Marissa Nadler, Maria BC @ Sound Garage, Thursday

Marissa Nadler plays a spellbinding set of songs from New Radiations at Sound Garage Thursday. Tickets are $31.56, get 'em here.

LINKS
Marissa Nadler site: https://www.marissanadler.com/
Marissa Nadler official merch
Marissa Nadler thoughtfully created a Spotify playlist of her original songs just for you

Catch Marissa Nadler with Maria BC at Sound Garage (165 Geary Ave) on Feb 26. Doors open at 7 pm.

Anika, Avishag Cohen Rodrigues @ The Dance Cave, Monday

Anika – who scored Jim Jarmusch's "Father Mother Sister Brother" – hits the Dance Cave with Avishag Cohen Rodrigues opening at 7 pm. 

Writes Anika....

"In very exciting news, I scored the music for the latest Jim Jarmusch film, "Father Mother Sister Brother," along with Jim and some of the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop crew (With whom i did the Nico, Desertshore project). The film just won the Golden Lion in Venice (Congrats to Jim, the cast and all his crew for this much deserved achievement) and premieres in the States on the 3rd October 2025, in NYC. Check the film once it's out in local cinemas and on Mubi." – Anika

Check out a few songs from Anika's recent performance in Paris following her videos for "Walk Away" and "Hearsay" off her latest album Abyss out now via Sacred Bones Records and the trailer for Jim Jarmusch's new film "Father Mother Sister Brother" starring Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps and Mayim Bialik. There's also some footage from a March show by Avishag Cohen Rodrigues at The Rockwell in Somerville below. 

Tickets for Anika's show with Avishag Cohen Rodrigues at the Dance Cave tonight (Monday, September 29) are $33.33 advance. Get 'em via Tickeweb right here. 

Mort Garson's moon shot soundtrack recirculated by Sacred Bones

Electronic music innovator Mort Garson has his 1969 soundtrack to the lunar landing released via Sacred Bones on July 21st. 

Here's the scoop...

Like a perennial that returns with each new spring, the Mort Garson archives (Plantasia, Ataraxia, Lucifer) have brought to bear yet another awe-inspiring bloom. Journey to the Moon and Beyond finds even more new facets to the man’s sound. There’s the soundtrack to the 1974 blaxploitation film Black Eye (starring Fred Williamson), some previously unreleased and newly unearthed music for advertising. Just as regal is “Zoos of the World,” where Garson soundtracks the wild, preening, slumbering animals from a 1970 National Geographic special of the same name. The mind reels at just what project would have yielded a scintillating title like “Western Dragon,” but these three selections were found on tapes in the archive with no further information.

The crown jewel of the set is no doubt Garson’s soundtrack to the live broadcast of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, as first heard on CBS News. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for Moogkind. For decades, this audio was presumed lost, the only trace of it appearing to be from an old YouTube clip. Thankfully, diligent audio archivist Andy Zax came across a copy of the master tape while going through the massive Rod McKuen archive. So now we get to hear it in all its glory. Across six minutes, Garson conjures broad fantasias, whirring mooncraft sounds, zero-gravity squelches, and twinkling études. It showcases Mort’s many moods: sweet, exploratory, whimsical, a little bit corny, weaving it all together in a glorious whole. 

Get a copy of Mort Garson's Journey To The Moon and Beyond directly from Sacred Bones right here. Sacred Bones Mail-Order Exclusive "Moon" LP: Edition of 750 copies, available by mail-order only. ONE PER PERSON LIMIT. Sacred Bones Record Society Exclusive: Edition of 150 copies pressed on " Earth" Blue and Green vinyl. Society-exclusive with screen-printed, hand numbered wrap around sleeve and an exclusive mixtape. Enroll here.

All LP editions come with an exclusive fold out poster with art by Robert Beatty.

Check out the clip for "Moon Journey" followed by a short documentary feature below. 

