Vampire Blues

abazaba

Isolation

Vampire Blues

Abazaba Sam Day Harmet - soprano taishogoto Erica Mancini - tenor taishogoto  Quince Marcum - alto taishogoto Steve La Rosa - bass taishogoto  Steve Shelley - drums with Eugene Hütz - vocals  on Isolation Recorded by Martin Bisi at BC Studio in Brooklyn, NY. Mixed by Steve La Rosa and Dan Rome at Big Lake Recording Co. in Burlington, VT.  Mastered by Aaron Mullan

Sentridoh

Really Insane : A Lou Barlow Compendium

Vampire Blues

Lou Barlow personified home recording’s rise in the late ’80s and was arguably one of the few key players that changed the trajectory of songwriting as the ’90s charted its cultural course. For the 30th anniversary of his Really Insane 7-inch and Winning Losers EP, Emil Amos and Steve Shelley have compiled an overview of Barlow’s best solo work under the name Sentridoh. Based around an even mix of legendary tracks and extra deep cuts, this compilation focuses on Barlow’s arrangement innovations, signature textural explorations, and radical ability to turn psychological upheaval into classic songs. 20 tracks remastered by Carl Saff from Barlow’s early 90’s home-recording peak

Tape Hiss

You Can Make Me Feel Bad

Vampire Blues

Tape Hiss: Ernie Brooks - bass, vocals Peter Zummo - trombone, vocals David Nagler - keyboards, vocals Pete Galub - guitar Steve Shelley - drums Recorded and Mixed by Thomas Lebioda

Wylde Ratttz

Wylde Ratttz

Vampire Blues

VERY LIMITED / COLORED VINYL *** The Wylde Ratttz were formed in 1997 to record tracks by The Stooges for the film Velvet Goldmine. With Ron Asheton as the secret weapon, the songs were easily dispatched and the band quickly organized a second session that produced a mixture of originals brought in by the band members, covers by The Pretty Things (one of Ron’s fav bands), and 40 minutes of killer instrumental tracks. Ron Asheton: Guitar, vocals, piano, tympani. Mark Arm: Vocals. Thurston Moore: Guitar, vocals, electronics. Mike "Pipe" Watt: Bass, Beam, spiel. Steve Shelley: Drums, percussion. Don Fleming: Guitar, vocals. Sean Ono Lennon: Multitronics, guitar, vocals. Produced by Don Fleming for Instant Mayhem Productions Recorded and mixed by Bil Emmons in NYC, 1997

Disappears - Steve Shelley - White / Light

S/t

Vampire Blues

***BACK IN STOCK!!! In the summer of 2009, Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and the band’s long time sound engineer, Jeremy Lemos, invited Lemos’ White/Light bandmate Matt Clark and Chicago spacepunx Disappears to come over to Lemos’ Semaphore Recording studio and jam. Their one-afternoon, two-drummers, three-guitarists, no-rules jam evolved into a productive and glorious multi-day freakout, which resulted in the recording of these eight songs. Producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen) later mixed the marathon session with Steve and Jeremy at Echo Canyon West in Hoboken, NJ.   Limited to 350 2XLP’s pressed at 45RPM Black vinyl, pressed at Kindercore in Athens, GA, housed in “bootleg-style” hand-stamped and numbered LP jacket. Lacquers cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. Mixed by John Congleton w/ Jeremy Lemos and Steve Shelley.

fuck

The Band

Vampire Blues

Presenting fuck’s first new record in over ten years, the band, on Vampire Blues! In the mid-’90s to the early aughts, fuck was releasing a new record every other year and touring constantly while jumping from label to label. Then, with nary a warning, they up and disappeared. No note, no nothing. Skip forward a generation and it’s revealed that they’ve been spending all these years meticulously sculpting the most impressive album of their career. Recorded in fits and starts and all over the map, from basic tracks in San Francisco to overdubs in Italy and mixing in Memphis, the band comes through with a surprisingly cohesive sound; though, like their six previous studio albums, the genre-bending and boundary-pushing song-writing continues. Any lesser band would have destroyed all sense of spontaneity going this route; not fuck. The casual off-the-cuff attitude remains, but now with added depth and clarity. The highs got higher, the hard hits harder. And it only took ten years!

fuck

Baby Loves A Funny Bunny

Vampire Blues

For fuck’s 1996 sophomore release, the band got sophomoric: the playing got more playful, and the lyrics got more nonsensical. Yet, from late-night confessional “Swinger” to the bare-boned sigh of “Whimper and Cry,” the band still embraces languor and melancholia.Unlike the band’s even-handed debut album, Pretty... Slow, this batch of songs careens multi-directionally— toy piano and baby grand! “Rococo” pops, “Tired” rocks, “Loosened Mind?” ups the weird, and “Talent, OR” goes full CinemaScope. From realizing “I am almost like a girl” to the hope that “black and white will soon be brown and gold” on their ode to Neil Young (“Ballet High”), the future of identity politics is nailed in 2:27. Think Jonathan Richman’s whimsical sincerity battling the obfuscation of Erik Satie: Baby Loves A Funny Bunny imbues both yin and yang. Schizo? Maybe. Let’s call it delightfully unpredictable.

