Watch Sarah Borges' video for House On A Hill

"House On A Hill" is off the new Sarah Borges album Love's Middle Name produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel due in October.

Friendly Rich joins forces with Nihilist Spasm Band @ The Tranzac, August 24

Friendly Rich suggests earplugs for his throwdown with London's Nihilist Spasm Band with Dinner Is Ruined opening. 

Robbie Fulks teams up with Linda Gail Lewis for rockin' new record Wild! Wild! Wild!

Check out the title track off Robbie & Linda Gail's Wild! Wild! Wild! album out today on Bloodshot Records.

One For The Weekend: Dr. Ross

Can't think of a better way to kick off the weekend than with the rompin' stompin' Dr. Ross recording of "Cat Squirrel" below.

DJ Muggs & Raekwon offer a different take on yacht rock

Check the mobbed up clip for "Yacht Party" off the forthcoming Soul Assassins album Dia Del Asesinato due out today. 

Legendary hip-hop producer and Cypress Hill founder DJ Muggs has released his highly anticipated album Dia Del Asesinato today via Soul Assassins Records. The album includes collaborations with MF DOOM, Raekwon, Freddie Gibbs, Kool G Rap, Meyhem Lauren, Mach-Hommy, Hus Kingpin, and Eto.

Dia Del Asesinato is a conceptual album with an underlying theme of hip-hop combating corruption in society and government. Muggs has already dropped visuals for album highlights "Yacht Party" feat. Raekwon (watch the clip below) and "Death Wish" feat. DOOM, which showcase the LP's overarching motifs. The dystopic new video for "Assassination Day (Trust Noone)" feat. DOOM continues the narrative depicting Kanye West as U.S. President.

Limited edition color vinyl pressings, cassettes, and CD's are available now on SoulAssassins.com, including a special version of the vinyl made in collaboration with Madlib's Rappcats website with a unique cover, in an edition of 400 with 300 to be sold online and 100 to be sold at a special Dia Del Asesinato x Rappcats album event in LA on August 19th.

DJ Muggs has kept busy; in addition to Dia Del Asesinato, Cypress Hill recently announced that they have signed with BMG and are releasing a new album Elephants on Acid produced entirely by Muggs, due out September 28th.

Giant Sand Returns To Valley Of Rain

Howe Gelb and crew revisit Giant Sand's 1983 debut on Returns To Valley Of Rain. 

Valley of Rain was Giant Sand’s debut album recorded in 1983, and eventually released by 1985. It included Howe Gelb on vocals, guitar and Winston Watson on drums for most of it, Tommy Larkins on drums for some of it and Scott Garber on fretless bass for all of it.

At the time of the recording, Howe was unacquainted with the possibilities of tube (valve) amps and had recorded most of the album with a Roland JC120 at the miraculous 8 track facilities of The Control Center in Korea Town, Los Angeles by Ricky “Mix” Novak. This impromptu recording had occurred because the band refused to cancel their first Los Angeles live gig, at Madame Wong’s, when the band (Giant Sandworms) had broken up days before in Tucson. Instead, Howe headed out anyway with Scott, the newest member who’d only been in the band for about a year, after band mainstays Billy Sed and Dave Seger reasonably decided ‘enough was enough’ following a rough and tenuous year spent in the lower east side of NYC attempting to further the band circa 1981/82.

Fellow Tucsonan Winston Watson, (who would go on to tour with Bob Dylan in the 90s, as well as Alice Cooper, Warren Zevon etc ) was already living in Los Angeles and was brave/kind enough to jump in for the live date with no rehearsal. The result was so sparked with adrenalin, that the trio set up an impromptu studio session the next day to attempt to capture the sonic thrust on tape. The total cost of the day and a half recording was $400 including one 1” reel of 30 minute tape.

When Enigma Records offered to release the album they requested another 15 minutes of music to make it a full LP. Ron Goudie was then called in to oversee the extra recordings at a Venice, CA studio called Mad Dog with Eric Westfall engineering. Tommy Larkins, who had been on the previous country punk album of Howe’s “The Band of ... Blacky Ranchette” came in to drum for those last 3 songs. It was there when Howe borrowed an amp that had been stored at the studio did he discover the bolster of a tube amp and his world changed. The amp was a slightly modified Fender Twin Reverb owned by Robbie Krieger of The Doors.

Get a vinyl copy of Returns To Valley Of Rain here.

Some 30 years later, now that the band had been put to sleep indefinitely, those very first songs had begun creeping into the last Giant Sand tours. It somehow seemed appropriate to give them another shot with the proper amp just to see what they could’ve been. What made the idea more approachable was the availability of both original drummers living back in Tucson.

The first attempt came last summer with both Winston & Tommy and Thøger Lund on bass, as well as the 2 newest members, 29 year old Gabriel Sullivan and 23 year old Annie Dolan on double neck guitars. The sound was insane.

The funny part was Gabriel, who engineered and mixed the session, gave it an intentional 80s production sound. Howe later explained to Gabe he had been at war with that production trend since those first original recordings. So they all tried it again at Christmas time, this time with a newly discovered Fender 30 amp that had only been in production from 1980 – 1983.

This new re-recording of that first album now sounds like it should’ve sounded. It was re-done for $400 and the same day and a half session time as the original. Scott Garber even drove up from Austin TX with his fretless to play so that the album is literally the originally line up for at least half of the songs. And yes, no pedal boards were used too.

Check out the video for "Tumble and Tear" below.

Suzanne Ciani concert/film @ Revue Cinema, August 31

Don't miss this rare Toronto appearance by innovative sound shaper Suzanne Ciani. Check the performance clips below.

Suzanne Ciani, performance and screening of A Life In Waves + Louise Campbell

As part of The Music Gallery's Departures Series curated by Tad Michalak, electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani will be at Toronto's Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles) on Friday, August 31 for a screening of her biographical film A Life In Waves followed by a performance opened by Montreal-based clarinettist Louise Campbell.

Ciani, one of the most imaginative exponents of the Buchla synthesizer, is a five-time Grammy award nominated composer, electronic music pioneer, and neo-classical recording artist whose work has been featured in countless commercials, video games, and feature films. Over the course of her career, she has released 15 solo albums, including “Seven Waves,” “The Velocity of Love,” and most recently, the live electronic album retrospective, “Buchla Concerts 1975” released by Finders Keepers, as well as providing the voice and sounds for Bally’s groundbreaking “Xenon” pinball machine. A Life In Waves was released in 2017, bringing Ciani’s artistry to a new generation.

As a performer, improviser and composer, Louise Campbell seeks to interrogate and renew the ways in which we make music by creating new works with everyone, regardless of age, ability, level of prior experience, or training. Whether acoustic, or electronically augmented as she is here, Campbell is constantly testing the capabilities of her instrument and herself.

Film: 7 PM
$15 Regular
$12 Advance
$10 Members

Concert: 9:30 PM
$25 Regular
$20 Advance/Arts Worker/Student
$15 Member

Concert + Film package tckets ($30) are now SOLD OUT online. Check Soundscapes and Rotate This for physical tickets.