Filmmaker/composer John Carpenter releases Halloween Ends OST

John Carpenter's score for Halloween Ends is just as creepy as you'd hope with a couple of unexpected turns. 

Here's the scoop...

After 45 years, the most acclaimed, revered horror franchise in film history has reached its epic, terrifying conclusion with today’s theatrical release of Halloween Ends, in which Laurie Strode faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers. When the franchise relaunched in 2018, Halloween shattered box office records, becoming the franchise’s highest-grossing chapter and setting a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a horror film starring a woman. In 2021, Halloween Kills earned the biggest opening weekend for any horror film in the pandemic era and simultaneously set a new record for a non-live event premiere streaming on Peacock.

As Halloween Ends marks the last chapter of the trilogy directed by David Gordon Green, it also ushers in the return of original composer and director of 1978’s Halloween, John Carpenter, who composed the new film’s score alongside longtime collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. The Halloween Ends Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available now digitally, with physical editions to follow on January 20th via Sacred Bones. The film is also augmented by original music by dark dance outfit Boy Harsher. Sacred Bones and Nude Club/City Slang joined forces to release their contribution to the soundtrack “Burn It Down", a maxi single containing two songs and their instrumental versions, also released digitally with 12" vinyl EP to follow on January 20th, 2023.

Similar to the last two soundtracks, Halloween Ends was recorded in its entirety at John Carpenter’s home studio and Daniel’s studio. The soundtrack of the third installment broadens old themes whilst creating new ones in an effort to bring renewed life to one of the most epic horror scores ever written. The general atmosphere is one of dread, yet the record includes some groove laden moments reminiscent of Escape From New York or some of Carpenter’s other more dance-able scores. Exquisite and delicate ambient pieces weave their way between some of the score’s more arresting moments and yet maintain a subtle pop sensibility. The overall achievement showcases three master musicians, one of whom invented the entire horror-synth genre, crafting an evocative, playful, and deeply listenable score that honors a legacy and expands on the decades of work that have been leading to this triumphant climax. 

Get a copy of Halloween Ends via Bandcamp right here. Listen to "The Procession" below.

Watch the Boris video for "Drowning By Numbers" off new W album

"Drowning By Numbers" is off the forthcoming W album from Boris out January 21 via Sacred Bones. Pre-order it here. 

Sacred Bones to release "lost" Alan Vega album Mutator

Check out Jacqueline Castel's video for "Nike Soldier" off the posthumous Alan Vega album Mutator out April 23rd.  

Here's the scoop...

Alan Vega’s name is synonymous with unfettered, tireless creativity. Beginning in the late 1950s, when he was a fine art student at Brooklyn College, through his years playing in Suicide, and all the way up until his death in 2016, Vega was constantly creating. That process naturally led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it was recorded, which came to be known as the Vega Vault. Mutator is the first in a series of archival releases from the Vault that will come out on Sacred Bones Records.  

Mutator was recorded alongside Vega’s longtime collaborator Liz Lamere at his NYC studio from 1995-1996, and it serves as a document of a particularly fertile time in his creative life. He had 11 full-length solo albums come out during the ‘80s, ’90s and ‘00s — plus numerous collaborations, and Suicide records A Way of Life and Why Be Blue. Mutator wasn’t shelved intentionally, but Vega’s back-to-the-grindstone M.O. meant that he had moved on to making his next record before this one was finished. Lamere and Vega’s friend and confidante Jared Artaud (The Vacant Lots) rediscovered the raw, unmixed recordings from the Mutator sessions in the Vault in 2019. Soon after, they mixed and produced them into the visionary album that was lurking within those tapes.  

“Our primary purpose for going into the studio was to experiment with sound, not to ‘make records,’” Lamere recalls. “I was playing the machines with Alan manipulating sounds. I played riffs while Alan morphed the sounds being channeled through the machines.” 

