Excellent new collaboration LP from Denmark's VU-obsessives Family Underground and Mr David Nuss of The No-Neck Blues Band et al. "Summer 06 Family Underground (DK) recorded with Dave Nuss of NNCK at Black Dirt Studios in the woods of upstate NY. The yield was as characteristically unhinged as one might expect: sweeping electronic sounds backed with wood and bone percussion spirit-conjure. However also harvested was some new and especially tasty crop: sung and spoken song, electric guitar/conga 'rock' and an odd ghostly sheen coating the entire proceeding. Nuss comments on the session: 'I remember when we were recording, momentarily leaving the studio and going out into the night and feeling it thicken like a partition separating us from this intense state of clear consciousness we had in the recording, which was like... humankind's natural state. And then thinking about Jesper from FU, an adopted Vietnamese living in DK, and how much he resembles Michael Jackson, and realizing that across continents no man can be divided from himself. We had to make this music to provide for us some fantasy of fulfilment that would carry us through the weekend like rejuvenated suns born again climbing to heaven, after being washed in the deepest bluest sea....' Jacket by designer Susan Cianciolo and screened inserts by Stellar, NL." - Woodsist.

"After about a 2 year absence, Psychedelic Horseshit is back with an EP of alleged B-sides from an upcoming full length..."I only listen to OK Computer and Cranes. The Fall sucks, DIY sucks, we suck, you suck." said Matt Horseshit in a recent interview."Why should anyone listen to you then?" replied the reporter."Because we're FUN, duh." And even though you wanna hate 'em, you gotta admit, they kinda are fun. Matt is a dick, of course, and Rich is hilariously clueless mostly, and by all means most of the stuff on this SHITGAZE ANTHEMS EP should'nt work, whether it be the white-boy dub section, the cliche acoustic ballad with backwards guitar, the blatant Dylan rips, or the overall amateur playing, but for some reason these elements that usually reek of pretention and failure actually endear you to the band and their songs. Yes, they're called Psychedelic Horseshit. Yes, they do suck, but I'll be damned if they aren't one of my favorite bands in the world, and they're only getting better, but if I tried to tell you why it'd only make 'em sound worse. So it goes..."- matt horseshit

Totally fantastic single from the duo of Jason Kelly and Andrew Savage with a Velvets play blazing garage soul feel topped by Woods-style vocals. Massively addictive, unforgettable hooks, nicely primitive vibe. Perfect. Very limited supply tho. Highly recommended.

Debut LP from this Portland, Oregon ensemble who play massively fuzzy rock/pop bolstered with an almost No Wave-scale bottom end crunch and the kind of iconoclastic lead guitar patterns that touch on a bunch of modern American touchstones, Zoot Horn Rollo, Neil Hagerty, Calvin Johnson’s Go Team, while wading through waves of shrill feedback ala the early/mid-80s amp worship style of JAMC/Meat Whiplash et al. But overall this has the kinda up-beat American garage appeal of your favourite houserockers with a slightly more angular take on Velvets-inspired underground, complete with tambourines and Mo Tucker stomps.

Beautiful new album from this New Jersey group with a suburban teen plays rural psychedelic rock feel that is extremely potent. Features Matthew Mondanile of Ducktails on guitar.

Psychotically wasted new single from this great group, with some wailing string-wrassling that’s straight out of Crime’s San Quentin run and classic thug-punk vocals. Two out-takes from Sick To Death on the flip too. 

New single from this SF-based psych/pop group, two hazy tracks from their Bombs Wombs cassette, with an A-side that has a Syd-era Pink Floyd feel and a flip with a great Bobby Fuller Four vibe. Boss!

Great new project from Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards et al) and Josh Alper that mainlines the DIY art-pop moves of Dan Treacey’s Television Personalities, Ed Ball’s O Level/The Times et al. Freakbeat psych styles with primitive pro-Mod instrumental settings and a sharp modern art appeal. “The Art Museums ARE into: art, poetry, WHAAM records & films about Mods…The Art Museums ARE NOT into: flared trousers, drip coffee, dirty sneakers.”

