***BACK IN STOCK!!! Formed in the mountain town of New Paltz, NY, WHAT MOON THINGS is a rock-'n'-droll band that considers itself more of a duo, or production team. Its two permanent members, JOHN MORISI and JAKE HARMS, co-write all the group’s songs in addition to performing and recording every part on record. They released their eponymous first record in mid-2014, via Hot Grits (based out of Athens, GA), and while riding the wave of the “emo revival” created something all their own—a blend of romantic goth imagery, machine gun-like snare fills and howling guitar noise, all contextualized by the stark landscape of upstate New York. The record picked up a 7.3 album rating from Pitchfork and mentions in outlets such as Noisey, Ad Hoc and Impose. Their latest release is 2017’s Someone Who Isn't Me (via Group Tightener). Edition of 500.
LP $15.50
06/02/2017
***Camera Trouble is the lush first full-length record from L.A. dream-pop trio ROSES. Across 10 brooding songs, the drum-machined trio makes something fresh using familiar pop sounds from decades past. The reference points—from The Cure and Cocteau Twins to Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins and what feels like a million other things in between—are never hidden or obscured. And the record is stronger because of it. Roses are JUAN VELASQUEZ (ABE VIGODA), VICTOR HERRERA and MARC STEINBERG. Produced by Zola Jesus cohort ALEX DEGROOT. Edition of 500 on white vinyl.
LP $15.50
11/18/2016
***Dream pop trio ROSES bloomed from the recesses of Los Angeles in early 2013. While guitarist JUAN VELASQUEZ was on hiatus from L.A. darkwavers ABE VIGODA, he met singer/keyboardist MARC STEINBERG at a local gay bar, trading mix tapes and finding they shared a love for alt heroines like Yoko Ono, Julee Cruise and Marianne Faithful. Meanwhile, Velasquez knew bassist VICTOR HERRERA after meeting him eight years ago at L.A. punk venue The Smell during its legendary run in the 2000s, bonding over female-fronted jangle pop bands like 10,000 Maniacs, The Sundays and The Cranberries. They were all looking to start a new band, so the three-piece began recording demos reflecting that love of delicate alt-rock of the ’80s and ’90s but smothering the results with industrial beats, shoegaze guitars and Steinberg’s intoning vocals. They’d go on to get their live legs while touring the West Coast and playing alongside bands like Diiv, Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles. With the four-song Dreamlover EP recorded in L.A. by ALEX DEGROOT (engineer/keyboardist for Zola Jesus) and released on Group Tightener, the band has waxed their sound down to a fine point. They blend shimmering guitars and power chords with washes of dreamy synthesizers and new-wave basslines on “Florence Girls,” like The Wake taking off in The Go-Go’s convertible. An air of New Romanticism and the influence of the Cocteau Twins can be heard on nostalgic ballad “The Fog.” Steinberg’s lilting croon sails on woozy keys and waves of distortion on “Icicle” and...
12" $14.00
07/29/2014
***For his new album, Days Off, MATT LAWSON aka SECRET COLORS—burned out on guitars, burned out on his improvisational methods—got a cheap Yamaha keyboard and started composing his own pieces of electronic music. While Lawson is using primitive elements to construct these pieces, there's still a sense of density and well-worn love in each of them, like they were meticulously stitched together and just a little frayed. Limited to 500.
LP $14.00
06/11/2013
***ALEC FIELD grew up in New York on a steady diet of Chicago house, disco, old Motown stuff and a smattering of his parents’ psych records, as well as “trashy ’90s dance.” Dark Matters is his debut LP as EXPENSIVE LOOKS. It flows continuously across nine tracks, touching on elements of all the music he grew up on: hypnotic house, textured minimalism, and the gorgeous moment of musical epiphany that happens when a beat drops out and all that’s left is the aural equivalent of taking a deep breath and staring at the stars. It’s a dance record with the sort of scrappy, open heart that can only come from someone like Feld. Expensive Looks is all encompassing, it draws from all genres without border, pulling everything into one warped but pointed mass.
LP $14.00
01/17/2012
CD $9.25
01/17/2012
***Group Tightener is proud to present the first ever physical release from EXPENSIVE LOOKS. The introductory 7-inch features two songs, with the B-side exclusive to this release. "Vanishers" is a hazy, slow-build of electronic loops and ALEC FIELD’s passionate croon, diping through the echoey peaks and valleys of a teen searcher's bedroom wail. "Simon" gets a bit more sinister with off-kilter samples. The record is just a taste of the textured dance-oriented full-length that will see release on Group Tightener this summer. Limited to 500.
7" $5.40
06/07/2011
***FLUFFY LUMBERS is the project of SAMUEL FRANKLIN (BIG TROUBLES) hailing from the oddly prolific musical hub of Ridgewood, New Jersey (home to Vivian Girls, Real Estate, Titus Andronicus, Julian Lynch, etc).
7" $4.50
09/14/2010
***4 e and a is about the infinite spaces between. As a classically trained percussionist, RYAN J RAFFA has sat in front of a metronome for the majority of their life. In their mind, they would play with the spaces between those clicks. In especially challenging times, they would attempt to expand and stretch those spaces into forever. Just existing in the between. This record is about these moments (and places) living in those infinite spaces. The title "4 e and a" is a play on words, in reference to counting and subdividing rhythmic patterns. Ryan would need to play these patterns on a drum as a child. “4 e and a” is also a reference to a country or a place with a name. Like Argentina is a place, "4 e and a" (said run all together) sounds like a country. A place we all know about and sometimes go to because it's beautiful and full of spirit, but it also can be a bit unnerving, uneasy, and eerie when we explore new places there. In mathematics, we have Cantor's diagonal argument and the understanding that the infinity between each integer (such as between 1 and 2) is larger than the infinite space that every integer that exists can fill. Like, one infinity is larger than another infinity? Huh?! When you start subdividing time (like 1 e and a, 2 e and a, 3 e and a, 4 e and a), you start creating those ever-expanding spaces, one larger...
LP $32.25
TBD