.”

This is an edition of 500 black 7”s and 200 white vinyl 7”s, and is sure to be a collectable item for fans of shoegaze and Drop Nineteens alike.

3LP + 7” BUNDLE CONTAINS DELAWARE (YELLOW VINYL), 1991 (WHITE VINYL), HARD LIGHT (BLACK VINYL) & WHITE DRESS 7” (BLACK VINYL)

These ship on 8/1 or when we receive them.

DELUXE EDITION LP IS ON BLUE VINYL AND COMES W/ T-SHIRT. HAND NUMBERED 1-100. ***INCLUDE YOUR SHIRT SIZE ON THE CHECK-OUT PAGE IN ‘ADDITIONAL INFORMATION’!

SPECIAL EDITION LP IS ON BLACK VINYL AND COMES W/ T-SHIRT. ***INCLUDE YOUR SHIRT SIZE ON THE CHECK-OUT PAGE IN ‘ADDITIONAL INFORMATION’!

LIMITED EDITION IS ON BLACK VINYL.

Integrating elements of New York no-wave, the avant-garde history of punk, noise, hip-hop and electronic music, the tracks on What Is Success are heavy, rhythmicalLy complex and feature intricate 2-guitar interplay. The result is expansive, stratospheric in volume, and brutally material in its punctuation and delivery. Mastered by Carl Saff, the wax sounds huge and detailed.

SPECIAL EDTION LP IS ON BLUE OR CLOUDY CLEAR VINYL AND COMES WITH DEAD CONFETTI ZINE.

LIMITED EDITION LP IS ON BLUE OR CLOUDY CLEAR VINYL.

Birthmarks emerges directly from the band’s favored aesthetics and themes, but captures them with a new sense of sonic adventurousness and thematic subtlety, resulting in a collection of songs that are somehow both the band’s most apocalyptic and most poignant.

Back in Print!

Special Edition comes w/ Enamel Pin

6 LP Bundle comes w/ Birthmarks LP (Red Vinyl), Love On My Mind (Green Vinyl), Shadow On Everything (Black Vinyl) + Swarm (Black Vinyl), Dream Violence (Black Vinyl) + Enamel Pin

Stray is both the band's most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivory-Block’s (Palberta) vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s commanding baritone on tracks like “Sing Me to the Street”, “Death Croons” and “Stay Cruel," while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on “Serafina” and "Heat Lightning" and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens. Here Bambara sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.

Second Pressing is on Black Vinyl. It has been Re-Plated.

Soft Cloud Vinyl is Down to Last Copies.

Special Edition LPs come with Bumper Sticker.

3LP + 7” Bundle Contains Hard Light (Black Vinyl), Delaware (Yellow Vinyl), 1991 (White Vinyl) & White Dress 7” (Black Vinyl)

Hard Light delivers diverse, surprising sounds akin to Drop Nineteens’ legacy. 2023 sees them at the peak of their craft. defining their genre anew.  

Bush Tetras’s 3rd official LP, They Live in My Head is a collection of songs that sometimes reflect on the past and sometimes reckon with our current reality. From “Ghosts of People,” on which Pat Place’s legendary guitar meanders through closed doors and portals, to the scorching “2020 Vision,” a matter-of-fact call to arms to get on the streets and get something done, the album addresses new and old, in both abstract and specific terms. But whether they’re looking forward or backward, Bush Tetras have always been a political band, a band that calls out all kinds of bullshit, and, in that sense, They Live in My Head is absolutely no exception. Recorded at Little Stevie’s studio in their NYC home turf, Tetras’s new album sees the band re-energized and at the top of their game.

SPECIAL EDITION LP IS ON GREEN VINLYL AND COMES WITH A POSTER.

About L.A. Shit

Gracie Horse weaves stories into her songs. On L.A. Shit, her debut record with Wharf Cat, she takes us into the past half a decade of her life. We see her as a traveling nurse, living in big blue expanse of Wyoming, dancing with a man in a crisp white Stetson, eating chicken wings in a hazmat suit, commenting on how strange a place like Los Angeles can be, how loaded it is with wannabe cowboys and fast food restaurants. It’s a record of immaculate country music, the kind of stuff you’d put on blast in your truck as you drive down empty stretches of highway. It’s also a vulnerable record, full of lyrics about the intensity of being alive, all told with a sense of humor and self-awareness.

Upon Swarm’s 2016 release, Brooklyn-based Bambara had been honing their noise-rock brutalism since forming in Athens, Georgia in 2009. On Swarm, their second full-length, the band began to pull their approach into sharp focus, and the result was a foundational triumph.

After the pure noise experimentation of their 2013 debut Dreamviolence, here the band began to develop many of their later trademarks. 

For fans of Bambara’s visceral and pummeling performances, which led to extensive touring opportunities along rising star contemporaries such as Gilla Band, Algiers, and IDLES before earning the band their own headlining slot on multiple international tours, Swarm will serve as a sort of missing link. Now, for the first time ever, live-set favorites such as the brooding “An Ill Son,” the flawlessly dynamic “Black,” and the pop-snarled “All the Ugly Things” can be listened to at a level of audio fidelity on par with the band’s later recordings.

FOREST GREEN VINYL IS SIGNED AND COMES W/ AIR FRESHENER.

SPECIAL EDITION LP COMES WITH AN AIR FRESHENER.

LIME GREEN VINYL IS EXCLUSIVE TO WHARF CAT’S WEBSITE. ALL LPS COME WITH GATEFOLD JACKET FEATURING COLLAGE BY DOUGIE.

About The Rainbow Wheel of Death

With The Rainbow Wheel of Death, Dougie Poole breathes new life into country music, retaining the acclaimed elements of his previous work - drum machines, acoustic guitars, synthesizers, and his deep-set voice - while pushing toward something warm, organic, and prismatic.

SPECIAL AND DELUXE VERSIONS COME WITH A KOOZIE! DELUXE EDITIONS COME WITH A SIGNED PRINT!

About Orange 2 by Macula Dog

Macula Dog’s sophomore album, Orange 2 is their most cohesive and purposeful release to date and marks an exciting new stage for the NYC experimental duo. This new collection melds the hard-hitting dynamics of 2020’s Breezy EP with the band’s own version of traditional verse-chorus-verse pop songs.

180 Gram Vinyl

SPECIAL EDTION LP IS ON PINK VINYL AND COMES WITH AN ENAMEL PIN.

Lily Konigsberg wrote “Sweat Forever,” one of the singles from her forthcoming full-length album, Lily We Need to Talk Now, in the heat of a moment when her life felt upside down and a longtime relationship was ending. “I’m still here / Is that what you wanted?” she sings, with light and clarity that belies the true sadness of that sticky refrain. The song is propelled by the feathery strum of a 12-string guitar (one gifted to her while she was working at the Gym, a Brooklyn mutual-aid hub), her playful vocal asides, and crisp, detail-oriented production by Nate Amos (Water From Your Eyes, My Idea).

Lily We Need to Talk Now is a record Konigsberg has been slowly chipping away at since 2016, revising and re-recording the songs over the years. The eleven-track collection is her first proper full-length, following her anthology of EPs and unreleased tracks, The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now, released in 2021 by Wharf Cat Records. The new record is catchy the whole way through, like much of the poppy and plainspoken indie rock output that’s made her a fixture of the NYC underground in recent years. Her voice twists and turns and dashes around her clever wordplay in new ways here; there are hints of power pop, pop punk, and downtempo introspection, all dotted with easter eggs of winking humor.

About the Vacation from Thought b/w Give it Back 7

The Vacation from Thought b/w Give it Back 7" is the first new music from Cass McCombs following the August release of his new LP Heartmind (ANTI-), and the first Weak Signal release following their album War And War (Colonel Records) earlier this year. Recorded to tape with few overdubs by Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker, Florist) and mastered by Carl Saff, the record achieves a warm, hard-hitting sound that is perfectly suited to the 45 RPM 7” format. Advance single, “Vacation from Thought” written and sung by McCombs, features a driving motorik drum beat from Tran, ripping guitar figures from legend, Mike Bones, and precision backing vocals and bass work from Sasha Vine who keeps pace with Cass as they take the listener on a trip to witness yet unseen birds, primordial “red-clay mud” and much more. The B-Side is the Weak Signal written, and Mike Bones sung “Give It Back,” a devotional love song with a scorching guitar riff that will get stuck in your head for days. As with the best 45s, the Vacation from Thought b/w Give it Back 7” is truly a “Double A-Side.”

SPECIAL EDITION 12” MINI-LP IS ON BLACK VINYL AND COMES WITH A LYRICS CHAPBOOK.

Love on My Mind is another massive step forward for Bambara, the boldest thing they’ve ever done and the sound of yet another breakthrough. “Mythic Love” (featuring vocals from Bria Salmena), with its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, brings to mind past rave-ups like “Serafina” and “Sunbleached Skulls” but obliterates them in the process, while “Feelin’ Like A Funeral” - a dangerously oscillating tale of a city knifing - is probably the most thrillingly anthemic song the band have ever recorded. There’s also a newfound tenderness here that hasn’t always been present before - especially on “Birds” a rare love song (from which the mini album’s title is derived) and album closer, “Little Wars,” a gripping finale of loneliness and isolation.

About Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras

Bush Tetras unique chemistry is palpable on Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras, which features 29 songs across 3 LPs pressed onto 180-gram vinyl and remastered by Carl Saff, plus a 46-page book with never-before-seen photos, an original essay on the band by Marc Masters, and micro essays by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, R&B legend Nona Hendryx, The Clash’s Topper Headon, & more.

From the band’s earliest recordings to their current, vital-as-ever incarnation, Rhythm and Paranoia, for the first time ever, show-cases the their unique, influential, and body-shaking meld of rock, punk, funk, reggae, and more in one cohesive, immersive, and meticulously constructed box set.

VINYL BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES:

Rigid Lift-Off Box w/Lift Ribbon

3 x 180 Gram Vinyl LPs

46-Page LP-Sized Perfect Bound Booklet w/Never-BeforeSeen Photos & Orignal Essays

29 Remastered Tracks

Download Card w/ Bonus Track

CD DIGIPACK SPECIAL FEATURES:

2 x CD / 4-Panel Digipack

40-Page Booklet w/Never-Before-Seen Photos & Original Essays

30 Remastered Tracks

SPECIAL EDITION LP IS ON BLACK VINYL AND COMES WITH AN ENAMEL PIN.

About The Leather Lemon by P.E.