More spectacular Suicide/Scientists-damaged psychoactive minimalism from Moon Duo, the duo of Sanae Yamada and Erik Johnson (Wooden Shjips). This one ‘does it’ even more than their previous Sick Thirst and Scared Bones releases, using repeat-grooves as taking off points for endless fuzz solos ala Les Rallizes Denudes. Excellent.

Brand new EP from the current greatest live band on the planet. This one expands on the more extended aspect of the group’s recent live set, with a long A-side that dissolves from collage and high lonesome song into vectors of intuitive string think that are as beautiful as any ’72 Dead set. The flip captures two shorter tracks straight out of the teenage garage. Fantastic. Bring on the LP.

With a title like At Echo Lake the fifth album from New York’s Woods intimates a modern rock aesthetic fully informed by historical manifestations of teenage along with a concomitant feel for the specifics of time and place. The distance between 2007’s At Rear House and 2010’s At Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing. Over the past few years Woods have established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist/label owner Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully-constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics. At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here – the opening “Blood Dries Darker”, the euphoric “Mornin’ Time” – is so lush that lesser brains would’ve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on “From The Horn”, a track that is as beautiful in its assault on form as “Eight Miles High” or Swell Maps’ “Midget Submarines”. But despite the instrumental innovation that the album heralds – G. Lucas Cranes’ psychedelic tapework on “Suffering Season”, guest musician Matthew Valentine’s harmonica and modified banjo/sitar on “Time Fading Lines” – At Echo Lake is all about the vocals. Woods’ secret weapon is the quality of Earl’s voice, osmosing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while re-thinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style that is bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions from the past, it’s the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake.

With a title like At Echo Lake the fifth album from New York’s Woods intimates a modern rock aesthetic fully informed by historical manifestations of teenage along with a concomitant feel for the specifics of time and place. The distance between 2007’s At Rear House and 2010’s At Echo Lake may at first seem only semantic but it more properly represents a move from a kind of informal back porch jam ethos to a fully-committed vision of the infinite possibilities of group playing. Over the past few years Woods have established themselves as an anomaly in a world of freaks. They were an odd proposition even in the outré company of vocalist/guitarist/label owner Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist roster, perpetually out of time, committed to songsmanship in an age of noise, drone and improvisation, to extended soloing, oblique instrumentals and the usurping use of tapes and F/X in an age of dead-end singer-songwriters. Recent live shows have seen them best confuse the two, playing beautifully-constructed songs torn apart by fuzztone jams and odd electronics. At Echo Lake feels like a diamond-sharp distillation of the turbulent power of their live shows, in much the same way that The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” single amplified and engulfed the planetary aspect of their improvised takes. Some of the material here – the opening “Blood Dries Darker”, the euphoric “Mornin’ Time” – is so lush that lesser brains would’ve succumbed to the appeal of strings and horns but At Echo Lake is more Fifth Dimension than Notorious Byrd Brothers, nowhere more so than on “From The Horn”, a track that is as beautiful in its assault on form as “Eight Miles High” or Swell Maps’ “Midget Submarines”. But despite the instrumental innovation that the album heralds – G. Lucas Cranes’ psychedelic tapework on “Suffering Season”, guest musician Matthew Valentine’s harmonica and modified banjo/sitar on “Time Fading Lines” – At Echo Lake is all about the vocals. Woods’ secret weapon is the quality of Earl’s voice, osmosing the naive style of Jad Fair, Jonathan Richman and Neil Young while re-thinking it as a discipline and a tradition. Here he is singing at the peak of his powers, in a high soulful style that is bolstered by heavenly arrangements of backing vocals. At Echo Lake feels like the transmission point for teenage garage from the past to the future. Deformed by contemporary experiments, bolstered by magical traditions from the past, it’s the sound of now, right here, At Echo Lake.

Vinyl edition of this great compilation. Subtitled Diggin’ The Universe, Welcome Home features exclusive tracks from alla the Woodsist family: Woods, Run DMT, White Fence, The Fresh & Onlys, The Mantles, Skygreen Leopards, Alex Bleeker, Moon Duo, City Center, Cause Co Motion, Art Museums, Nodzzz and Ducktails.