At the time of the Mutator sessions, Vega was massively inspired by what was happening in the streets of New York — not only the hip hop scenes that were exploding throughout the outer boroughs, but also the literal sounds of the streets, the traffic noise and industrial ambience of city living. That influence trickled into the sounds he and Lamere captured in those sessions. That sensibility, paired with Vega’s unmistakable voice and force of personality, is what made it the great album it is now. The final piece was the production job, completed by Lamere and Artaud 25 years after the songs were first captured.  

“Mutator bridges the gap between the past and present,” Artaud says. “It’s something we feel he would have been really proud of, seeing this lost album released today. In so many ways, his music is needed now more than ever.” 

Pre-order a copy of Alan Vega's Mutator album from Sacred Bones right here. Watch the video for "Nike Soldier" below. 

 

Happy Birthday DJ Muggs!

Here's the Soul Assassins mainman talking about his record collection for Crate Diggers and his new joint "The Chosen One" 

Moon Duo @ Longboat Hall, Monday

Watch the Andrew Knives video for "Lost Heads" off Moon Duo's latest album, Stars Are The Light. 

Happy Birthday Mort Garson!

Remembering New Brunswick-born sound scientist Mort Garson who loved synthesizers as much as plants. 

LINKS
Get a copy of Mother Earth's Plantasia LP right here.

The Dead Don't Die soundtrack feat. SQÜRL getting vinyl release

The creepy, synth-enhanced score created by Jim Jarmusch's band SQÜRL for his new zombie flick is being issued by Sacred Bones on Sept 13th.

The Dead Don’t Die is writer/director Jim Jarmusch’s unique, semi-comic take on the zombie apocalypse genre. As with his recent efforts Only Lovers Left Alive and Paterson, the film’s score was composed and performed by SQÜRL, the band Jarmusch and producer Carter Logan founded in 2009. Sacred Bones Records, the same label that released the band’s EP #260 in 2017, is releasing the LP edition of the score.

The score to the The Dead Don’t Die is a true expression of where SQÜRL stand at the center of a decade of sonic exploration. It is the culmination of their passion for analog synths, with guitar violence reverberating from the darker corners of Americana. It is at once a tribute to the classic sounds of horror and sci-fi, as well as a decapitation of traditional film scores. It is naturally supernatural.

From their arsenal of tools, Jarmusch and Logan pulled electric guitars and basses made by Rick Kelly and Cindy Hulej at Carmine Street Guitars, an acoustic resonator, Moog Minitaur and Theremini synthesizers, Fender Rhodes electric piano, an old Ludwig drum kit, cheap vintage Casio and Yamaha keyboards and new synths from Critter and Guitari — all sculpted through a collection of effects pedals, notably from Earthquaker Devices.

The inspiration for SQÜRL’s score for The Dead Don’t Die came from some of the most iconic soundtracks of the past half-century of genre cinema — Tangerine Dream’s Sorcerer, Bebe and Louis Barron’s Forbidden Planet, Ennio Morricone’s The Thing and Once Upon a Time in the West, Goblin’s Dawn of the Dead, and all things John Carpenter. The singular Theremin work of Samuel J. Hoffman on films like Spellbound and The Day the Earth Stood Still also made its way into Jarmusch and Logan’s consciousness. The result is a new horror soundtrack that stands shoulder to shoulder with the great works of its genre.

Watch The Dead Don't Die soundtrack teaser below. Pre-order a limited edition "Black Dust" splatter wax copy of the LP right here.