Digging into mystery, romance, and sex appeal with The Leather Lemon, the group is composed of members of Pill (Mexican Summer) and Eaters (Dull Tools) and centers its sound within a Bermuda Triangle of dance music, electronic composition, and experimental rock. Members Jonathan Schenke, Bob Jones, and Jonny Campolo play within pop parameters, building upon free-form collaboration to create a fluorescent groove machine that harnesses the energy of their frenetic live shows. Singer Veronica Torres explores her softer side, expanding her vocal repertoire from spoken word and jagged growls to cherubic and sensuous psalms. Sax virtuoso Benjamin Jaffe’s chiseled experimental tone is heard in an extended solo of true romance in “Tears in the Rain,” a somber surrealist duet penned by Torres and Andrew Savage, singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts.

Recorded primarily at Schenke’s Studio Windows in Brooklyn, NY, The Leather Lemon was cultivated from a fertile creative period between spring 2020 and summer 2021, which also yielded 2021’s acclaimed The Reason For My Love EP. Pitchfork writes:

The quintet refines their impulses on their 2020 debut Person and transforms them into a body-moving EP. The jittery electronics are still there, but the drum cuts feel sharper and lighter, bringing a sense of structure to what could easily be shapeless. Vocalist Veronica Torres abandons spoken-word and leans fully into singing about poetry, beauty, and the contours of the body. Her lovely vocal stretches fill up the space once occupied by industrial bass drops. Sensuality suits them well.

SPECIAL EDITION VINYL LP COMES WITH A 7” FLEXI.

About Palberta5000

Two years removed from their triumphant 2018 LP Roach Going Down, which Pitchfork described as "a leap to another level" from the beloved NYC trio, Palberta are returning to deliver their clear-eyed fifth album, Palberta5000, a collection of adventurous, hyper-melodic songs that will excite their devoted following while welcoming new fans along for the ride. While long heralded as one of the most original and idiosyncratic bands in the East Coast DIY scene, earning regular comparisons to ESG, Captain Beefheart (Pitchfork) and CAN (FADER), on Palberta5000, Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser max out traditional pop forms, creating hits that catch in listeners brains while blowing the genre out into lush, kinetic extensions that morph into absurdist outros and haptic breakdowns to create their own hardcore style of popular music. In doing so, they have made their most accessible album by a far measure and one that is bursting at the seams with vocal hooks and exuberant playing.

Despite its titular implications and arty conceptual aesthetics, Structure is more lighthearted than it is self-serious, with the only actual “structure” being found in its tracklist. “The important thing to remember is that this is weed music,” Amos says. “There was not a single drop of work done in the recording, editing, or mixing process that was not preceded by a spliff.” Bitingly witty in their respective solo projects, both Rachel Brown and Nate Amos naturally apply humor to Structure, a record which reflects the band’s lock-and-key creative process. “like solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers,” offers Brown, whose lyrics are plucked from their own journal and filtered into Water From Your Eyes’ musically calculated format.

When put together, Structure’s fragmental base only bolsters its effectiveness as a sequential whole. The opener, “When You’e Around,” was originally intended for a film that was never made, while “Monday” is a song for a film that doesn’t exist. Both tracks serve as eerie precursors for Structure’s paralleled sides. Avid listeners will revel in repeated plays to uncover the record’s melodic subtleties, rhythmic minutiae, and lyrical repetition. Structure is a first-class achievement in brutalist pop: it’s dreamy and dissociative, nuanced and hypnotic, and weaves together threads for listeners to unravel with each spin. 

LP JACKET IS REVERSE-BOARD DISCO JACKET (HOLE IN FRONT ONLY) PRINTED BY STAUGHTON PRESS, IN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA.

SPECIAL EDITION IS BLACK VINYL AND COMES WITH AN ENAMEL PIN.

About Phantom Rhythm Remixed

On Phantom Rhythm Remixed, Gong Gong Gong bring to life a concept they’ve planned since the release of their acclaimed debut, curating their favourite China-connected electronic music producers to remix Phantom Rhythm in its entirety. The globe-spanning collaboration features Yu Su (Vancouver/Kaifeng), Zaliva-D, Simon Frank, Howie Lee (Beijing), Mong Tong, Scattered Purgatory (Taipei), Knopha (Xiamen), Wu Zhuoling (Chengdu), Angel Wei (Copenhagen), and P.E. (Brooklyn).

1 - Ride Your Horse (P.E. Remix)

2 - Inner Reaches III (Zaliva-D Remix)

3 - Notes Underground (Mong Tong Remix)

4 - Moonshadows (Simon Frank Remix)

5 - The Last Note (Angel Wei Remix)

6 - Sound of Love (Knopha Remix)

7 - Gong Gong Gong Blues (Howie Lee Remix)

8 - Some Kind of Demon (Yu Su Remix)

9 - Hotpot (Chongqing) (Scattered Purgatory Remix)

10 - Wei Wei Wei (Wu Zhuoling Remix)

About The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now

This compilation, which compiles all of Lily Konigsberg’s musical output up until her first album, is a musical omnibus—the first widely distributed Lily Konigsberg physical release as well as the first vinyl treatment for both Good Time Now and 4 Picture Tear. The collection loosely parallels the melancholic narrative behind the latter, where a mental break triggered Konigsberg’s depersonalized sense of her past self. Of the 4 Picture Tear EP, Konigsberg says, “I would look at this photo-booth picture I took with Matt [Norman] and cry because I thought I was looking at the person I used to be in that picture and that person was gone.” In retrospect, these three EPs feel like distinctive vignettes of Konigsberg’s progression as a songwriter, each version of her past selves tethered by an invisible thread to the present through musical alliances and fervent introspection.

Track List

1 - Owe Me

2 - To Hold It

3 - Rock and Sin

4 - 7 Smile

5 - At Best a #3

6 - It’s Just Like All The Clouds

7 - I Said

8 - Summer in the City

9 - Good Time

10 - Lily’s National Anthem

11 - Waterfall Snake Juice

12 - Talk To Me w. Birds

13 - Roses

14 - North Porsche

15 - I Don’t Like the Name

16 - Big Tall Grass (demo)

17 - Opening The Day (demo)

- Special Edition comes with a poster!

About Breezy

After a short break, Macula Dog return with the Breezy EP containing four new cuts to tease the rhythmically inclined. Breezy is Macula Dog’s second release on Wharf Cat Records, following 2016’s Why Do You Look Like Your Dog? LP. Breezy was tracked completely live to 16 track tape with the help of analog wizard, Paul D Millar (Ariel Pink's Band) at his Bug Sound East studio, and marks the first Macula Dog release recorded with an outside engineer. With Millar the duo achieve new levels of fidelity including a slapping low-end, perfectly suited to the 12" 45 RPM format.

About The Freelancer's Blues

The Freelancer’s Blues, the second full-length LP from Brooklyn’s country crooner Dougie Poole, captures its current moment like nothing else. Poole updates the story-telling backbone of country music for an audience that is young, urban, romantically alienated and financially pre-carious, using the same threads spun by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson before him to write his own anthems for a new generation of country music fans. With his debut album Wideass Highway Dougie Poole established himself as forerunner in a class of musicians who grew up in a post-genre ecosystem equally as likely to be influenced by Ariel Pink and Animal Collective as Dolly Parton and Dwight Yoakam.

On The Freelancer’s Blues, Dougie graduates from drum machine and synthesizer bedroom country to a full band with honky-tonk harmonies, wailing pedal steel, and carefully constructed arrangements. Produced by Jonathan Schenke (PC Worship, Gong Gong Gong, Public Practice), The Freelancer’s Blues does the seemingly impossible of staying true to Poole’s heritage in the DIY scenes of New York and Providence, while simultaneously certifying him as a country music bonafide.

From the album’s opening moments, songs like “Country Church,” with its major key and classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and “Midnight Cowboy,” which sounds like a lost Buddy Holly 45 played at 33 rpms, make it clear that Horse — even if it may not accomplish the impossible task of demystifying this band of ex-Soviet cowboys will at least show you that there’s more to them than the near-impenetrable darkness of their work to date may suggest. Although tracks like “Trouble” and “Endless Night” gravitate toward the ethereal production and existential subject matter of prior releases, repeat listens reveal complex compositions and an empathy that is central to this eight-song album. As a whole, Horse stands as a warmer, more human counterpoint to 2018’s celestial Slow Sundown, and showcases Holy Motors as a hypnotic force that draws listeners in and leaves them wanting more.

Public Practice is reanimating the spirit of late 70s New York with their intoxicating brand of no wave-tinged dark disco. The band came in hot with their punchy balance of punk, funk, and pop on the critically acclaimed Distance is a Mirror EP in 2018, paving the way for their highly anticipated freshman record. Now, after a year of intimate and experimental songwriting in their home studio, they have fleshed out the energetic, playfully oblique sound captured on their debut full-length Gentle Grip Together, the foursome creates bold, slinky rhythms and groove-filled hooks that get under your skin and into your dancing shoes.

Back in Print!

Special Edition comes w/ Enamel Pin

6 LP Bundle comes w/ Birthmarks LP (Red Vinyl), Love On My Mind (Green Vinyl), Shadow On Everything (Black Vinyl) + Swarm (Black Vinyl), Dream Violence (Black Vinyl) + Enamel Pin

Stray is both the band's most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivory-Block’s (Palberta) vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s commanding baritone on tracks like “Sing Me to the Street”, “Death Croons” and “Stay Cruel," while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on “Serafina” and "Heat Lightning" and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens. Here Bambara sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.

SPECIAL EDITION VINYL LP COMES WITH 4 SONG BODY IN DISTRESS 7” EP.

About Too Numb to Know by Profligate

Too Numb to Know showcases Profligate continuing to shirk the heavy electronics of his early years for razor sharp pop. On 2018's Somewhere Else, Noah Anthony delivered dark pop gems while adding live instrumentations, reinvigorating his songwriting and sonic palette. This new song-driven approach gained praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily and The Wire, exposing Profligate to new listeners.

Too Numb to Know followed Anthony from coast to coast, as he recorded his first demos in Philadelphia and then moved to Los Angeles, a city he found creatively challenging and emotionally depleting. After the theft of his computer, and with it the work he'd done on TNTK in L.A., Anthony took a friend's suggestion and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he finished the album and added contributions from allies like Matchess, Lazy Magnet, Gel Set, and Missions, among others.

TNTK is about growth, reflection and change. Lead single "Hang Up" urges the artist’s younger self to trust his instincts during chaos. Its message pairs with bright keyboards, a pulsing beat, and soft, alluring vocals - on the chorus, he croons "Nothing you create but love penetrates." It's an urgent, driving pop song that fuses electronics with guitar and bass like the best of alternative radio. Guitar is prevalent on TNTK, building on the live bass of Somewhere Else, adding a new arrow to Anthony’s quiver, creating more space for melody, and using it to fill the room.

"A Little Rain" and "My Days" feature evocative melodic and textural beauty. Laura Callier of Gel Set adds graceful shimmering vocals to “A Little Rain” that wash the song in nostalgia, while the latter song’s weave of mostly acoustic instruments (certainly a first for Profligate) is unexpected and welcome. Softer moments like these are interspersed throughout TNTK between kinetic numbers like "No Clear Way," while "We Can Punish" and “A Stranger” are reminiscent of his noisier, beat-oriented years. This varied approach and attention to detail are the garnish to an already tight song cycle that will satisfy hardcore fans of Noah Anthony's output and newcomers, alike.

About Profligate

Noah Anthony’s music ranges from heavily rhythmic electronics to tightly-composed songs. His debut LP Come Follow Me, was released in 2012 on More Records and a string of 12” EP’s and compilation appearances followed. 2014’s Finding the Floor was issued by Not Not Fun. 2018's Somewhere Else was Profligate's first for Wharf Cat Records and was supported with U.S. touring and an appearance at SXSW 2018. The follow up, Too Numb to Know will be released on 9/25.

Endless Boogie & Weak Signal Announce Jerome / Rolex 7" - Available in black vinyl and clear vinyl

We are excited to announce a new split 7” by Endless Boogie and Weak Signal. The masters of minimal blues repetition, Endless Boogie are in condensed charging form on “Jerome” an outtake from 2010's Full House Head sessions. A treasure trove of interlocking riffs and searing lead lines from Jesper Eklow, Matt Sweeney and Stephen Malkmus, the A-side sounds like a lost proto-punk classic. Paul Major’s racing vocals tell a story of urban debauchery (nods to the Velvets included) while Mark O and Harry Druzd lock into that unmatched groove the fans have been missing. This track matches any underground chestnut from “Urban Guerilla” to “Teenage Head”-era Flamin’ Groovies and has what Matt Sweeney calls a “thug-assed jacked-up Saturday-night vibe.”

On the flip side “Rolex,” Weak Signal show us the morning after the party, through the lens of a con artist so smooth he knows how to hit his mark “without knowing.” From the first-person perspective, Mike Bones walks us through every detail of the scam with the detachment of a practiced criminal who revels coolly in his skill. Mike Bones (guitar, vocals), Tran Huynh (drums) and Sasha Vine (bass, vocals) ply a different strain of minimalism from Endless Boogie, one in which every note, word, and drum hit are there for a reason and nothing is wasted. Fans of their debut LP and recent EP will find this track threading the needle between them another great new track from one of New York’s best new bands.

4 song 45rpm 7”. Comes with download card. Mastered by Carl Saff.

It’s Just Like All the Clouds by Lily Konigsberg

With It’s Just Like All the Clouds, Lily Konigsberg emerges as a firebrand singer-songwriter with a knack for earworm hooks and deceptively concise lyricism. The songs on Lily’s new E.P. range from melodic guitar rock (“I Said” and “At Best”) and pulsing bedroom electronica (“It’s Just Like All the Clouds”) to an aching sun-drenched ballad (“Summer in the City”). Recorded by frequent collaborator Paco Cathcart and featuring a bevy of her musical peers and allies, this E.P. is as much a reflection of her eclectic musical upbringing as it is her matured confidence. 

Urochromes full length featuring artwork by John D. Morton (Electric Eels). Available in LP/CD/Special Edition LP. Special Edition LP comes with a Urochromes pin and a download card with bonus tracks. First 200 LPs are hand numbered with the lowest available numbers going to the special edition.

Urochromes - Trope House - Out 5/31

We are excited to announce that Urochromes’ Trope House album will be out on May 31. On their first long player, Urochromes complement their catchy-as-fuck punk bangers with colorful experimental rock that choogles forth like the waters of the Mississippi River Delta where it was recorded. There are classic Urochromes chargers like first single “Hair So Big” and the catchy kiss-off “Millieux” that pair Dick Riddick’s concise and explosive playing with some of Jackieboy’s best sketches of uptight, paranoid characters on the edge. The more experimental tracks, like the unhinged cover of Bikini Kill’s “Resist Psychic Death,” must be heard to be believed and show a band that gives not the slightest fuck about acceptance within the circles of boring cookie-cutter punk.

BACK IN PRIINT! ORDER BLUE VINYL BELOW. EDITION OF 250.

More About Phantom Rhythm

Guitar-and-bass duo Gong Gong Gong charges out from Beijing’s underground scene with a distinct vision and uncompromising sense of purpose. The group unites musical cultures, drawing on inspirations as wide-ranging as Bo Diddley, Cantonese opera, West African desert blues, drone, and electronic music. Synchronized to the point of near-telepathy, the band use their minimalistic tools and idiosyncratic playing style to challenge the notions of rock n’ roll and strip the form down to its bare essentials: rhythm, melody, and grit.

About Guitar Dream

A quasi-breakup album voiced through a protean pastiche of dejected characters, this new record sees David Vassalotti at his most up-front and confessional. Vassalotti's guitar and songwriting work in Merchandise is much more apparent on this album compared to his last record, 2015's omni-genre and collage-heavy Broken Rope. On Guitar Dream, he channels some of Merchandise's melancholic post-punk balladry, but this record maintains a decidedly bleaker and more literary tone.

Fractured glam, keyboard trumpets and, yes, the occasional guitar solo prop up Vassalotti's fragile voice throughout the album's 10 tracks. In the tradition of other ambitious loners, fans of Leonard Cohen, Tim Buckley, Cass McCombs and Franco Battiato will find much to love here.

The New Sediment Club album in LP, CD & Special Edition LP While Supplies Last. First 150 Vinyl Records are hand-numbered. Special Edition comes with 4 temporary tattoos.

Stucco Thieves is the new LP by New York City's The Sediment Club. This new collection of 9 songs marks 10 years since the band's formation in 2008. Stucco Thieves tells an abbreviated and frank series of human bankruptcy accounts from the post Pax-Americana perspective. The Sediment Club wrench and berate their instruments to make Stucco Thieves a concise, brutal landscape filled with tales that range from slapstick to cruel. Hapless characters embody greed, change form, and reflect on the crumbling infrastructure of a cobalt ruin. Stucco Thieves holds our shared predicament of doom in the casual pass of a snarl, a dungeon shook, and a dropped bag of dirt. Honey's chromosomes are dying fast, falling out of vogue, and turning to a shadow soon.

For 10 years The Sediment Club has shown a commitment to dissonance while touring their brand of it extensively around North America challenging audiences and rallying fellow outsiders. They will continue to do so into the next decade.

SPECIAL EDITION LPS COME WITH BONUS “SICK, SAD, FUN” CASSETTE.

Person by P.E.

Person is the debut from NYC's P.E., a band born of the city's art-punk underground and dedicated to freaky experimentation. Comprising Veronica Torres, Jonathan Campolo, and Benjamin Jaffe (all of the beloved and freshly defunct Pill) alongside Jonathan Schenke and Robert Jones of the electronic/art-rock favorite Eaters, P.E. features some of NYC's most notable experimental voices. Early shows were entirely improvisational, allowing the group to develop a collaborative chemistry that led to an equally free-form recording process. 

The 7" flexi-disc comes with artwork designed by the band and a download card. Hand Numbered Edition of 100 only. Out 9/13/19

About “Desire”

Kiev, Ukraine’s Bichkraft is back with their first single in English, "Desire" b/w "Rod." Where Bichkraft's lauded 800 was comprised of sprawling collaborations with Sam York (Public Practice), Elizabeth Skadden (Finally Punk, WALL) and Carson Cox (Merchandise, Too Free), here we see Bichkraft streamlined to the duo formation of Jenia Bichowski and Dima Novichenko.

These concise and hook-driven tracks do not shy away from addressing the chaos and uncertainty of living in Ukraine. A-side "Desire" is about a police raid in a bar where young men were forced into military service afterwards. You can hear the fatigue and disappointment in Jenia Bichowski’s voice as he sings, “Baby, baby it's true / There's no safe place for you.” The B-side sees Bichowski taking his vocal delivery to new places over an endless stream of Novichenko’s concise and morphing riffs. These two songs hint at an exciting new direction for Bichkraft, and we can't wait to hear more.

"Desire" was recorded at Istok Studios in Kyiv by Nikita Mekalin.

The all new Horoscope record Mastered by Carl Saff. 1-50 are hand numbered.

About Carne.

Carne. is the new record by Rene J. Nunez-Cabrera, who performs and records under the name Horoscope. Carne., the third in a trilogy of records for Wharf Cat Records, presents a blurred tension between the roots of traditional Cuban music and a yearning for detachment and freedom from nostalgia. While exploring his Cuban-American culture and its history in electro-acoustics and melodramatics, Nunez-Cabrera creates a song-cycle that is both abstract and autobiographical.

Carne. was written and performed by Nunez-Cabrera, using synth, tape, vocals, clave, and effects, and features Elsner Nino and Cesar Toribio on percussion, Dory Bello on vocals, Drew McDowall on vibraphone, and Mickey D. Grand, IV, on saxophone and composition. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, with additional source material recorded in Miami, Florida, in 2018. Mastered by Carl Saff.

About Horoscope

Horoscope is Rene J. Nunez-Cabrera, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and released his debut El Espejo y el Mar on Wharf Cat in 2015. This was followed by the Misogyny Stone LP on Wharf Cat in 2017 and the Nature Will Keep Growing Even After You Have Lost Everything 12” on Ascetic House. Although Nunez-Cabrera has performed regularly in the New York City area and toured the U.S., early 2019 saw the first Horoscope performances in Europe. After the release of the Carne. LP in 2019, Horoscope will be touring the U.S. and Europe once again.

Pre-order LP/CD/Special Edition LP. First 100 LPs are hand-numbered. Special Edition LPs are hand numbered 1-50 and include a bonus tape and a download of 26 demos.

End of The Game is the anticipated debut full length by Eyes of Love, a band helmed by Brooklyn songwriter Andrea Schiavelli. Assembling a crew of some of the most skilled musicians in New York’s underground; Lily Konigsberg (Palberta, Lily and Horn Horse), Sammy Weissberg (The Cradle, Sweet Baby Jesus), Paco Cathcart (The Cradle, Shimmer), Schiavelli has cultivated a long player that is obedient to feeling and pulsates with urgent, anxious beauty.

These 14 tracks harness the chaos of reckless abandon amid classic structures. Fans of Eyes of Love’s self titled 7” EP will recognize a mastery of breezy pop in tracks like “Homeowners” and “Players of the Field.” We see the band turn toward experimentation on tracks like “New,” which alternates between driving power pop and percussive breakdown. The lush strings, arranged by Weissberg, on tracks like “Elevator” and “End of The Game” starkly frame Shiavelli’s earnest songs while adding a depth and variation to this albums song-cycle, as do the solo piano instrumentals “Piano 1 Final” and “New Piano.” The full band tracks on End of The Game were recorded live, have no overdubs and are mixed with little or no effects — a rare technique these days and a sign of a band devoted to the details of their arrangements.

