What’s 38 years? Seattle reissue champs extraordinaire Light in the Attic Records will release French romantic Serge Gainsbourg’s 1971 disc Histoire De Melody Nelson on March 24th.
“There’s an ambition, a conceptual depth to Melody Nelson that’s incredibly hard to pull off, but which Gainsbourg does completely. It’s one of the greatest marriages of rock band and orchestra that I’ve ever heard.” – Beck
Karen Dalton’s In My Own Time is currently being reissued by Light in The Attic. Unavailable in LP format for some years now, LITA presents a hand-numbered third printing of this sought after album. The album features a four-song bonus 7″ single featuring “Something On Your Mind” as well as an unreleased alternate mix of “Katie Cruel” on 180-gram vinyl. The album has audio remastered from the original tapes and an exclusive liner notes featuring Nick Cave, Lenny Kaye, and Devendra Banhart
from LITA:
The late Karen Dalton has been the muse for countless folk rock geniuses, from Bob Dylan to Devendra Banhart, from Lucinda Williams to Joanna Newsom. Recorded over a six month period in 1970/71 at Bearsville, ‘In My Own Time’ was Dalton’s only fully planned and realized studio album. The material was carefully selected and crafted for her by producer/musician Harvey Brooks, the Renaissance man of rock-jazz who played bass on Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” and Miles’ “Bitches Brew”. If nothing else, this release features ten songs that reflected Dalton’s incredible ability to break just about anybody’s heart.
Light in the Attic band The Saturday Knights released their first full-length today. Yes, it has the irresistible single “45″ on it. Congrats, guys.
Mingle features the likes of famed Nirvana producer Jack Endino, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, The Dap-Kings, The Muscle Shoal Horns.
http://www.myspace.com/thesaturdayknights
Torn with fury from the dark mud of an ancient jungle comes Directions to See a Ghost, the Black Angels’ sophomore follow up to the 2006 album Passover. Picture a dimly lit, smokey room of an endless warehouse. Stack the Marshall Amps up tall, wrench up the bass and you might get the same feeling that this album gives your soul. The music does not come at you, it comes through you. It lurks in your chest and attacks your ears from the inside. The only thing you can do is to pull your oversized headphones on, kill the lights and let it run its course. Eventually the ceremony will be over and you’ll be set free to continue on your merry way, but you’ll feel primal… almost cleansed.
I heard Directions to See a Ghost for the first time last week and have been playing it through almost constantly for the past 4 days.
(You On the Run)
From the very first song, You On The Run, which brings a vague image of a perfectly black Cadillac slowly building up speed through an empty town, I was mesmerized. The sound of the Austin Texas band can be described as psychadelic, or industrial shoegazer, droning guitar or gausian blues but it’s really more than all that. It’s alive with sound and feeling. It has strategy in the way it lures you in with soothing bass lines and slowly pumps you full with rhythm and melody like a venom. You are wrapped up, spun into a cocoon, and become overwhelmed with the sound. The third track on the album (and my personal favorite), Science Killer, plays out just like this. Even going so far as to toss in a shuffling maraca charm out the snake.
Throughout this album (and as a general rule for the Black Angels) the relentless kick drum and thundering boom of Stephanie Baily’s mallets on the toms dictate all. It can only be described as hypnotic. When matched up with the band’s dripping bass lines, distant vocals and actual usage of a “drone machine” escape is futile. You must surrender. Even the artwork on Directions to See a Ghost is a head trip. Embossed pink packaging with a spiraling and vibrating green design in utter compliment. It is the portal into the entire experience.
In the final track, Snake in the Grass, Alex Maas’ vocals push through a stormy set of verses spotted with distant and piercing screeches. His voice reaches out of an eerie track played backwards throughout the 16 minute song. It is the sound of the exorcism and recession of the ghost that had possessed me for a solid hour. A perfect finish to a truly haunting album.
Directions to See a Ghost hits stores May 15th, 2008, but if you are aching to hear it for yourself sooner than that, the Black Angels’ label, Light in the Attic, has set up a great deal for you. Beginning this Tuesday, April 15th you can head to your local record store and purchase a unique download card to all the digital files nearly a month in advance. Along with the instant download, you will receive a FREE limited edition Bonus EP featuring unreleased tracks when you pickup your physical copy at your local record store after May 13th. And oooh, is it pretty…
To get the full details and all your questions answered, head to the 
Light in the Attic site here. In this link is a list of all the participating record stores (nationwide) involved with this highly evolved distribution-part interwebs-part record store. I dig.
The Black Angels are also touring the hell out of Europe right now and are soon to be hitting the the lower 48 as well. I’ve seen them live before, it’s everything the album demands it to be…
They’ll be in our neck of the woods in June – I believe with the Donnas:
06-09 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
06-10 Vancouver, British Columbia – Richard’s on Richards
06-11 Seattle, WA – Neumos
You can check out the rest of the dates after the break.
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The Ruby Slipper of Soundtracks, Harold and Maude (Deluxe LP), is being released by Vinyl Films Records, 36 years after the movie’s initial release. Now I wouldn’t currently place Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) at the top of my most listened to list, but Harold and Maude holds a solid place in my all time favorites, and this is due in large to the soundtrack-composed entirely by Mr Stevens.Every one of Cat Stevens’ songs from the film are compiled herein. In addition to such classics as “Miles From Nowhere”, “Where Do The Children Play?” and “Trouble”, the album includes the two songs written specifically for Harold and Maude, “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out” and “Don’t Be Shy”, along with alternate versions of both Harold and Maude tracks.
Complete with an extensive 36-page full-color booklet filled with never-before-seen photographs and an oral history of the making of the film and the music, as told by the filmmakers and participants. Also included is a bonus 7″ single with unreleased versions of “Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out”, two suitable-for-framing posters, and much more!
This is a limited run of only 2500 vinyl copies so if you want to commingle your video with your audio pleasures, hop on it. Harold and Maude OST available for purchase here. is sold out! You can also find track listings and further info there.