The Dead Don't Die – Original Motion Picture Score (Sacred Bones)

1. Dialogue 1 (Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny)
2. The Dead Just Don’t Wanna Die Today
3. Dialogue 2 (Larry Fessenden)
4. Replacement Sky
5. Dialogue 3 (Chloë Sevigny, Adam Driver)
6. This Is All Gonna End Badly
7. Dialogue 4 (Selena Gomez, Rosie Perez, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat)
8. Malignant Wave Of Doom
9. Dialogue 5 (Caleb Landry Jones)
10 Toxic Moon
11 Dialogue 6 (Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray)
12 Pulsating Elevator Of Light
13 Dialogue 7 (Chloë Sevigny, Bill Murray, Adam Driver)
14 The Dead Don't Die
15 Dialogue 8 (Tom Waits)

Cortex's Swedish post-punk classic Spinal Injuries gets deluxe reissue treatment

Recorded in 1981 and released in 1983, Cortex's Spinal Injuries is being reissued July 12th along with their "Jesus I Betong" single as a bonus.

On July 12th, Spinal Injuries, the legendary debut album from Swedish post-punk outfit Cortex will be re-issued by Sacred Bones Records in conjunction with New York's Boo-Hooray gallery. This new edition will be a U.S. only / vinyl-only release. Each copy of Spinal Injuries will come with a deluxe zine of archival photos and flyers, plus liner notes written by noted punk collector/archivist Johan Kugelberg (see below). It also comes with a new pressing of the band’s “Jesus I Betong / Sleepwalking" seven-inch single. There's also a special limited edition of 350 hand-numbered clear vinyl copies, which come with an alternate screen printed, wrap around sleeve and available by mail-order only. You can pre-order Spinal Injuries here.

Boo-Hooray will also be hosting Like Garbage Of Time, an art show featuring Lars Sundestrand's photography of Freddie Wadling and Cortex, at their NYC gallery at 277 Grand Street (3rd Floor). The opening party is July 11. Listen to "Warrior Night" followed by the album's liner notes.

                                                                       

Cortex – Spinal Injuries                         

"Informed by deep and enthusiastic underground music knowledge, Cortex were key in the ongoing musical narrative of Swedish punk and post-punk. The late frontman of Cortex, Freddie Wadling (1951-2016) is a legend of enormous stature in Sweden: he is revered on the level of, say, Captain Beefheart or Serge Gainsbourg, and has been a key influence for generations of Swedish artists over the past four decades. His work ranges from proto-punk to equilibrist jazz vocals, and the trajectory of his cultural life from the Swedish underground of the early 1970s to his final years as an iconic interpreter of the Swedish songbook in the mainstream has to include a discussion and the experience of what many consider his greatest album: Cortex’s debut LP Spinal Injuries.

"Recorded in April 1981, released in August 1983, Spinal Injuries by Cortex stands as one of a handful of masterpieces of Scandinavian post-punk. Freddie Wadling played in bands locally in his hometown of Gothenburg starting in the mid-1960s: garage bands, jam bands, one-offs, party-bands. Wadling belonged to the generation of the culturally astute who embraced the milestones as they happened: Captain Beefheart, The Velvet Underground, Zappa, Bowie, Eno, The Stooges, Hawkwind, alongside underground lit, underground comix, and art movements outside of the mainstream at a time where you had to dig hard to find out about stuff. No internet, no media mentions, no TV or radio. All word of mouth, hepcat to hepcat.

"The first of Freddie Wadling’s bands that recorded were the mostly-covers punk/proto-punk outfit Straitjacket, featuring future members of The Leather Nun. A demo cassette has circulated over the years, recorded in 1978. It is certainly an indication of things to come, with a Swedish-language cover of the New York Dolls track “Human Being” the stand-out.

"The next band for Wadling was Liket Lever, a double-drummer, wall-of-sound punk masterwork fully worthy of mention in the same breath as, say, “Television Addict,” by the Victims, “Snuten Kommer,” by Betonghysteria, or “Beautiful Happiness” by Drunks With Guns. Liket Lever released a sole 45 in 1979; “Levande Begravd” stands as one of the classics of Scandinavian punk — a relentless Phil Spector-style noise production, Wadling’s passionate vocals and propulsive harsh guitars hinting at what was to come.