Special Edition vinyl EP includes bonus 7” Flexi w/ 2 remixes of “Foundation” by Austin Brown (Parquet Courts) and House of Feelings.

The debut EP from New York band Public Practice, Distance is a Mirror, is a confident, juried testimony of love steeped in dark optimism. Dry, dead pan vocals chant over skittish guitar and danceable 70s grooves—songs snapping like rubber bands—seesawing between post-punk and its insomniac twin sister disco. With contradicting references as overt as Talking Heads (without the shoulders), but as specific as Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra (with some polka dots), the band is carrying a funky torch that does not get lit too often.

Debut vinyl release by NYC's Decisions. Split release with Death By Sheep Records!

Decisions formed in February of 2016 in New York City because Jacob, Ellen, Jonathan, and Liana all being in one band “seemed to make sense,” a hardcore punk group drawing from an inspired cross-section of outsider influences. Lingering elements of their members’ other projects seep in through the cracks: artful experimental restraint, blown-out noise, the occasional straightforward rock riff. At early shows in kitchens and basements of NYC Decisions created their sparse but hard-hitting weirdo freak-punk-through-a-tin-can sound with lyrics dissecting experiences of “class resentment, being queer and feeling powerful.” This was captured on a cassette in April of 2017, the six-song Plagiarism, released via Death By Sheep Records. Decisions are among the best punk bands in NYC and the tape left many wanting more.

Now behold: ten minutes of new Decisions, a seven-inch titled The Weight of the World Leaves a Broken Back set for a split release via Wharf Cat Records and Death By Sheep Records. Recorded at JMZ House in October of 2017 by Dave Rata, it’s a raw punk record that plays out almost like one complete sentence — a skeptical and nuanced thought about breaking down the walls and norms of a boring fucking world, and the gatekeepers and institutions reinforcing a busted status quo. It’s like a collective decision to push back and say No, with screeching feedback, ominous primal drums, sirening basslines. “Trapped” is at once an epiphany and a rejection while “Disform” uses rhythmic double-tracked vocals to sear into those who spew bullshit theories and meaningless words, all leading to some of the record’s most central questions: “I try my best to live comfortably in this body that I hate — Are we living outside this binary or creating another one?”

It’s a song that asks whether seemingly radical communities only end up creating their own hierarchies and power systems, a topic further pried open as “Gatekeeper” rails against the holders of power in hardcore, a world they seem content to tear apart and build anew on their own terms. “Rusted Shut” is the only song over two minutes, a slow and creeping build that eventually breaks and an example of this band’s cool use of pace and testing of patience. Is it a takedown of old guard systems and impossibly locked doors or just a meditation on some ancient building? Figure it out for yourself or don’t. The answers are never easy. Decisions suggests you can opt for a process instead. With unrelenting rage and disjointed grooves, The Weight of the World Leaves a Broken Back is the sound of a new New York punk underground, of chaos bending towards something more interesting. -Liz Pelly

Press

Impose Premieres "Trapped" w/ EP Announce ...No stone left unturned, the band's full force changes form as it hurtles to its close ... Hell-Lean howls, "Keep your eyes down!" And you do.

 Stereogum Streams "Trapped" ...red hot and snarling.

Available in LP, CD and LP Special Edition formats! Vinyl special editions come with a bonus ”Fire that Fly” flexi.

Roach Goin' Down is Palberta's most impressive album to date. Twenty-two tracks combine the band's signature frenetic instrumentation with a thoroughly developed pop sensibility that fans merely glimpsed on previous releases. The songs are lovingly crafted and shine with the confidence of a band discovering new musical possibilities and having a blast doing it. As usual, their excitement is sonically palpable, yet this time it's grounded by a lyrical nuance and newfound melancholy that gives the record an air of maturity compared to previous releases.

Order now in LP, CD and 2 bundle formats.

Kiev’s Bichkraft return with 800, another entry in their unique take on the shoegaze and post-punk traditions. After refining their approach on two previous LPs for Wharf Cat, they exude overwhelming confidence on each track of their new LP. And while the band’s penchant for devolving into noisy experimentation remains throughout, it doesn’t take many listens to recognize the album’s strong execution. For it is the songs, coupled with the nervous energy behind them, that propel 800 forward more than anything else. With Carson Cox of Merchandise handling production, Bichkraft’s dense riffage and thumping drum machines are brought to the forefront with greater clarity than ever before. Featuring lead vocals by Sam York ("Introducing Yourself") and Elizabeth Skadden ("Some People Have All The Luck").

22 Track Double LP on Multi-Colored Vinyl w/ Gatefold Sleeve.

When you purchase the 2XLP version of the ACLU benefit compilation $30 from the $32 purchase price goes to the ACLU!

Featuring New Tracks by (in sequence) — Dollar Band, The Men, Psychic Blood, Mail Thief, ORNAMENT, Alice Cohen, Palberta, Weeping Icon, SIGNAL, Old Maybe, Snakehole, Pop 1280, Abandon, Blanche, Blanche, Blanche, The Sediment Club, Kate Mohanty, Merchandise, Profligate, House of Feelings, Cheerleader, Horoscope

Artists, Engineers and Manufacturers for the ACLU

In this powerful benefit compilation, a range of independent artists join forces to raise funds for the American Civil Liberties Union and its heroic mission to protect the rights of all people, especially as we head into the second year of the Trump administration and its ongoing assault on the Constitution.

Gatefold Jacket Artwork

The packaging of this record is also stellar and features artwork by Emma Kohlmann (front cover pictured above), Nick Van Woert (center labels), Sam Falls (inside gatefold design), and V. Manuscript (back cover).

About Take the Fall

The Bush Tetras are back in full force with the Take the Fall mini-LP, their first offering of new music in over ten years and perhaps the most hard-hitting group of songs of their career. Commanding a rocker’s wail almost 30 years in the making, vocalist Cynthia Sley deploys a shuddering power over the album’s careening five tracks, which rail against the reality of heaven and the toll of time in the album’s opener, “True Blue.” Guitar hero and LES noise guitar innovator Pat Place wields phased out distorted slide bombs. Yet her walls of noise explore the nooks and crannies of Dee Pop and newcomer Val Vita’s rhythm ‘n paranoia groove section. Take the Fall has a jaw-dropping energy. It’s a time-won record that will rip your head off.  Produced by Don Fleming!

We are excited to announce that Bambara's Western Gothic epic, 'Shadow on Everything’ will finally be back in print!

A beautifully dynamic nightmare- NPR

One of the year’s most gripping listens - Bandcamp Daily

Not for the faint-hearted - The Quietus

About Chips for Dinner           

Born in the kitchen of some stranger's house and conceived of over many bowls of pasta and lentils, Chips for Dinner is the gurgling brainchild of New York's weirdest. Palberta and No One And The Somebodies (NOATS) feel right at home together, joyously dishing out sonic absurdities and displaying a clear mutual influence on each other's work. Four brothers from Westchester County and three thick-as-thieves friends living in the Hudson Valley have concocted a real musical treat for all lovers of the playful and strange. As a full package, Chips for Dinner sounds like a celebration of all the quirks that exist within a tight knit friendship, a testament to post-rehearsal snack sessions, and a record that is as fun to listen to as it surely was to make. 

SLOW SUNDOWN IS FINALLY BACK IN PRINT ON “SUNDOWN RED” VINYL! FIRST 100 RECORDS ARE HAND NUMBERED. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. ORDER YOUR’S TODAY.

About Slow Sundown

Slow Sundown, Holy Motors’ debut full length release, finds the Estonian dreamcatchers utilizing a similar sonic palette ranging from dark psychedelic pop to shoegaze-inflected western music. Slow Sundown’s eight tracks offer a more immersive experience for those brave enough to take the ride. While the guitar lines from lonely cowboy ballads like “Honeymooning” could easily serve as the central themes for unwritten Morriccone scores, dystopian anthems like the rhythmically propelled “Signs” break new ground for the band and demonstrate that Holy Motors are not bound by their influences.

Profligate’s first LP since 2014, Somewhere Else deftly balances seeming opposites — chaos and composition, melody and noise, programmed and live instrumentation, all with a distinctly human touch. Mastered by Carl Saff, the LP features a printed inner sleeve and sticker. Pre-order your LP or digipack CD at a special price in the lead up to the 1/05 release date.

About Profligate

Noah Anthony’s music ranges from heavily rhythmic electronics to tightly composed songs. Profligate has toured the U.S. and Europe receiving acclaim for recordings and visceral live performances. Over the Summer of 2016 Profligate began operating as a duo featuring L.A. poet/musician Elaine Kahn on additional vocals and instrumentation. The Somewhere Else LP features tracks they worked on together as well as solo work from Anthony. 

LP comes with insert, download card. 1st 150 are hand numbered and come with a Honey Patch! 

PRE-ORDER AT A SPECIAL PRICE IN THE LEAD UP TO THE 9/29 RELEASE DATE!

About New Moody Judy

Out September 29th on Wharf Cat, HONEY'S sophomore long player New Moody Judy “builds on their debut's hard edged slice of rock noise” — (Byron Coley) to create an album full of the pummel and swing, rave-ups and comedowns, and ferocious riffs and rhythms previously known only to those who have witnessed the power-trio's live set. Equal parts concision and brute heaviness, this is the sound of perfect rock and roll music - music that's always on the edge of spinning out of control.

From the first single, “the pugnacious “Dream Come Now” a barnstormer every bit as fiery as the album artwork”(Noisey), to the tight jam giving way to a thrilling cascade of riffs that fuel the rush of “Hungry,” HONEY give everything to the music on this release to deliver their most sonically diverse effort to date. As thematically cerebral as it is musically visceral, New Moody Judy is one of the rare albums that offers as much brain fodder for the lit majors as it does instant gratification for the guitar-heads.

About HONEY

Featuring former members of Pyschic Ills and Amen Dunes, Honey are mainstays of Brooklyn�Äö√Ñ√¥s thriving music culture. Over the past 5 years they have shared the stage with the likes of Dead Moon, J. Mascis, Sheer Mag, The Men, Destruction Unit, and more and have become a household name for everyone fiending for the raw authenticity that, thankfully, can still be found in NYC at the intersection of punk and rock and roll. 

Noisey

the best pummeling backbeats the Stooges never wrote

Brooklyn Vegan

The trio’s pedal-to-the-metal pursuit of early ‘70s Detroit style punk/rock n’ roll remains unabated, as can be heard on ripper “Dream Come Now.”

