Morten Valence - Black Angel Drifter - VINYL LP

Forging their friendships in the crucible of their Houston, TX, high school, Sabrina Ellis (vocals), Andrew Cashen (vocals, guitar), -and Orville Neeley (drums) first got their start covering AC/DC, The Ramones, Joan Jett, and the finer points of the Back to the Future soundtrack at school dances under the band name Youth In Asia. Reuniting in Austin in 2008, they enlisted their pals Andy Bauer (guitar) and Graham Low (bass) and christened the act A Giant Dog. AGD is raucous ear candy culled from the hook-driven melodies of Slade, the glammy swagger of Marc Bolan, the morbid fantasy of Killer-era Alice Cooper, and the unpredictable wit of Sparks. Sabrina and Andrew's lyrics, equal parts brutally honest, clever, and debased, have a knack for taking their idiosyncratic depravities and making them feel universal. These songs are by, for, and about the losers, freaks, and outcasts. The lonely. The terminally horny. Boozehounds and party animals. No band better speaks to the hearts of slackers, burnouts, rockers, sluts, and creeps everywhere than A Giant Dog. AGD have built their reputation blowing the goddamned doors off every venue in Austin. Live, they are loud, heavy, electrifying. Sabrina struts around the stage like Iggy Pop channeling Tina Turner. Andrew hurls himself from the summit of the speaker stack. Graham's headbanging clobbers anything close to him. The audience rages, asses shake, and everyone leaves drenched in beer and bodily fluids. Over the years, they've clocked in their time on the road, leaving destruction in their wake. They've shared members with other bands in the Austin rock 'n' roll community including Sweet Spirit, OBN IIIs, Bobby Jealousy, and others. In 2012, AGD impressed fellow Austinite and Spoon frontman Britt Daniel enough that he took them under his wing to start demolishing concert halls across the USA as the support act for his band.

Morton Valence's eighth, and eponymously titled album, produced by the legendary BJ Cole. Robert 'Hacker' Jessett and Anne Gilpin, who form the nucleus of Morton Valence, effortlessly take the country music genre, which is generally considered a uniquely American musical form, and create something uniquely English, without ever compromising their authenticity. The atmosphere that BJ Cole brings to the album is palpable, in both production values, and his unmistakable pedal steel guitar performances, on songs such as the plaintive 'Together Through the Rain', where an estranged Anne and Hacker reunite under the shelter of an umbrella, walking through the rain and trading verses along the way. Or the more upbeat country rock of 'I've Been Watching You/You've Been Watching Me', which is almost as if Richard and Linda Thompson had touched down in some Nashville backbar before heading for the bright lights. And of course, the scintillatingly down-beat opener, and instant urban-country classic; 'Summertime in London', where Hacker reflects on his home city from afar, through simultaneously tear-stained and rose-tinted glasses.1. Summertime in London2. I've Been Watching You / You've Been Watching Me3. Jim4. Like a Face That's Been Starved of a Kiss5. It's a Brand New Morning6. Me & My Old Guitar7. A Town Called Home8. Bob & Veronica's Big Move9. It Isn't Easy Being an Angel10. If I Make It Back To Mary's House11. Together Through the Rain

In advance of their forthcoming debut album via Prophecy Productions, newly formed black metal trio Vuur & Zijde (Inchfire and silkInch) - featuring members of Laster, Nusquama and Terzij de Horde - will introduce themselves on a split- alongside the similarly enigmatic Impavida. While recording in a remote yurt on the Frisian shoreside, the band opted for a nostalgic production reminiscent of genre-defining demos from the early 90s to fit their own style. Equally grim and epic, Vuur & Zijde's three songs, which will remain exclusive to this , also highlight ethereal female vocals and layers of sounds, lending them a weightless, otherworldly character. The anonymous minds behind Impavida come from Germany and the US, offering two unsettling, discordant dirges to underscore existential questions that are spit out hysterically. With two full-lengths on Ván Records since 2008, the duo remains without face and history, a nihilistic void set to music. Meant not for the faint-hearted but all those who seek transcendental aural darkness, the groups' self-titled joint effort stimulates imagination and - ultimately - leads to remarkable revelations. InchVuur & Zijde / ImpavidaInch is available as Digipak CD and on vinyl (black, ltd. Transparent green).