Billy Bremner For President Price: $15.00 Artist: Billy Bremner's Rockfiles Description: RELEASE ON THE KOOL KAT LABEL!! Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to fully realize a dream come true when we’re able to work with artists/bands that are some of our all-time faves! Several years ago, it was The Pencils, now it’s Billy Bremner of Rockpile, et al! Back in the late 70’s Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds (solo and with Rockpile) were the absolute sh*t to us! The one and only official Rockpile album “Seconds Of Pleasure” still sounds as fresh today as it did back then. Fast forward to 2020 and Billy Bremner is doing his darndest to keep the spirit of Nick, Dave, and Rockpile alive fronting Rockfiles and paying homage to Rockpile! And to top things off, guesting on the record is none other than Dave Edmunds/Nick Lowe/Shakin’ Stevens/many others sideman Geraint Watkins on piano! Songs covered with fire, spirit and verve here are ”I Hear You Knocking” (live), “Heart”, “Down Down Down”, “Love So Fine”, “Born Fighter”, “Sweet Little Lisa”, “Heart Of The City”, “Oh What A Thrill”, “Singin’ The Blues”, “Three Time Loser”, “Loud Music In Cars”, “Queen Of Hearts”, and “Knife & Fork”! The band’s slogan is “Let’s make Rockfiles (and Rockpile) great again!” We voted Billy! GREAT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Billy Bremner For President Price: $15.00 Artist: Billy Bremner's Rockfiles Description: RELEASE ON THE KOOL KAT LABEL!! Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to fully realize a dream come true when we’re able to work with artists/bands that are some of our all-time faves! Several years ago, it was The Pencils, now it’s Billy Bremner of Rockpile, et al! Back in the late 70’s Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds (solo and with Rockpile) were the absolute sh*t to us! The one and only official Rockpile album “Seconds Of Pleasure” still sounds as fresh today as it did back then. Fast forward to 2020 and Billy Bremner is doing his darndest to keep the spirit of Nick, Dave, and Rockpile alive fronting Rockfiles and paying homage to Rockpile! And to top things off, guesting on the record is none other than Dave Edmunds/Nick Lowe/Shakin’ Stevens/many others sideman Geraint Watkins on piano! Songs covered with fire, spirit and verve here are ”I Hear You Knocking” (live), “Heart”, “Down Down Down”, “Love So Fine”, “Born Fighter”, “Sweet Little Lisa”, “Heart Of The City”, “Oh What A Thrill”, “Singin’ The Blues”, “Three Time Loser”, “Loud Music In Cars”, “Queen Of Hearts”, and “Knife & Fork”! The band’s slogan is “Let’s make Rockfiles (and Rockpile) great again!” We voted Billy! GREAT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Backwards Compatible Price: $12.00 Artist: Chris Church Description: With 2017’s “Limitations Of Source Tape”, Chris laid to rest any notion that his power pop leanings had taken a backseat to any of his other very music musical proclivities. The record garnered excellent reviews and claimed its rightful spot on various out of the year list from critics and fans alike. “Backwards Compatible” is just as full as hooks as its predecessor while being a somewhat louder affair. “No Letting Go” gives an unironic and well-delivered nod to the melodic side of hard and heavy rock. “Left In The Summer” has a jagged stop/start quality that is somehow both bittersweet and urgent, and “Begin Again” is the kind of yearning power pop for which Chris has become known for, with bass and elite guitar so I performed by the legendary Bill Lloyd. 12 songs, all guitar driven pop rock, with no filler whatsoever! In addition to the guest spot from Lloyd, the record features Lindsay Murray of Gretchen’s Wheel contributing stunning background vocals to every track. Excellent performances abound by usual suspects like long time guitar slinging friend Scott Cornette and more, as well as a few newcomers to the impressively talented crew that Chris and producer Lori Franklin seamlessly wrangle here. “Backwards Compatible” is Chris churches music crashing squarely on to a style hybrid he likes to call heavy melody. Both forward thinking and in control of his obvious retro influences the thud of this thunderous and immensely catchy record is anything but dull. For fans of Todd Rundgren/Utopia, The Babys, Cheap Trick, The Raspberries, Def