Pitchfork

echo-drenched vocal tics and subliminal synth oscillations

Urochromes continue an amazing run with the release of their first fully realized extended player, Night Bully. The A-Side is comprised of 3 full throttle and perfectly condensed punk songs, while the B-Side charts new territory for the group. Searing opener “My Dickies” is a playground for Dick Riddick, one of contemporary punk’s stand-out guitarists and a true master of tone. Here he shoots for the rafters with an ascending line that serves as the track’s central hook.  The creepy whispered vocals and banging electronic drums of “My Disposition” introduce one of Jackieboy’s doomed characters swimming in self-doubt. “Confront Ya” explores adoration with a promise of continued indifference (“They love you in West Mass—Ahhhhhhh”). 

The B-Side opener “Night Bully”codifies Urochromes’ love of industrial punks, Chrome with an arrangement as mechanical as it is maniacal. Dick Riddick creates a constantly changing wave of texture over pulsing electronics. The whispered vocal style introduced in “Confront Ya” back, this time asking “So you think I have a funny face?” Another of Jackieboy’s jealous, wounded characters this time baiting the affirmative response.

The ender is a remix of “Night Bully” by electronic gloom masters, Boy Harsher. This track reimagines the song as a lost noir-wave classic while still retaining the menace of the original. The inclusion of this remix shows Urochromes’ disdain for “the rules” but also reminds us that the drum machine was there from the start — this has always been a punk band with one foot in electronic noise.

Coca Leaf was a collaborative birthed in the hot Florida swamp years ago. It was mistakenly tossed into the garbage heap, left to simmer and rot, and has finally been scooped up with wings outspread, emerging anew from the shitfire into a reincarnated binge in the Big City. Deep Marble Sunrise was sculpted from a series of brain-fried sessions in NYC taking place over some hot Summer days at Figure 8 Studios.

The manic ramping-up and the inevitable come-down intertwine here. The party and the empty vaccuum that follows. For this LP, the group is comprised of multi-instrumentalists ZZ Ramirez (Destruction Unit, Ukiah Drag, etc), David Vassalotti & Carson Cox (Merchandise, etc), and Ben Greenberg (Uniform, etc). The cuts follow their impulses freely, coming up with a strange combination of hard funk, jazz, noise, no-wave, free improvisation, and dub.

For fans of Dad’s Brown on Brown, the great Neon Blud or any of the band members’ other groups, this is sure to be a summer favorite and soundtrack to all-night parties everywhere.

Considered by the band as their most fully realized statement, The Floating World is a snapshot of the last chapter of Wet Hair's tenure as central players in the Midwestern DIY experimental music scene. Wet Hair finished the year long writing and recording process fresh off an eventful West Coast tour with Merchandise right before all three members of the band decided to part ways with their longtime residence in Iowa City. The tracks were recorded and mixed at Flat Black Studios in Iowa City and were mastered by Carl Saff. Reed finished the striking jacket artwork in early 2017 -- a collage reflecting on the Japanese concept of ukiyo ("The Floating World") as it relates to a feeling of American suburban emptiness and longing.  

The Floating World is a kinetic collection of seven tracks that represent Wet Hair's most exciting, melodic and beautifully produced effort. On their follow up to Spill Into Atmosphere, Wet Hair revitalized their hybrid psych / krautrock / synth pop sound, masterfully working shimmering synth swells and fiery drum and bass grooves into pointed explorations of growth and texture.

If you saw WALL play in NYC or at SXSW (they were No. 2 on Time Out Austin’s top picks for SXSW 2016) you will recognize some of the tracks on their new LP, Untitled. "Everything In Between" was often a set opener, albeit in an instrumental form. Here we find the definitive full band arrangement, which shows a group capable of generating wave after wave of engaging post-punk. First single "High Ratings" advances the strengths of WALL's self-titled EP with it's look at modern anxiety stemming from social media addiction: "We're all guilty," as singer Sam York howls. Their rocking cover of Half Japanese's classic "Charmed Life" is probably the closest track in tone to "Cuban Cigars," the pop moment on the WALL EP. True to the original, it features perfectly skronky sax from Pill’s Ben Jaffe. "River Mansion" displays Vince McClelland's extensive post-punk guitar vocabulary with squalls, shrieks and plinks over the band's elegant Kroutrock groove with York and Skadden's cooing vocals occasionally synching with a slippery guitar riff. Drummer Vanessa Gomez proves once again the perfect match to McClelland -- offering ample space without sacrificing propulsion or variety. Fans of Skadden's former group, Finally Punk will appreciate "Save Me" — a tale of desperation with Skadden sharing lead vocal duties along with York. These are just a few examples of songs from this diverse and intense LP, showing us a band stretching out sonically and stylistically at their peak and right before their untimely demise. 

So there you have it -- a testament to a band that formed in an instant, burned brightly and left us with two great records. Did you see WALL at Palisades, The Silent Barn, Alphaville, Union Pool, and all the rest of them? Let this LP remind you or take you there for the first time. Mixed by Mike Kutchman at Kutch 1 Studios and mastered by Josh Bonati. Jacket and insert artwork by Vanessa Gomez.

Joey Agresta is a former north New Jerseyan who now lives with his wife and cat above a Burlington Vermont junk shop (where he also works). Let's Not Talk About Music was created over the course of three years with Agresta arranging, performing, recording, and mixing it in the cozy confines of his bedroom studio. Though many devices were used in the recording of this album computers were completely avoided and the majority was done on the Akia MG-614 (1/8" cassette 4 track) and MG-1214 (1/2" cassette 12 track).

Appreciators of the New England underground might know Joey from his days of recording bizarre songs on erase headless, multi layering, portable tape recorders under various, food themed, pseudonyms (Joey Pizza Slice, Son of Salami, Salami Junior, ect..) and his releases on the venerable Night People and Feeding Tube labels (as well as countless self released and custom, one-off cassettes). Agresta's songs have also been admired by some very above-ground acts over the years, among them Future Islands and The Parquet Courts -- the later split a 7" with Agresta in 2015.

Contained here are songs of a hopeful sadness that mirror the darkness of these times and the decaying heart of the songsmith. This is Agresta's most personal and sincere work thus far, sounding much more sonically refined than his grittier past exploits. But in a world filled with so much talk perhaps its best we say no more, as the title suggests, and let the music speak for itself.

PAST PRESS - 

Tiny Mix Tapes Review of Bacon City the songwriting is as impeccable as you're likely to find anywhere else

Pitchfork Announcement of Split 7" with Parquet Courts

Vice Creators Piece Brilliant and kind of scary at the same time

Cut it Off!

ZZ Ramirez - Guitar

Nina Hartmann - Bass and Vocals

Sean Halpin - Drums

A drone whines in the distance; Horoscope jettisons a new 5-track LP titled Misogyny Stone. It has prescient timing: here we sit at the abyss of masculine power. Originally from Miami Florida but living in New York for over a decade, Rene J Nunez-Cabrera produces raw sonic compositions indebted to the visceral experience of performance. The new LP, his second for Wharf Cat Records, expands his palette of sound and exhibits the artist’s range in 5 succinct opi: from paranoid, buzzing headscapes, to meditative, industrial drumming. Washes and other gestures of contemporary noise abound, but the ultimate descriptor for Nunez’s penchant is mood. The title track contains Nunez’s version of a deep club jam, intertwining light and dark, low and high, with Kathryn Undorfer’s spoken word sitting right in the middle, sonically spotlighted. “Narcissist Vague” has a religious breadth despite its relatively short existence; while “Azebache Necklace Bought to Protect My Daughter” is a snare-pegged story of delivering a totem; “New Piece (for Christian Mirande)” starts with an organ’s lament, creepily. Nunez’s distorted, layered vocals then build into a desperate chorus of screams. Horoscope’s sound is embedded in the struggles of personhood. Through modular manipulations and his acute utility of pedals and tapes loops, Nunez de- and reconstructs the dynamics of gender relations: look into the misogyny stone; it is opaque and bleak.

Big French have returned, following up their maverick 2013 debut LP Downtown Runnin with Stone Fish, a 16-track sophomore full-length that sees bandleader Quentin Moore’s energetic bursts of post-punk composition transformed by boutique, reel-to-reel production to fantastic ends, filtering established pop sensibilities through eclectic idioms of free-expression. On Stone Fish, the band’s third release for Wharf Cat Records, Moore shares co-production credits alongside longtime collaborator Zach Phillips (Blanche Blanche Blanche, OSR Tapes) and orchestrates electric performances from band members Colin White, Adam Steck, Jo Miller-Gamble, as well as a cameo appearance from Austin Julian (The Sediment Club, Sunk Heaven). 

Assembled primarily from tracks recorded to tape at Phillip’s Manual FX Studio in Brooklyn circa 2015 / 2016, the sonic framework of Stone Fish swerves through the gamut of emotions while being united by kinetic arrangements of layered madness revolving around Moore’s instinctive, delicate vocal melodies and his asymmetrical guitar leads. Virtuosic grooving and free-improv rooted leads power the songs forward. Rocking hits like “I Wanna New Rome”, “Words Appear”, and “Rush Morgue” speed by, (nearly every cut is less than 3 minutes long) striking the listener with concise declarations, intended to both be familiar and at the same time to shock and to never resolve vis-a-vis the expected trope. Tracks the likes of “The Troll”, “Fly Like A Bird”, or “My Angel” gracefully deliver subdued melodic content over stream of consciousness harmonic turns. Throughout the record musical ideas jump in and out of focus redirecting the ever-changing cacophony of plucked guitars and jarring rhythms: Zach Phillips Wurlitzer might creep in with an enharmonic lick, reel-to-reel manipulation may distort the drums, sending a noisy crash through the channels. With multiple listens, Stone Fish revels itself as more detailed and exciting each time, existing as smart reorientation of the boundaries of pop music’s comfort zone. 

PAST PRESS -

Tiny Mix Tapes Review of Downtown Runnin this record is a unicorn

Impose Review of "Payback" an energetic battle of the bands within the band

Tiny Mix Tapes Video Premiere reflections of reality in song and string, old and new, cream drops and heads nod

Ad Hoc Premieres "Payback" a feeling equivalent to rocking out too hard to Royal Trux while watching workplace-instructional films

The Aquarian Reviews Downtown Runnin not for the faint of heart

Seattle 3 piece, Posse follow up their 2014 album, Soft Opening with this limited edition 7” featuring jacket artwork by artist Sam Falls.  The two tracks on the Perfect H 7” are constructed with intricately layered guitars, propulsive drumming and Paul Wittmann-Todd and Sacha Maxim’s hushed vocals.  These two eerily beautiful dreamscapes are sure to demand repeated spins, and satiate the Posse fan looking for some new tracks from their favorite pacific northwestern minimalists.

