I Love My Label (Stiff Records Tribute!)

Trespassers William
"A few weeks after receiving Trespassers William's third album, I accidentally spilled a glass of Diet Coke on the liner notes. And while at first I muttered the curses of a music obsessive who won't so much as touch a jewel case without first washing his hands, it later occurred to me that my saturated CD booklet was a pretty apt metaphor for Having, a low-key dream-pop record so immersed in atmosphere that it seems almost waterlogged. Like shoegazing forbears Slowdive and Mazzy Star, the members of Trespassers William saturate their beautifully simple songs in pooling guitars, resonating keyboards, and heavy reverb. Chord changes roll through like slow-moving waves, and singer Anna-Lynne Williams stretches out every languid syllable as far as she can, a buoy gently floating out to some distant horizon." - Prefix

The Theatre Fire
"The Theater Fire (Dallas/Ft. Worth) takes me back to a simpler time, or simpler frame of mind, when artists sung about serious things without getting freaked out or dressing in black, or by trying to convey their seriousness by mumbling the lyrics in a tedious monotone. This band is bright, both musically and mentally, and they make a joyful noise — without completely ignoring life’s grim realities. The Theater Fire could be a modern American version of the Kinks with their deadpan humor, fine musicianship, and upbeat, slightly skewed vision of the world. Their all-acoustic sound is timeless, and with arrangements that condense the last 60 years of pop music into tasty, easy-to-swallow nuggets." - Crawdaddy

William Hooker
"Since the 1970s, Hooker has chiseled away at making his music and name in a field with precious little room for superstars. He put in his time on the 70s loft scene, and gradually earned the respect of its brightest lights, including Ornette Coleman. But, like David Ware, Daniel Carter and Matthew Shipp, he has achieved renown outside the claustrophobic confines of the lower Manhattan improvised music scene by teaming up with some of the more adventurous and experienced principals from the independant rock/pop world – Sonic Youth’s Lee enaldo and Thurston Moore, Alan Licht, and DJ Olive, to name a few. This music, thanks to the younger guitar players and effects gurus, tends toward the outer fringes of the noise/rock/electronica genre, with a generous dose of free jazz upplied by Hooker." - Ty Cumbie

Punk Rock Sideshow w/DJ Tragic & the Duchess of Hazard, every Monday

Made in Mexico (ex-Arab on Radar)
"Proving that names can sometimes be misleading, Made in Mexico doesn’t sound much like an export from the land of tequila, sombreros, and blood-drenched drug wars. And the confusion doesn’t stop there. The quartet’s MySpace page lists Providence, Rhode Island, as home, but goddamn if Guerillaton doesn’t sound like a byproduct of gloriously cacophonic New York—not too-cool-for-school Williamsburg circa 2001, but SoHo back in the late-’70s reign of no wave. This is music designed to challenge even the most open-minded sonic adventurists, with singer Rebecca Mitchell and guitarist Jeff Schneider both seemingly on a mission to outweird each other. He makes an art-damaged racket that smells like D. Boon chowing down on the half-eaten remains of Captain Beefheart; she comes on like an escapee from the Lydia Lunch Asylum for the Artistically Insane." - The Straight

"The best of the post-Arab on Radar sweepstakes." - Weasel Walter

Dark Lingo
"Artsy-drugsy tunes from a two-piece drum/bass duo (although they throw some other shit in the mix too), with heavily effects-pedaled vocals and a tendency to get into that heavy groove-jam shit. And then get all spastic on you. This reminds of the Providence-type shit Lightning Bolt and those dudes would be making at Fort Load or whatever their space was called. Has some brutal moments, stays structured for the most part without digressing into pure noise bullshit. Kinda heavy-art-punk when ya think about it." - Terminal Boredom

The Everyday Visuals

Sic Alps
"The ominous death's head fez has now been ensconced in a witchy naugahyde bonnet, thus levelling the playing field for both the psychedelically challenged and the itinerant avant garde."

Linda Hagood
"This is like a book of demented children’s stories read to you by a little girl with a very active imagination. Her vocals are quirky and childlike. The sounds, created by a mix of guitar, keyboards, violin, and drums, are weird, creepy, kooky, and yes, even a little ookey. She describes her sounds psychedelic punky comedy, and she looks pretty interesting wearing masks and crazy hats on stage. Overall her the vocals match her sound as they meet up in crazy kiddieland." - KFJC

Go Going Gone Girls
Though this trio of hair-hopping hoofers may worship at the altar of their frolicking forbearers, they are nothing if not au courant. Backed by an all-star four-piece lineup, the girls deliver a dexterous and distinctive blend of 60s go-go, soul, bubblegum, girl-group, and garage. Hear them sing, wail, scream, harmonize, plead, beg, and shout from atop their totemic pedestals. See them shimmy, shake, twist, dog, monkey, duck, bird, funky chicken, and pony like their ancestors of yore. Smell the musk generated by their fans as they wiggle, jerk, groove, watusi, peel, hully gully, hand jive, and slop to the ancient rhythms. Taste the sweat on your own lips as you are swept away by the sacred rituals of the mashed potato, the Madison, the hanky panky, the frug, the popcorn, and the bugaloo. Feel the band camelwalk, locomotion, skate, swim, stroll, and hitchhike their way into your heart.

The Barbary Coasters
Guitar driven rock combo that started as an outgrowth of Purple Onion stalwarts The Saturn V featuring Orbit.

The Rabbles
Guitar driven 3-4 minute rock songs that are heavy on hooks and melody, occasionally stretching out into some extended psychedelic and noise. Their music covers power pop, sonically mad stuff and lush ballads. Some of their members other projects have been (or still are) Static Faction, Aerosol Species, Cheapest & Best, Blue Gum Art, Poetiks.

The Reaction
Expressionist punk from Wade Driver (ex-Hickoids) and company.

Shrouded Strangers