Leppard, Billy Squier, Dokken, Teenage Fanclub, Bill Lloyd, Tommy Keene, The Sweet, The Producers, and Kiss! GREAT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Collector Price: $14.00 Artist: Disq Description: Disq have assembled a razor-sharp, teetering-on-the-edge-of-chaos melange of sounds, experiences, memories, and influences. The record’s title, “Collector”, ought to be taken literally - it is a place to explore and catalogue the Madison, WI band's relationships to themselves, their pasts, and the world beyond the American Midwest as they careen from their teens into their 20’s. This turbulence is backdropped by gnarled power pop, anxious post-punk, warm psych-folk, and hectic, formless, tongue-in-cheek indie rock. The record, like the band itself, is defined and tightly-contoured by the ties between the five members. Raina Bock (bass/vocals) and Isaac deBroux-Slone (guitar/vocals) have known each other from infancy, growing up and into music together. Through gigging around Madison, they met and befriended Shannon Connor (guitar/keys/vocals), Logan Severson (guitar/vocals), and Brendan Manley (drums), three equally dedicated and adventurous musicians committed to coaxing genre boundaries. The songs are marked by urgency, introspection, tongue-in-cheek nihilism, and a shrewd understanding of pop and rock structures. “Faced with bleak job prospects, corrupted politics and a planet in existential crisis, it’s no wonder young indie rockers are currently given to both moping and 90s nostalgia. Joining the likes of Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy at a bedroom shrine to Pavement, Weezer and Teenage Fanclub are this young slacker-indie outfit who, you suspect, have been asked to tidy away a few socks in their time.” – TheGuardian.com “Listening here you can find traces of Weezer, Big Star, and The Beatles, with touches of psych rock, post-punk and folk thrown in. They take all these gestating sounds and brings them together. Their affection for bygone eras of rock and pop music is evident. These songs feel indebted to everything from grunge to Weezer to power pop, but bring these sounds together into one album. They attribute this to their Midwest upbringing, describing the experience as an ‘incubator effect’ where their sound was able to coalesce far from competitive pressure. Living in flyover country also has let the band absorb and reinterpret all these diverse influences. This love musical heritage is on full display with ‘D19,’ their ode to an old microphone, nailing the sound of sunny vintage jangle pop while taking some lyrical shout outs to The Beatles.” – UnderTheRadarmag.com Lemonheads/Evan Dando-like at times! EXCELLENT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Rebuilding Permit Price: $12.00 Artist: Dolph Chaney Description: AVAILABLE APRIL 3 – ACCEPTING ORDERS NOW! Seven years since the Chicagoland singer-songwriter's last album - and two solid years in the making - the wait is over. “Rebuilding Permit” and Dolph are here to break new ground with his full-length debut on Big Stir. It's an eclectic but focused stunner. Coming out of a challenging time of loss and recovery, Dolph has tightened up and written in a way that uses his imaginative skills to connect with his listeners at a deeper level than ever. You can still expect what you came for if you're already hip to his deal: chord changes, collisions of style, and turns of phrase that fly in from all directions, only to make themselves right at home. What's different here is that Chaney has kept the quirks and digressions as filigree, digging deeper to the emotions underneath. The whimsy is in the details rather than being the point. And for the first time since his 1998 “New Bird Rise” album, he and his quiver of guitars, Moog, and bass are not doing all the work alone. The Rebuilding crew includes engineer Milk Arnold, Ryan O'Malley (who adds roiling Hammond organ to "A Good Road Is Hard To Find"), and drummers Clayton Melocik (on the giant psych-jangle of leadoff track "It's OK") and Jim LeFager, who navigates the rest of the album's gauntlet of genres. You'll be treated to everything from rolling shanty-folk ("The Biscuit (Who Grabbed My Face)") to sensitive and deft rimshot grooves ("Broken," "If I Write It Down") and dam-smashing echo ("Diet Of Worms"), from searing and searching roots-rock ("The Handling”) and an end-of-prom last-nerds-standing waltz ("(Who Am I) To Ask You To Dance?") to the '90s-throwback agitpop-punk of "The President Of The United States Is The Breitbart Bimbo." The comparisons to Bob Mould, Guided By Voices, and even Peter Gabriel seem apt given the scope of the work on hand here. EXCELLENT! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Fixers and Elixirs Price: $11.00 Artist: Frederick Julius Description: Frederick Julius is an underground, lo-fi pop music that conjures the vital sound of early Beach Boys records with lyrics that conjures the vital sound of early Beach Boys records with lyrics that are visual experiments in the surreal. Already being recognized as a small masterpiece of vintage pop, his Mike Post-produced “Fixers and Elixirs” was recorded in Los Angeles at Post's Moosecat Recording Co. and represents the first full-band effort from Frederick Julius, and features the signature intricate vocal harmonies and lyrics of Matt Geiler (a/k/a Frederick Julius). “You wouldn't expect a comedian by profession to come up with such an earnest pop record, but Matt Geier has indeed done so under his nom de song, Frederick Julius, with his latest and greatest outing ‘Fixers and Elixers’. Many of the songs here appeared on his previous releases, but those recordings were done in his home studio by himself, while those that appear here are done with the full band, and are suitably fleshed out. Brian Wilson in particular, and 60’s/70’s influences in general can be found all over this one. Songs like ‘This Package’, ‘Good Magic Amanda, ‘Water In The Walls’, ‘Mara’ and the absolutely stunning ‘Summer Camp’ are bursting at the seams with warm melodies, cool chord changes, and the kind of background vocals you don't hear much in today's power pop. Without a doubt, this is one of the best additions to the canon in recent months.” – Shindig! Magazine GREAT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

God Is A Bully Price: $12.00 Artist: Gershwin Brothers Description: The duo of Dave Foster and Lane Steinberg (aka Sol and Al Gershwin) are joined by a local NYC musical crew (Mike Fornatale, Charles Roth, Tom Shad, Tom DeVito, Mary Spencer Knapp, Erica Smith) for this stylistically diverse band debut. “I’m a big Steinberg fan and his contributions to the album are clear to those familiar with his work. All songs are written by Foster and Steinberg, and we start with ‘Deleting You,’ a witty song about culling your ‘friends’ from social media, and then we get the Beatlesque opus ‘Unbroken.’ The song is an impressive ballad that recalls McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ in the chorus, beautifully done – it’s the albums high point. From there we go to ‘Antelope Canyon’ starring Erica Smith’s delicate vocals sounding like a hybrid of Laura Nyro and Basia. Another strong composition with some jazzy overtones, that get a little psychedelic on ‘Heaven In My Head’ with lots of drama and synth organ. Lane sings the title track, a smart and catchy mid-tempo ballad. The album sometimes ventures into weirdness; like ‘L’amour Fantastique,’ sung by Mary Spencer Knapp; an operatic show tune sung like Édith Piaf! The rare ‘Mama’s Love’ has all three leads sing together. Despite the incohesive nature of the album, there are a lot of good songs here; ‘Sugar-Free,’ and ‘Endless Summer of Love’ are great tunes with neat harmonies. ‘He’s The New You’ is a lovely folk anthem of empowerment after divorce. There’s definitely something for everyone here.” – Powerpopaholic.com Kinks-like at times! EXCELLENT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Kingdom Of Sleep Price: $15.00 Artist: Jonny Polonsky Description: This is Jonny's sixth full length release. With also finger cymbals, gongs, bass clarinets, piccolos, harmonica, bass fiddles, and a children’s choir, this record features guest vocals by Cedric Bixler-Zavala (of At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta), also with other guests like Katie Burden on bass, along with Matt Hankle and Matt Walker (Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Filter, Morrissey) on drums. “He writes interstellar anthems for a new generation of mind freaks. Songs of sex and death and love…hymns of despair and transcendence. This album is marvelous in all of its ‘Blade Runner’-like synthesized, chill soundscapes and more. It’s an ambitious release that is obviously been created with much care and targeted approach in all - a brainstorm of modern and edgy alternative pop music experimentation which borrows and shows an ample range from principles like i.e. the pop psych track ‘The Weeping Souls’. ‘No Tears’ on the other hand comes like a stardust vapor from last night. It’s a fabulous song in the likes of a more serious alternative pop than the usual. The instrumental ‘Aenerone’, which reveals some pretty glorious synth-pop, is like a standalone chapter on the album, and is in fact a hidden gem. Actually all of songs on ‘Kingdom Of Sleep’ are great narrations on our modern world and its sentimental tragedies and glories.” – NoiseJournal.com “From the first note of ‘Sign in the Window’ you get the feeling that you are in for an experience – one that can inspire as much as captivate and entertain you. There are hooks that can bring a smile to your face or a tear in your eye. There is that much depth in this album, even when the music is sparse. There are hints of rock and electronica, cinematic orchestral musings and shimmering acoustic strumming throughout but what is solid through and through here is Jonny’s songwriting. There is an underlying theme that runs throughout the album yet each song retains originality all its own.” – Jammerzine.com Almost trance-like, it’s a very cool record for late night/Sunday morning listens. EXCELLENT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Cheap Vacation Price: $9.00 Artist: Justine's Black Threads Description: Rebel rousers beware!! Justine Covault (singer, songwriter, and guitarist) from Justine and the Unclean releases her alt-country debut, fueled on boot-stomping twang, Sun Records, and rebel-rousing dive bars. Imagine Justine’s infectious knack for punk rock anthems and power-pop songcraft channeled into a new alt-country trio. Just like early Cash, you hear that train-a-coming and-a-chugging, no drums needed as that standup bass is thumping to the beat right in the pocket and the lead guitar twangs with a dusty barroom ache. Justine's signature voice carries the raw stories with a lonesome lilt, while tight harmonies bring the heartache home. Her themes (love gone wrong, then right, then wrong again) are brought to life and laid bare, backed by veteran players Johnny Sciascia (Eilen Jewell, Cranktones, Jittery Jack) on upright bass and harmony vocals and Jim Scoppa (T.H. and the Wreckage, Stan Martin Band) on blistering tumbleweed guitar. Including very kool kovers of “Needles And Pins” and Tad Overbaugh’s “The Other Side Of A Six Pack”, “Cheap Vacation” should find its way onto every hole in the wall jukebox awaiting your quarters as the bartender lines up the shots and you slam ‘em down! EXCELLENT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none

Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out Price: $9.00 Artist: Ken Fox & Knock Yourself Out Description: Since 1990, Ken Fox has been laying down his bass chops, writing, recording and touring the world non-stop showing no end for rock n roll salvation in sight with garage rock pioneers The Fleshtones. As well as recording and touring stints early on in his career with alt-country, cow punk legends Jason and the Scorchers, Ken has solidified his footprint in rock and roll history. Now, for the very first time Ken takes the microphone, steps out front and blows our minds. He certainly gets it right as he steps out front and center with his magnificent solo debut filed somewhere on a vintage record shelf between “Yellow Pills” power pop and Crypt Records garage rock. Featuring the lead single "One Less Step" that you will absolutely find yourself singing over and over and over again channeling The Beat, The Shoes, The Knack, a sweet spot for hooks, an infectious chorus and guitar solo, numbing your finger on the repeat button. Make sure your dancing shoes are laced up as the party continues from there with the rock n' roll rager, gang vocals, fist raising, four on the floor foot stomper "Let's Go", vintage fuzzed out garage rage of "Do It" (a Twink-penned song covered by the Pink Fairies and others in the past), a hootenanny hoedown chewing on bubblegum with "Love Is In the Grave", and a 70's punk inspired, big brass horn section embellished “Stranded (In The Heat)”. GREAT!! ... read more » Quantity in Basket: none