Words from Posse -  "You're on the phone: the person on the other end is talking. You hear a voice, you hear voices: from behind you, around you. Reminiscent of people, places, things, stuff you cared about, stuff you never gave a shit about. Listening now, barely audible over the noise coming through the receiver, you feel connections you can't quite articulate: the colors of time, gradients, cycles, trees, boundaries, nothingness.  What's that? Someone is trying to get your attention. On the receiver, the other end of the line: sounds like you? Maybe? They're trying to get you to stop talking. They're saying they hear voices. You want to hang up, but the phone is not a phone. The phone is a switch. You throw the switch, the lights go out, and you're left in the darkness, alone."

Edition of 300 records. Additional artists participating in this 7” series are Mick Barr and Carson Cox.

Fire Dance 7”

Vassalotti, a Florida-based songwriter and performer for critically acclaimed 4AD signees Merchandise (amongst numerous other projects), has used this record as an opportunity to delve further into his own diverse world of personal interests. Broken Rope is a passion project, with Vassalotti handling all of the writing, performing, recording, production, and art design.

From lo-fi guitar pop sounds (a la Flying Nun staples like The Clean and The Verlaines), to elements harsh industrial noise and musique concrete, Vassalotti weaves together a wide array of musical influences with a steady hand. Similarly, the album’s lyrics draw from literary references as far- reaching as Portuguese history, Russian folklore, and Spanish poetry Ambitious as it may be to cover so much ground, there is a rational flow and unity that ties the record together.

Tampa's Merchandise have a decade of artful hardcore and experimental pop under their belts-- but the devastating solo output of guitarist Dave Vassalotti is their best kept secret - Pitchfork

Repress of Posse's Classic LP! Featuring inverted color jackets!

We are excited to announce the second edition of Posse’s Soft Opening LP featuring inverted color jacket artwork. Soft Opening follows Posse's 2012 self-titled album and subsequent EP of Smog covers. Band members Sacha Maxim, Paul Wittmann-Todd, and Jon Salzman recorded the album over an extended period of time in their homemade studio, with little external assistance.

Soft Opening is not intended to be slick and is also not intentionally rough. It is meant to be a degraded reflection of Posse: their optimism, their hopelessness, their limitations, filtered through their abilities and interests.

These songs are blankets designed with soft colors and graceful edges, made to lay over pits of anger and disappointment. They leap from mercurial, spacious leads to malevolent cross-eyed solos. The rhythm guitar drifts and phases while the bass tiptoes atop the drums. Delay by Boss and Akai. Distortion and fuzz provided by Rivera, ZVex, and Ibanez.

PRESS -

Pitchfork Review of Soft Opening - http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19132-posse-soft-opening/

The Fader Premieres “Voices” - http://www.thefader.com/2016/01/07/seattle-band-posse-premiere-voices

Noisey Premieres Video for “Voices” - http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/read/posse-just-invited-themselves-over-to-hang-out

Pitchfork Rising Piece - http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9369-posse/

Snakehole has returned, and on the Miami/Philadelphia noise rock duo’s new LP, Interludes of Insanity, KC Toimil and Autumn Casey up the clarity, volume, crunch, and sophistication in a major way. Recorded by the prolific and precise Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Mission Hubble) in Hudson, New York’s cavernous Waterfront Studios, Interludes of Insanity showcases the duo’s headway into layering and experimentation. The LP makes no qualms; it’s the main act, and it wedges itself firmly into the tradition of cohesive, almost narrative, albums.

Last Copies LP & CD

On the heels of their justly lauded LP Dream All Over, Gun Outfit deliver Two Way Player, an EP of enigmatic and spacious guitar music that stands alongside the band’s boldest and strongest work thus far. Abstracted legends of the American West, fortunes gained and lost, tragic songs of life rendered in deep focus, all portrayed through mysterious and dense compositions that recall the lonely expanses and warm intimacies of the films of Bruce Baillie and Gunvor Nelson. Compulsory listening for any fan of American Music, Two Way Player is a brief, beautiful dispatch from the country’s most consistent band, a record equally suited for stoned sunny mornings and lonely full moon nights. Two Way Player was recorded in New York in June 2015 and features an alternate lineup including David Harris (Milk Music) on bass, Joe Denardo (Growing/Ornament) on guitar and Will Lawrence on electric piano in addition to the core group of Daniel Swire, Carrie Keith and Dylan Sharp. Recorded at Kutch 1 Studios, Brooklyn. Edition of 500 records.

Trust Punks’ new album, Double Bind, aggressively consolidates their strengths as one of the most exhilarating young acts out there - blisteringly sharp, smart and spry. From the cold water surf of surging opener “Paradise/Angel-wire,” the band is on a tear through an Australasia that’s a precarious and nasty place for the young and the restless. Whether they’re adopting the snarling id of suburban nationalists, or casting a harsh eye on the American way of life, incarceration and death (as on the incongruously sprightly) “Good Luck With That” theirs is a serving of wit and fury in equal measure.

They’re also willing to turn the gaze on themselves, as bitter, discordant exorcisms give way to an unbearable sweetness. The stridency of Double Bind’s opening 1-2 leads into the poignant jolt of “The Reservoir,” as Alexander Grant pleads, “I’m not bold enough. On “Riding It Out,” Joseph Thomas grips crippling depression by the horns and rides it over a grinding Krautrock beat. Grant’s see-sawing melodies and Thomas’s belting rasp are Double Bind’s yin and yang — each a reminder of the challenging terrain post-punk was meant to stake out.

From Polvo to This Heat, from Can to Wire, from Stereolab to The Birthday Party, It’s all in here, synthesized and absorbed into something new and hungry. In a time where there’s more vying for your attention than ever — more outrage, more distraction, more content — Double Bind ticks all the boxes. It’s angry for all the same reasons you are, but it’s also involving and intricate, a record to get lost in. And like the best records of its kind, it seeps into your brain, your feet, your being.

PAST PRESS -

Pitchfork Review of Making Room for the Lord - http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17973-trust-punks-leaving-room-for-the-lord/

NME Review of Discipline LP - http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/listen-to-aucklands-trust-punks-debut-album-discipline

We are very excited to announce Mick Barr’s first 7” release on Wharf Cat Records. On Blespec (Spathages) b/w Worthhnt (Rust Mine) 7”, Mick Barr unleashes two technically masterful and dynamic tracks that straddle the progressive metal and free jazz genres. Both feature only Barr ºs maniacally fast guitar shredding and screamed vocals. This 7” is truly thrilling and sure to satisfy any fan of Mick Barr’s solo output, his work with bands like Ocrilim,Octis, and Orthrelm, or any of his numerous collaborative efforts.

Edition of 300 records with jacket artwork by Sam Falls. Additional artists participating in this 7”series include Posse and Carson Cox.

Macula Dog is a 4-person electronic duo from New York City, making music that is just as much pop as the performers are human; it’s unclear. Mechanical instrumentation played with an inebriated-mule-like precision. They played their first show in January 2014, and quickly added members Mark and Bruce to take on additional space. The band released their self-titled EP on Haord Records in October 2014, with a subsequent reissue on Ramp Local! (Wharf Cat subsidiary) in Mid-2015. While becoming known for their theatrical live shows across the Northeast US, Macula Dog has made numerous TV and radio appearances, with live sets on WNYU's New Afternoon Show, Know-Wave radio, and The Special Without Brett Davis, and additionally with themes for Adult Swim's Live Crossword Puzzle show, and NYC public access programming.

Eyes of Love is the live project of L.A. born/NYC based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Schiavelli. An occasional player for Nude Beach, past member of Punks on Mars and keyboard improviser, Schiavelli has released several bedroom recordings including the self-released LP Another Ugly Face (2012) and the demo compilation Souls on Fire (OSR 2015). Schiavellli is joined by Christina Schneider on guitar and vocals (CE Schneider Topical), Gary Canino on bass (Rips, Dark Tea), Tyler Evans on guitar/bass (Ed Askew Band) and Jo Miller Gamble on drums (Big French, Blanche Blanche Blanche).

The resulting debut 7" Eyes of Love (EP) was recorded in December 2015 at analogue basement hub and OSR Manual FX in Brooklyn NY. Recorded, Produced and live mixed over a weekend by true wiz and OSR tapes mensch Zach Phillips, the EP features open-reel dub tactics and shocker percussion, coupled with flinch-less plucking and steady-fisted song craft.

After releasing two critically acclaimed albums that evaded the trappings of contemporary psychedelia, Jackson Scott’s heavily drone-rock and shoegaze influenced new outfit, Votaries, reasserts that an unabashed indifference to musical trends continues to suit his songwriting.

Undulating guitars and lyrics that wantonly explore themes of eradication, annihilation, temptation, rage, and paradise recall Spaceman 3’s drug-tinged insouciance, while ethereally layered vocal harmonies pay homage to the singular production achievements of pioneers like My Bloody Valentine.

The resulting sound is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. Songs like the rhythmically propelled ‚”Delusion‚” and punchy, bass-driven‚ ”Rainbow Death Revisited‚” explore territories not yet charted by any of the greats and show that Psychometry, transcendent as it may be, is merely a hint of what is to come as Scott devoutly continues to push his musical boundaries.  ~ Limited edition of 500 records ~

NPR: Review — Jackson Scott Sunshine Redux

The Asheville-via-Pittsburgh native hasn't yet learned how to hold back, and here's hoping he never does‚ Sunshine Redux rips a mental seam that will be difficult to mend, as its loose, bright essence spills out across the ages

PITCHFORK: Review — Jackson Scott Melbourne

[7.7 out of 10] This promising debut album from the young North Carolina-based singer/songwriter mixes the lysergic creepiness of Syd Barrett with more straight-forward and hooky guitar jams indebted to indie rock

PITCHFORK: Rising — Jackson Scott

This young Syd Barrett acolyte makes cassette-hiss pop from the comfort of his Asheville, North Carolina, home

On the cusp of their first U.S. tour, Kiev-based four-piece Bichkraft deliver their shimmering second album, Shadoof. To write and record their sophomore effort, the group built a studio in a debris-strewn lot in the hilly Roshinskiy neighborhood of Kiev, Ukraine. Using the piles of broken classical LPs, discarded winter coats and Soviet-era refrigerators they found there, they constructed a studio to serve as their de facto headquarters. The trash-filled yard outside, in all its chaotic beauty, became its own source of inspiration for the recording. Once the songs were complete, the band refined them on the road, performing around Kiev, throughout Ukraine and for the first time in Russia.