Spectre Folk

Vol. 4

Vampire Blues

“Spectre Folk’s latest Vol. 4 evokes history and journeys, both in leader / main songwriter Pete Nolan’s travelogues of places and experiences around the world, and in the band’s reverential nods to musical history / tips of the hat to psych-swirlers of the past. Their first full length since 2012’s Ancient Storm, Vol. 4 heaps more generous servings of layered, lavalamp-drip guitars, lethargic riffery and choogling sunstare moments both epic and subtle. Nolan, now relocated to South Carolina these days, still directs his song energy through and with a band of prime players: Aaron Mullan (Tall Firs / Hallogallo), Mark Ibold (Pavement / Dustdevils), Peter Meehan (Lucky Peach zine) and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), who despite geographic distance still churn out a cohesive and gorgeous collection of inventive and expansive sounds. “Begin the Mothership” creeps in with drifty vibe and imagery of the 13th Floor Elevators’ guitarist Tommy Hall in his trough days praying to a Mickey Mouse poster on acid in San Francisco, slowly giving way to an avalanche of cosmic guitars, while “Golden Gooj” revamps a more barren tune from an old Spectre CDR release into a watery raftride down a slow river with Michael Rother’s flanged electric guitar leading the way. The easier-going moments of Spectre Folk circa-2017 offer among the most colorful and rich highlights of this new outing. “Bremsstrahlung” evokes some delicate David Crosby guitar work adrift on a bed of hazy sunset drone, while Shelley’s propulsive drums lead the way through the heavier burners...

fuck

Pretty...slow

Vampire Blues

For the first time ever a vinyl version of the fuck classic Pretty…slow is being reissued! Originally released on compact disc in 1996, it was a fanboy wet dream: a hand-numbered, limited-edition small cardboard box stuffed with candy, tiny toys, crayons and a coloring book. The music, like the packaging, showed the same DIY anything-goes attitude—lyrics like “She came home to runaway...” are completely upended by the demented howl of a brutalized violin on “Monkey Does His Thing,” while “Shotgun Hours” is like a Lou Reed meets Townes Van Zandt death-song. Back then, everybody wanted a copy but the band could never keep up with the demand. Twenty years on, Vampire Blues’ vinyl edition of Pretty…slow ensures that every boy and girl can get the fuck they deserve.

Lee, Chris

Bury The Kings

Vampire Blues

After an eight-year hiatus, Brooklyn-based, North Carolina-born singer and songwriter Chris Lee returns with his fourth LP. Produced by Steve Shelley and released on his new label Vampire Blues, Bury the Kings features Lee on guitar and vocals, Shelley on drums, David Nagler (Nova Social, John Wesley Harding and Jon Langford collaborator) on keyboards, and Texan brothers Aaron McClellan on bass and Joey McClellan on guitars. The album was recorded and mixed by Ted Young at Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon West studio in Hoboken, NJ.   “Lee’s lyricism is genuinely poetic in the old-fashioned sense, as opposed to the indie-pop diary scribblings sense....”  —Phoenix New Times  “... when he lifts into that liquid falsetto, he’s the most beautiful human in the room.”  —Chicago Reader

Spectre Folk

Ancient Storm

Vampire Blues

Tireless Michigan-bred multi-instrumentalist (and parent) Pete Nolan runs the Arbitrary Signs imprint, drums for Magik Markers and has written a children’s book and accompanying album—yet still has time and energy to lead Spectre Folk’s doleful, spiraling psychedelic drones. With drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Aaron Mullan (Tall Firs) on bass and Peter Meehan on guitar, they churn out black seas of noise guitar, psych jams, no-fi experiments and other interplanetary gunk.  The follow-up to their The Blackest Medicine, Vol. 2 EP (Woodsist), Ancient Storm opens with a slow-burning ballad whose vibe is right out of If I Could Only Remember My Name, and ends with creepy heaviness that wouldn’t be out of place on a Jandek record. In between, layered, psychedelic guitar work and the occasional electrified vibraphone overlay a mix of beefed-up psych-rock muscle and a more stripped-down, guy-in-a-bedroom sound. Hard to believe a group this murky can swing this hard, but such is the nature of 21st Century astral projection.

Hallo Gallo 2010

Blinkgurtel / Drone Schlager

Vampire Blues

***BACK IN STOCK!!! As participants in the heyday of early ‘70s Krautrock go, MICHAEL ROTHER's resume and contributions to the world of experimental music and progressive rock might be among the highest. He spent time as guitarist in a 1971 incarnation of KRAFTWERK, then co-founded the legendary combo NEU! with Klaus Dinger. With a combination of studio manipulations with producer Conny Plank, Dinger's driving motorik drumming and Rother's spirited and textural guitar playing, Neu! created a body of music that weighed heavily across sections of classic and modern music cornerstones as diverse as Joy Division, PiL, Bowie, and an entire electronic music scene. He also was a member of HARMONIA, joining Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, worked with Eno, and created a selection of solo recordings into the present time. Rother has been touring as HALLO GALLO 2010 using his past projects as a template for live performance, joined by STEVE SHELLEY (SONIC YOUTH) on drums, and AARON MULLAN (TALL FIRS) on bass. The trio recently performed during WFMU's broadcast at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, and have shows this week at Maxwell's, Lincoln Center, and in Philadelphia. Includes free digital download coupon.