Blades of Joy’s debut LP is a stunning and seamless distillation of waiting for the nighttime; waiting for the sun to go dim enough to stare at, for the surreal and perplexing MUNI-OWL schedule to take over the bus routes, for finally feeling lost and lonely at home in a city that insists on exposing your private world. Pop for poets, rock for reality. How good this music is remains one of San Francisco’s most closely-guarded secrets, but talk to the right people and you’ll find out what’s been causing murmurs of adoration and envy at secretive live appearances from 3am electrified freakouts on Ocean Beach to intimate sessions in the backroom of the Tenderloin’s famous Aunt Charlie’s Lounge. In this recording, captured in a few 2016-2017 dips into Oakland’s Secret Bathroom studios, we can hear Blades of Joy (which include members of expansive San Francisco groups such as SWANOX and DISSOLVE) in their traditional four piece lineup, though the seven songs herein belie a group of songwriters willing to stretch out and breathe in any configuration or style. In contemporary Bay Area fashion, the Blades do wear some influences on their sleeves: listen for guitar lines that pull threads from the spooky and spectral coats of the DURUTTI COLUMN and FELT, pull reels of tape from the wistful Tascam of ROY MONTGOMERY in his East Village years, pull a gin-soaked paper towel out of the Levi’s jacket of the RED HOUSE [CHILI] PAINTERS. Vocals that channel the sublime clarity...
LP $14.00
10/12/2018
MP3 $5.99
10/12/2018
FLAC $6.99
10/12/2018
***"VC3 is—you guessed it—the third LP from San Francisco’s VIOLENT CHANGE, a brand new collection of hazy pop channeled through submarine-fidelity noise. If you were among the fans of their previous records, this remains heavily dissociative music; if it helps to paint the picture, the live band now includes members of Bay Area favorites RAYS and LIFE STINKS, though these recordings here are a whole different grade of barbiturate. Still, take note: from the opening notes of the second track, 'Unit A,' it’s immediately apparent that bandleader GLADYS BIEYLE has learned to let his melodic brilliance shine. This is Violent Change’s real pop moment, an album of lonesome romanticism on par with Shoes’ One In Versailles and Chris Bell’s I Am The Cosmos. I kid you not, this record is that good. A co-release of Melters and It Take Two."
LP $15.50
01/20/2017
***Swiftumz's best work to date. This is saying a lot considering how amazing his AMAZING 2011 debut, Don't Trip (Holy Mountain) was -- seriously the best pop album you've never heard. Unless of course you heard it, or the two masterful singles that followed it up; then you know what you're in for. The eleven tracks on "Everybody Loves Chris" are as gorgeous, eclectic, catchy, and stoned as they come. Recorded in various studios, beds, and hotel rooms around the Bay Area, this LP magnifies Chris McVicker's beautifully fucked pop vision into clear focus, letting the rest of us unworthy souls bask in the glow of truly weird indie-pop euphoria. Taste the grey and get it before it's gone. Includes two-sided insert and download code.
LP $13.50
05/19/2015
MP3 $9.90
05/19/2015
FLAC $11.99
05/19/2015
***We here at Melters are beyond excited to bring to your attention VIOLENT CHANGE’s amazing new long-player, A Celebration of Taste. On this record, GLADYS BLEYLE and fellow noise maker/kindred spirit STERLING MACKINNON have crafted a seriously weird, strangely beautiful sound. In Celebration, they still observe the rites of their devout GBV worship, while bringing in experimental, abstract= sounds à la Flying Saucer Attack or the Dead C. Though there are certainly fantastic standalone tracks, this is a record that is meant to be digested as a whole, and was thoughtfully sequenced with this in mind. The record washes over you with an eerily effective combination of true pop song craft and studied excursions into otherworldly noise. When it all comes to a close after a brief twenty-two minutes, you will have awoken from a baffling dream. Moments of beauty and sincerity float alongside harsh noise and submerged words—it’s up to you what to make of it. Bleyle and Mackinnon have crafted a rare thing: a record of unpretentious, unfussy significance, and we couldn’t be prouder to present it. Edition of 500 copies.
LP $15.50
08/26/2014
MP3 $9.90
06/12/2014
FLAC $11.99
06/12/2014
MP3 $3.96
10/14/2012
FLAC $4.99
10/14/2012