Finding inspiration in the wasteland, Shadoof refuses to end the party even while chaos and disintegration build around the edges. From anthemic industro-punk “Big Red Robe‚” and jagged, hook-filled noise pop “Sleeves at Farewell‚” to pulsing techno noise “Stain of Rest‚” Shadoof hits hard out of the gates and takes listeners on a journey through Kiev’s winding streets, out past the Ukrainian border and into regions unknown.  This is a record of dangerous beauty made by and for the adventurous.

* Playing live at 2016 Pitchfork Northside Festival Showcase with Marshstepper, Priests, and David Vassalotti *

PITCHFORK

“The electronic beat recalls Big Black's unsettling metronome‚ or more recently, the dystopian hypnosis of Total Control”

NOISEY

“Fans of early Jesus & Mary Chain, The Ukiah Drag, and psych that doesn’t stray into shitty jam band territory, pay close attention”

While these arrangements might not surprise fans of past Russian Tsarlag live shows and recordings, there is undoubtedly a new focus on clarity with Unexplained American Goat. Heavily detailed and stripped down to their bare essentials, these eight tracks reward repeated listens and are sure to satisfy rabid Tsarlag fans and new listeners alike. Mastered by Carl Saff.

Words By Byron Coley -

Although this Brooklyn trio is probably too goddamn youthful to care what the hell I'm talking about, there's a consistent vibe to their debut album that puts me in mind of great Cleveland bands of the last century -- from The Mirrors to Friction to Death of Samantha and onward. Something about the way Dan Wise's guitar mixes with both his singing, and that of Cory Feierman's, reminds me of naught but a Lake Erie fish fry. And the rhythm section, with Cory on bass and Will Schmiechen on drums, bears down on these twinned howls in a way that makes it possible to catch whiffs of the Dead Boys at their sharpest.

Perhaps this geographical anomaly results from the fact that Honey's line-up contains two veterans of the Wisconsin Dells water park scene and a native New Yorker, creating a mutant hybrid Ohioan in the process. But that is just theory.

The reality is that these guys are punching a lot straighter and harder than they did with previous units they've been in, and the results are a loud and royal blast. You still get a soupçon of sophisto texture deep in the interior of some of the tunes' architecture, but the main trajectory of the material has a brutalist immediacy. There are even parts where Coryʼs voice conjures up a bellow recalling the long- gone Wolf King of Lodi. But all the tunes hit your head like a fox terrier shot from a bazooka.

This is a great, hard-edged slice of rock noise that blazes with a light far more forthright than I'd dared expect. How very fucking cool is that? --Byron Coley

This is the version with white ink on black.

With each sonic movement on the introductory self-titled EP from New York’s WALL there's a commitment to defend a punctuated duality between curiosity and triumph. After all, what’s a band worth but its message? A certain self-awareness of the very question is at the heart of the WALL apparatus and listening along as they discover themselves throughout this EP is invigorating and scary. Tone and rhythm whirl together, like an emergency exit door choreographed to swing flawlessly in time to its damned and chaotic Pavlovian alarm bell. From the first rigid and cautious seconds of their EP, WALL unleashes an uncanny self-awareness that methodically slips pages ripped from demented No Wave legacies through a shredder of their own design. Their spirit is exceptional and candid; generous heaps of raw energy and inspired moments of tension demand repeat rotations on your turntable. With this debutante artifact, WALL have invited the world to witness the birth of a toxic-new tempestuous bloodwave of post-punk, exactly the transfusion the scene needs to stay alive.

Providence Rhode Island’s Cottaging return with the extra crispy Headhunter b/w Mamajuana Nightcap 7”. It’s been almost a year since the release of the now sold out The Amyl Banshee E.P. The Amyl Banshee release tour saw the band convert even more contemporary music listeners with their pummeling live act and singular wild western apocalyptic style. 

The Headhunter 7” takes Amyl Banshee’s violent churn and flies it into the stratosphere. A-side ‚”Headhunter” rides a wild saxophone riff into soaring choruses while telling the tail of the Snakecharmer and the Headhunter circling each other in a demon-dance. Thanks to the amazing Rachel Lewallen for joining the band on saxophone for this banger. In contrast, the B-Side is a shuffling groover - grab a bottle of its namesake beverage and curl up on the couch to check out ”Mamajuana Nightcap.” Fans of related bands The Ukiah Drag, Latisha’s Skull Drawing and Libyans will want to grab this killer 7”before it is sold out forever, as it surely will be. Featuring jackets hand screened by “The Sultan.” Edition of 300 Only!

LP features vibrant full color hand-screened jackets by Flying Saucer Press.

CC Heaven is Carson Cox (Merchandise), David Vassalotti (Merchandise), Ben Greenberg (Uniform), ZZ Arlington (The Ukiah Drag, Destruction Unit) and Rene Nenez (Horoscope) playing their own brand over-driven art metal. This crew arranged and tracked See You in Hell over 3 feverous days using ZZ’s lyrics and sketches to guide them. Greenberg recorded the album at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather Studios, capturing a wall of sound that does not relent from the moment that Cox’s drums match the quickening pace of the revving engine that kicks off opening track, “Rainbow Kiss.”

The Oldd News EP is our dear friend Jamie Kanzler’s final recording. It was completed in the summer of 2013 in New Orleans, LA just before Jamie passed. Recorded directly into an overdriven computer microphone, the 6 tracks on The Oldd News EP feature shredding, distorted acoustic guitars and emotionally bare lyrics. 

The Oldd News EP will be released in conjunction with “September Spring” the first performance-based work by artist Sam Falls, Kanzler’s god brother and frequent collaborator. “September Spring” will be on view at The Kitchen Gallery from September 9th - October 10th, 2015. At the installation, Kanzler’s songs will act as the sound program to a choreographed dance piece performed by Hart of Gold (dancers Jessie Gold and Elizabeth Hart).

This is a limited edition of 330 records featuring jacket artwork by Sam Falls. The records will be on sale at The Kitchen Gallery from September 10th - October 10th, Printed Matter, Inc. and on our website at www.wharfcatrecords.com.  All proceeds from the sale of this record will go to benefit The Jamie Kanzler Foundation (http://www.jamiekanzlerfund.org/).

Horoscope is the multimedia project of Miami native and Brooklyn resident, Rene J Nunez Cabrera. Cabrera's live performances are as much a raw, uncensored vehicle of personal catharsis as they are a ritualistic forecast of what the future may hold for those who attend.  With numerous cassette releases on labels such as Ascetic house and Acid Casualty Productions and tours with a wide range of artists, Horoscope has been a fixture in contemporary noise circles.

Compared to his often violent and confrontational live sets, Cabrera's debut vinyl release is a more meditative affair. In the artist's words, El Espejo el y Mar evokes, "watching the moon illuminate a path across the water." Synth lines glimmer and undulate, while waves of sound rise and subside at a cosmic pace. Composed, arranged and recorded with only a QCS MS-20 synthesizer, Tascam 4 track tape recorder and a Tarot deck, El Espejo el y Mar channels the more introspective aspects of Cabrera's live set, lulling listeners into a daze where he invites them to create a horoscope all their own.

Release Date:  4/21/2015

WCR 023

Personnel:  Dima Novichenko, Jenia Bichowski, Serzh Kupriychuk, Jenia Machina

RIYL:  The Jesus and Mary Chain, early Velvet Underground, Big Black, Sonic Youth

From Kiev to Kansas City, 20-somethings the world over tend to traffic in the same sort of distractions from modern life: clothes, sneakers, cars, love. Mascot, the debut LP from Ukranian guitar and drum machine noise makers, Bichkraft, holds these things for what they are: fleeting diversions from the bleak realities of modern times and an increasingly uncertain political landscape. That the band composed, wrote and recorded Mascot‚Äö√Ñ√¥s eight songs in its hometown of Kiev only adds to their authority on the matter.  As Dima Novichenko sings in the album opener “Didn’t Know” — “There are erased numbers on your road‚ We better cover our heads.”  

This is heavy, paranoid music in the shape of frenetic jams like ‚”A4,” in which waves of dual-guitar noise accompany a digitized howl, chanting from deep inside the mix. Often, guitar interludes emerge quickly and take a song in a new direction as they do in "Might Night Dicks."  On this track Novichenko and Bichowski display an extensive post-punk guitar vocabulary. They are as fluent in Psychocandy as they are early SY.  After hearing the record’s interwoven guitar lines, it should come as no surprise that the two originally met up to play garage jazz before Serzh Kupriychuk and Jenia Machina joined to handle bass and drum machines, respectively.   

For its brutality and chaos, Mascot has some undeniably pretty moments: the lilting guitar refrain that kicks off “Bushes” for example, or the often poetic imagery in Novichenko and Bichowski’s lyrics about the natural world, love and decay. Still, these nods to beauty always lead back to fractured songs about suburban scenes where mankind’s disregard for nature is just a warning of greater dangers looming on the edge of town. 

Snakehole’s debut LP highlights their intuition. In a tumultuous chain of reactions, we are taken on a ride thru a spectrum of love and despair. Reacting off of each other, Autumn Casey and KC Toimil pursue their respective inner demons, chasing them, in a relentless symbiotic attack. 

Personnel - Brian Markham, Pat Broderick, Adam Bulgasem, Brandon Evans, Kevin Lamiell

RIYL - Destruction Unit, Psychic Ills, Hawkwind, early Pink Floyd

Mosaic is a new statement of purpose for Ancient Sky and a record that defines the band as one of Brooklyn’s heaviest and most dynamic units.  With a collection of Brian Markham’s best songs yet, Ancient Sky headed into Future-Past Studios in Hudson, NY with the like-minded Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Mission Hubble, The Men) on board as producer and sound engineer.  The perfect combination of songs, personnel, and recording space resulted in an album that captures the massive scale of Ancient Sky’s live sound for the first time.

Mosaic is the sound of a band revitalized.  With the addition of Adam Bulgasem as second drummer, Pat Broderick’s signature swing hits even harder.  Kevin Lamiell and Brandon Evans add bass and keys respectively, leaving Markham to handle the singular guitar, one that riffs and drones in classic Ancient Sky form. From metallic street punk (“Know”) to swinging celestial psych (“Sing Swing”) to the crunching terror blues that is “Two Lights” this is a band showing that maturity means knowing your strengths and also knowing how to keep pushing it.

