To many, CRAIG BELL is well known as bass guitarist / singer with MIRRORS and ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS, two bands that were among the foundation stones upon which the Cleveland, Ohio music scene of the 1970s was built. What many may not know is that Craig was also an integral part of the beginnings of another era of creativity in New Haven, Connecticut in the following decade. With like minded musicians, Craig formed SAUCERS, FUTURE PLAN, THE PLAN, THE BELL SYSTEM and THE RHYTHM METHODISTS in the years he lived on the East Coast (1976—1989). Craig released few recordings during this time, two singles with Saucers, “What We Do/Muckraker” (1979) and “A Certain Kind of Shy/She’s Alright” (1980), songs on the compilation LPs It Happened But Nobody Noticed (1982) featuring cuts by Saucers and The Plan, while The Bell System had their “America Now” released on the radio station only SCREAM promo LP (1985), and a single by The Plan, “I Love New York/I Hate New York/When It’s Too Much” (1983), most of them on his Gustav Label. In 2002, a CD compilation by Grand Theft Audio out of Los Angeles collected the entire studio output of Saucers on an album titled What We Did. This, along with reissues of songs Craig played on with Mirrors and RFTT, was the only recording of his work available. 2016 brings aka Darwin Layne, an LP featuring 11 historic recordings, both live and studio, featuring Craig’s songwriting and his bands Future Plan, The Plan, The Bell System, and The Rhythm Methodists, along with selections by Saucers, Mirrors, and THE BRIDGEPORT BAD BOYS.

Super Secret Records is proud to release the debut self-titled album by CARL SAGAN'S SKATE SHOES. The band formed in Austin, Texas, in 2013 as a two-piece featuring guitarist and vocalist STEVE PIKE and drummer JACOB CRUZ. In early 2015, they added ROB GLYNN to fill in on bass guitar and help record their debut album. Since then, they have found a more permanent solution with BILL INDELICATO on bass. Drawing influences from Sonic Youth, Shellac, Hot Snakes, and Unwound, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes taps into the sonic fury of early '90s noise rock and pos-thardcore and blend it with their own interpretation and swagger, creating walls of sound full of melody and dissonance. Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes has already cultivated a strong local following that is expanding virtually from show to show. The band is touring the midwest in June 2016 to expand its fan base to more of a regional and ultimately, a national audience.

Do the Heavy Metal Stomp !!! The Heavy Metal LP arrived ! Sean Forbes ( Hard Skin ) and Lydia Athanasopoulos ( MRR ) helped me out with some great "write ups" for the LP ( thank you so much ) !!! Read below

Sean :
And you thought the world had run out of great band names!! No sir - welcome to the debut album by Heavy Metal. Over the space of 13 tracks the two piece from Berlin make dirty punk, childlike chaos and raw DIY gems with reckless abandon. In parts it sounds like pissed idiots with a 4 Track recorder armed with a load of ATV 7”s and in other parts like some obscure Australian DIY 7” from 1979. Standout cuts are ‘Snail of Rock’ which is all snotty 77 punk rock, ‘Would You Adam and Eve It?’ which could have been one a classic Step Forward Records release and ‘Total Bullshit’ which sounds like the Sleaford Mods but with the recording quality of ‘Bullshit Detector’ compilations on Crass. You used to love Heavy Metal when you were young and now you can fall in love with Heavy Metal all over again.

Lydia :
After only six rehearsals and no previous recordings to date, Static Age is proud to introduce Berlin’s emerging powerhouse, HEAVY METAL. With this astonishing first full-length, HEAVY METAL crash through 13 tracks of noisy, antisocial, high-tension punk, eagerly mixing electric punk aggression with woozy electronic euphoria.

The songwriting, which hits that sweet spot between rudimentary racket and surreal elaboration, brings the band’s restlessness to the forefront—they could break out into dance or a fight at any minute, everything sounds possible. No sense is left on the cutting room floor; instead, the clamoring drums, buzzing bass and snappy riffs are cut with catchy synths, bountiful pedal action and an exploding cocktail of bleeps, loops, samples and solos.

This ticked off diversity shines on multiple, rewarding occasions. Single-ready “Don’t Call Me Brother,” with its kaleidoscopic synths and old-school beat, is a bona fide dance floor pleaser despite its antagonizing lyrical content, and “Staring at the Rich Kids” is an instant classic, a stomping class critique that could have easily been found on a Bullshit Detector comp circa 1979. Yet it is bonus track, “Total Bullshit,” that flawlessly showcases the creative menace found in the wake of their nihilism.