"Spinal Injuries was recorded in 1981 — the basics were put down in one day, with two days for overdubs, and like other classic instant records (The Black Crowes’ Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and X’s Aspirations spring to mind), you can truly hear the urgency in documenting a roar of a sound that had matured – nay, festered – on stage and in the rehearsal space. Spinal Injuries was released by Henrik Venant’s Heartwork Records in the fall of 1983. It had been sitting on the shelf for over two years due to the limited funds of the label, and had reached a legendary status during those two years, with cassettes of the full album circulating after the Heartwork release of the “Jesus I Betong” 7-inch in late fall of 1981. “Jesus I Betong” is an oddity — it is a cover of SPK’s “Slogan” with throwback-’60s stomper “Sleepwalking” as a B-side. For a one-off punk-era 45, it is excellent, but still only a whisper compared to Spinal Injuries.



"Heartwork’s Venant was a key creative force of Swedish punk, fully as important as Wadling, and the body of work of his label is still forward-thinking. From its inception in 1978 up until the release of Spinal Injuries, thirty-odd records were released on the imprint, spanning art-punk, cold wave, gothy new wave and the more experimental end of post-punk. No release less than interesting, the activity of the label petered out following the Cortex release, but has seen several reanimations over the years, including recently.

"The nucleus of Cortex came from Liket Lever, where the illuminated Klaus Dinger-esque drumming of Uno Wall came to provide a foundation for Wadling as a bass player, and the kind of telepathic rhythm section that made Cortex a peerless musical force in 1980s Sweden. For Spinal Injuries, fellow-Liket Lever alumnus Gerth Svensson had fine-tuned an extraordinarily effective guitar style  —  informed by the reigning post-punk of the time, but with a serious American proto-punk attack.

"Spinal Injuries is an extraordinary record that does not necessarily resonate Swedish, or post-punk, or 1981. I think it is one of the finest unsung albums of this era, remaining a highly original rock record to this day, and still stands outside of time. As informed by punk rock as by art rock  –  echoes of Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Swell Maps, Neu!, Can, Tuxedomoon, and the list goes on  –  certainly a rock record that is truly well-informed by its influences, but that not even once recedes into a representation. Like most of the albums that we reach for over and over again, there is something within the grooves that makes us feel like we can step outside of the limits of contextual time and place.

"Milestones remain milestones, even if most people haven’t found them yet. But you are here, so am I, and this masterpiece is on your turntable."  – Johan Kugelberg

Patti Smith joins daughter Jesse for Nico salute

Soundwalk Collective's "Fearfully In Danger" is off Killer Road on Sacred Bones out September 2.

Marissa Nadler @ The Drake Hotel, Thursday

Watch Marissa perform a few songs from Stranger on KEXP before her show at the Drake Hotel tonight. 

Dream Police @ Smiling Buddha, Wednesday

The Dream Police (aka Nick Chiericozzi and Mark Perro of The Men) will be joined by Honey in Toronto.

Upcoming tour dates

EAST
Nov 19 - Toronto, ON - Smiling Buddha
Nov 20 - Montreal, QB - Casa del Popolo
Nov 21 - Providence, RI - tbd
Nov 22 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool$

WEST
Dec 3 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
Dec 4 - Phoenix, AZ
Dec 5 - Los Angeles, CA - Jewels Catch One
Dec 6 - San Francisco, CA - Brick & Mortar
Dec 7 - Oakland, CA - Leo's%
Dec 8 - Sacramento, CA - Witch Room
Dec 9 - Reno, NV - Holland Project
Dec 10 - Portland, OR - Holocene
Dec 11 - Vancouver, BC - The Fox Cabaret
Dec 12 - Seattle, WA - Black Lodge
Dec 13 - Olympia, WA - Old School Pizzeria#


!w/ Drose
$ w/ Remnants, Ivy
% w/ Cold Beat, CCR Headcleaner
#w/ Broken Water
All EAST dates w/ Honey
All WEST dates w/ Mercury Living