Track List:

1.    Sing Swing 

2.    Two Lights 

3.    Garbage Brain 

4.    Know  

5.    Induction

6.    Protection 

7.    Ancient Tape

Live performances:

- 6/6/15: Union Pool, NY

- 6/13/15: Wharf Cat Label Showcase - Northside Festival, Shea Stadium BK

Personnel - Austin Sley Julian, Jackie McDermott, Lazar Bozic

RIYL - DNA, Palberta, Chrome, Mars, The Screamers, The Electric Eels, The Birthday Party, K-Holes, Bush Tetras

Psychosymplastic

Let's be real, they called me a loon and my honesty is a smear.  Pre-excused decisions: the corner is marked; seething rain burns through a silver diatribe; terminal remnants gather.  Protect me from devils, must be dancing, in the tank a past ally wakes the mummy bog. 15 years and I was raised - hunger grows a bland palate. Washed out jaded trendsetters, with the right rhetoric, indistinguishable.  Psychosymplastic was conceived, written, rehearsed, toured and recorded in 2014.

About The Band

The Sediment Club, originally from New York City, now spread out across the Northeast, was formed in 2008 by Austin Sley-Julian.  Soon after Austin enlisted keyboardist Amina Oliveros and bassist Lazar Bozic (whom Austin had met after attempting to strangle during a show).  Jackie McDermott joined as drummer in 2009.  The Sediment Club released their self-titeld EP in February 2010 on Soft Spot records.  In 2011 Sediment Club split ways with Oliveros and reformed as a trio.  Since then The Sediment Club has had a number of releases, been featured on several compilations, and toured frequently throughout the country, performing along side other New York/New England acts such as Bush Tetras, Black Pus, Cottaging, Guerilla Toss, Palberta, etc.

This is a co-release by Wharf Cat Records and Chu-Chu Records.  Chu Chu Records will be handling the release in Germany.

Psychedelic Bloodbaths Wharf Cat Records debut, aptly titled ”Alien.”

Psychic Blood’s debut mini LP is comprised of six tracks of lush beauty and noise marred by shredding guitar whose reverb drips down the walls like expired glue before coalescing in dark corners.  Conceived from lost causes, sleepless nights, and a mysterious brush with death which landed guitarist/vocalist Jason Vachula in the hospital, Alien is less about extraterrestrial beings than it is about alienation from one’s own self and the surrounding world.  However, at its core this is not a downer record, but rather a burst of energy; a celebration of the lost, the truly free.

Psychic Blood is a Western Mass trio that took its name in 2011.  The band has released multiple cassettes with the last being Nightmare Beaches, a limited tape on the Sonoran Desert-based Ascetic House label.  The trio has played shows across the US and toured with the likes of Nu Sensae, Naomi Punk, and Cottaging.

Ancient Sky

All Get Out

WCR-010

Release Date:
Nov. 12, 2013

Brian Markham

guitar/vocals

Dima Drjuchin
guitar

Mike Kutchman
bass

Pat Broderick

drums

A common theme emerged among much of the favorable press receiving Ancient Sky’s 2012 LP, T.R.I.P.S. This band, listeners agreed, does psychedelic rock right. They wander, without losing themselves; they embrace psychedelic expanse without sacrificing rock’s raw power. 

Following T.R.I.P.S. acclaim, the band released the 7-inch single “Castle b/w Allegory” their Wharf Cat debut and continued that same vein of thoughtful psych-rock, highlighted by concise arrangements and powerful dynamics. 

A banner year for Ancient Sky, 2012 saw the band moving well beyond its Brooklyn base, picking up fans on the blogosphere and on the road. In November, they launched a month-long European tour. 

And judging by All Get Out Ancient Sky’s new third album, recorded again at bassist Mike Kutchman’s Kutch 1 Studios in Greenpoint, N.Y. the band hasnn’t been idle in the interim. 

With its eight songs stretched across a little more than 41 minutes, All Get Out gives its songs has plenty of room to breathe, and the more spacious textures featured on this album suit that sensibility. But it’s still a concise album, free from aimless pedal tapping and lethargic repetition. 

Indeed, Ancient Sky’s craftsmanship is quickly evident on All Get Out. Kutchman and drummer Pat Broderick set a sturdy low-end base for guitarists Brian Markham and Dima Drjuchin (who replaced T.R.I.P.S. axeman Christian DeRoeck) to spin off wandering melodies or dense, droning chords. This rhythmic groundedness favors Markham’s succinct arrangements and economical writing, and ensures that no matter how far afield the guitars meander, they remain tethered to the song’s core. 

Neither a lethargic, druggy sprawl nor a zealous revival of ‘60s archetypes, All Get Out nevertheless belies its creatorsdeliberate construction and attention to detail. The finest craftsmanship, after all, is subtle. And in the case of Ancient Sky, the effect of such seamless construction is significant. Instead of listening to somebody else turn on, tune in and drop out, Ancient Sky encourages us to indulge. In other words, they’re still doing psych-rock the right way.

Buy the tape here from Campers Rule records:

http://www.campersrule.com/products/534843-ancient-sky-all-get-out-cassette-tape-download

Gatefold 7”!

This two song 7" by Brooklyn's Ancient Sky is an exercise in tonal duality. The wandering spirit of classic psych is reigned in and crystallized into two very different pop songs; an experimental journey begetting a pristine destination. Castle is a hazy trip through space propelled by a sublime riff and stretched out over a german moterik drum beat. A deconstructed classic rock song, constantly flirting with full-on psychedelic assault. The B Side, Allegory, explodes with aggressive intent before casually lulling itself into a satisfied sleep. Packaged simply and comfortably within a gorgeous and chilling painted landscape on a wrap around gatefold sleeve featuring a painting by artist Ryan McLennan, this release is an invitation to be wholly moved.

Downtown Runnin                                                                                      

WCR-006

In 2013 it’s easy to find a band espousing “punk” aesthetics; less so a band whose creative modus operandi is to apply that kind of uninhibited and spiritually combative aesthetics to the songwriting process, without a nod to the sound and pageantry of the ostensible contemporary vanguard.

Big French is that band. Their first full-length, Downtown Runnin, consists of eighteen short songs that burn out before becoming rote. Unmoored in the zeitgeist, the band covers a wide variety of material, from structurally complex power ballads “Would Not Try”, “Downtown Runnin” to dreamy smears “Atlanta”, “Whale”, heavier postpunk “Ungungungungone” and arcade prog “Payback”. As the album rushes through its short duration, notes of disparate influences appear briefly, subsumed by the next; Big French is loath to sit still, whether stylistically, harmonically or in attitude.

Quentin Moore wrote Downtown Runnin in Germantown, New York in 2011 and 2012. A dynamic crew of close associates was recruited, including drummer Jo Miller-Gamble (Great Valley) and keyboardist Zach Phillips (Blanche Blanche Blanche), and Downtown Runnin was recorded in a series of sessions at Mike Kutchman’s (Ancient Sky) Kutch 1 studio in Greenpoint. The album was recorded with minimal overdubbing and engineered intervention.

The first thing any Big French listener will notice is Moore’s unconventional vocal counterpoint, less Tiny Tim falsetto than piccolo guitar. It’s no gimmick, or the mark of a castrato; Moore is simply a strange individual, known to Germantown’s residents as the “Mahogany Man” for his bizarre wooden attire. And the landscape of Downtown Runnin, with its cascading hills and fields of sundry heirloom melodies, is the Mahogany Man’s ideal environment. With Moore’s voice at the helm, band’s spasmodic chops and bent coordination speak louder than words. Big French, Downtown Runnin, Wharf Cat Records, 2013.

American Snakeskin - Turquoise for Hello

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19670-the-ukiah-drag-in-the-reapers-quarters/

STANDING IN THE PISSING RAIN MUST BE A DRAG: Recorded in a secularized Lutheran temple off the banks of the Hudson River, Ukiah Drag's new LP In the Reaper's Quarters (produced by Ben Greenberg) is fine projection of basement rumination finding temptation in the halls of an ex-God. Straddling the church balcony, licking the scum off stained glass, crooked steeples refracting moonlight and bloodThere is no erasure of the Satanic ego as it the Drag moves onto new spiritual drippings. While the band's Dirt Trip single was hard but not necessarily unforgiving, In the Reaper's Quarters is a hellish maw that chews up tired rock and post punk tropes only to reanimate them in other austere and lonely offices. You may chew on its bones and swallow its scales but they'll cling to your pockmarked soul indeed.

Pulsating organs strobe their way through flattening riffs and creep beats; on many tracks the listener will hear a sex-crazed baby grand slinking sinfully into the reaper's pit. Their rendition of Lee Hazlewood's "Wait and See" will break the emotional turnstiles of many a troglodyte. This is a widow-making full length that marks and culminates every player's previous efforts to a blunt and remorseless tee. For fans of the violent prose of Harry Crews, Bobby Beausoleil's score of LUCIFER RISING, and the hallowed walls of Chateau Marmont.

Track List:

1.Intro

2. Her Royal Grip

3. The Rat’s Waltz (redux)

4. Final Prayer

5. Drip from the Fang

6. Wait and See

7. Night of Immaculacy

After several years and a handful of singles, Brown on Brown arrives as the ultimate Dads record, equal parts ambitious and obnoxious. The band's debut full-length, Brown on Brown was born out of obsessive scatological tendencies and the desire to translate an increasingly unruly live show to an LP format. Letting structure fall almost entirely away, Brown on Brown finds the band moving through post-punk squall ("Disco Dad,") terror-jazz ("I'm a Shitty Ghost") and warped, Exile on Main Street-inspired drug shuffle ("Jerk Off My Mom's Church") before arriving at the 20+ minute album closer, the shit-prog epic "Ride the Moon Into the Sun." Recorded in the band's living room, in the fine tradition of Ready for the House and Black Vinyl Shoes, Brown on Brown envisions a sprawl that extends beyond the stained couches and shredded pornography of its point of origin. Music sprung from messy brains, it's a leap forward for Dads, simultaneously into the future and into the toilet bowl.

Invisible Blouse

Wharf Cat Records
WCR-008

Release Date: July 9, 2013

Personnel

Cameron Worden

Carson Cox

David Vassalotti                                                         

Chris Horn                           

Wharf Cat Records is extremely excited to re-issue this classic record from the Tampa container crate scene. Dads' Invisible Blouse is a statement of positive and willful self-annulment. Recorded live (in mom's garage, to no audience,) "Invisible Blouse" rises above nothing. Instead, the song is a self-assured mess, finding no disparity between its grime, its bleated vocals, and its Who-leaning guitar line. All plodding drums, tension, and mosquito buzz, "Homo Concentration" looks in the opposite direction, neck craned sharply downward. Together, the A and B side showcase Dads as a band persistent in their desire to be the band Dads. A classic single to be shelved alongside "I Was There At The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and "Surfin' with Steve and E.D. Amin," Invisible Blouse is the idiot's anthem of the future.

Dads have, for several years now, shared members and operated in parallel with a number of bands born of Tampa's underground music community including Merchandise, Cult Ritual, Neon Blud, and Church Whip, while also having retained a singular musical identity; of a piece with, but separate from the members' other bands.