A joyride of shambolic punk, with a frustrated Welshman spitting wit and sarcasm into the microphone, “LP” could be the circumstantial soundtrack to a weeklong drug binge, going through all the motions to match, including ecstasy, hysteria, hostility and an uncontrollable, primitive urge to fight and fuck. And by recording everything themselves, HEAVY METAL’s already bizarre sound is pushed further into the delightfully deranged corners of their collective potential.

An intoxicating stream of consciousness, “LP” was recorded in their Lichtenberg practice space and mastered by the wizard of sonic chiaroscuro Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory, making it sound as unhinged and sardonic as it is distinctively captivating. They’re already working on what is promised to be a much anticipated follow up, so get into it or don’t. Just don’t call ’em brother. ( Lydia )

**these have a slight dink in the tiniest corner of the bottom right of the sleeve. If a tiny dink in the corner of sleeve stops your enjoyment of a total banger of a record, this is not for you*

If you want to take a truckload of drugs, slap on some headphones and listen to some meandering electronic music, you could do much worse than these two...

The Cavemen touch on everything from lost love, murderous desires and their burning disdain for sophisticated artistic expression. Put simply: it’s gonna make you wanna kill. Writing about their debut album, which was released a year to the day before this, their second, is due out, the local Six Noises website wrote that it “features plenty of greasy riffs, uncouth howling, and road-rash-raw garage punk. Think a dose of Dead Moon, with a little of the Cramps and the Stooges, and then throw on a whole heap of vintage trash punk’s debauchery.

That’s essentially The Cavemen. It’s sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll conveyed via lo-fi, psychotic ’77 era punk rock” and, according to the Irish News, “turbocharged with the attack of early ’80s US hardcore and laced with the fuzz pedal-enhanced ‘whoop-it-up’ wildness of your favourite garage rockers from The Sonics to Mudhoney. The trio’s first record is a funny, tuneful rampage of hedonistic juvenile delinquency, grave robbing fantasies and substance/self abuse-themed anarchy.” Both nihilistic and hedonistic at the same time, this is a record to shake the cobwebs out of your ears. It isn’t sophisticated or remotely complex. It’s one of those wonderful loose-nut albums that reminds you that life is short, and when it’s not being nasty as hell it’s simply dull as ditch water.

Dark Blue follow up their debut LP, ‘Pure Reality’, with ‘Start Of The World’ (12XU) – a soundtrack of a decaying United States. Each song drips with the realities of atrocities happening all around us ; John Sharkey III (Vocals, Guitar) pushes Dark Blue far beyond the post-punk meets oi sound they perfected on their earlier releases, and adds elements of brit-pop and shoegaze. Recorded by Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, Nothing), ‘Start Of The World’ is a pop album that makes no apologies.

Boot stomping opener “Union of Buffoons,” sets the political tone for this album with an anthem for workers’ rights. Sharkey’s biting lyrics: “You can’t fight this, you can’t win…screw you once, they’ll screw you twice,” is a reference to human expendability in the face of deregulation and the stagnancy of labor rights. “Never Wanted to Hurt You” is a pop song in the highest order with guts and an undeniable chorus that would make Noel Gallagher jealous even at his most jaded.

The 50′s doo-woop and surf rock sound of “Bombs on the Beach” initially feels like a left turn for the band, evoking a playful innocence against a sunny backdrop. But the lyrics prove this is truly a Dark Blue song, tearing through any cheerfulness as jarring and abrupt as words can be to describe the reality of dropping missiles on a beach of unsuspecting Palestinian children. Sharkey’s voice is heavy with the despair of survivor’s guilt: “Now I’m holding my baby’s hand, as he lies bleeding to death in the sand.” This is another pointed song full of sentiment as much as it is an impassioned call for accountability for the crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

While this album shows off new and varying degrees of Sharkey’s vocal intensity, Andrew Mackie Nelson (Bass, Ceremony) and Michael Sneeringer (Drums, Strand of Oaks) shine, guiding the songs in ways other releases haven’t shown before . Tracks such as “Be Gone Everyone” and “Western Front” underscore just how comfortable the band has gotten.

‘Start Of The World’ is the kind of record that Dark Blue has always promised: a collection of smart, fully realized songs that tell real stories. With the world falling apart around us, Dark Blue continues to give voice to neglected perspectives, many unnerving but all necessary to hear. We need a defiant record like this to remind us that just as there was start to all of this destruction, there can also be an end.

I've been enjoying a lot of releases on the Erased Tapes label. Especially Nils Frahms, Olafur Arnolds, Kiasmos, and Winged Victory for the Sullen. (I use it to drown out my coworkers and concentrate at work, myself.)

https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes