Alternative

In bowling's hallowed alleys, a strike is the minor miracle of all ten pins falling at once. Back-to-back strikes make a double. Do it a third time and you've got yourself a turkey. History will decide which sports metaphor to apply to Mike Krol's first two records, I Hate Jazz (2011) and Trust Fund (2013). But as needle meets groove on Turkey - Krol's first record for Merge - there is no ambiguity. A shiny black ball tumbles past the suburban strip malls of a polyestered Wisconsin and veers precariously close to an East Coast gutter before gathering momentum in a physics-defying sprint for the Pacific. California is where the headpin falls - the right velocity, the perfect geometry, the bowler's intent beautifully realized in a noisy moment of awesome destruction. Mike Krol got his bike stolen and his heart broken. He bailed on graphic-design-as-career. He kept playing drums and guitars, and he kept writing songs about the stuff he hated and the stuff he loved. Leaving Milwaukee for Los Angeles, he took a few years' worth of wrong turns. But when he showed up at a studio in Sacramento in March 2014, he had his affairs in order. Plug the vocal mic into a guitar amp. Plug the guitar into an overheating box of vacuum tubes. Put the computer in the closet. Roll the tape. Record Label: Merge Style: Independent

Created in 2010 by vocalist/guitarist Jem Marie as a solo project, the Ghost Ease evolved into a Portland, OR-based three-piece with the addition of drummer Nsayi Matingou in 2012 and bassist Laurence Vidal in 2014. The Ghost Ease's woozy and vivid self-titled debut was released on Talking Helps in 2013 before the trio partnered with Cabin Games for the powerful/seething Quit Yer Job EP (May 2015) and upcoming Steve Fisk-recorded full-length - aptly titled RAW - due out September 2015. RAW is simultaneously heavy and ethereal like an amethyst raincloud. The 10 tracks ebb and flow from softened layers of melody to frenetic shreds of distortion. Matingou's drumming moves nimbly while Vidal's bass ensures the album's swirling moments crash comfortably into the angular grunge freakouts. The dreamy intensity of Marie's guitar sounds are neatly woven around her voice. Her lilting cadence casts the album's moods like spells. From the tuneful crusher "PJM" to the swelling of "Gemini Rise" and the majestic piano of "Bye, Love," RAW embodies its name. Record Label: K Records Style: Independent

Unlike the production limitations that defined the sound of Diane Coffee's debut My Friend Fish (recording drums on an iPhone, using a detuned guitar in lieu of a bass, etc) Everybody's a Good Dog was recorded in proper studios with an assortment of guest appearances, horns, and a string ensemble, finally bringing to life Fleming's deep well of talent and ideas. The album covers a lot of ground from sweet acapella harmonies, to bursts of big brass and Motown swagger, to unhinged psychedelic mayhem. The album's unstoppable grooves and melodies were written with live performance in mind. "I like performing more than recording. It's like throwing a mini party each night that goes really well." says Fleming. When you hear him pouring every bit of his two decades of experience as a performer into these songs, it's clear that Diane Coffee is not a side project, it's THE project Fleming has been working towards his whole life. Record Label: Western Vinyl Style: Independent

Destroyer's Poison Season opens swathed in Hunky Dory strings. Dan Bejar's a dashboard Bowie surveying four wracked characters-Jesus, Jacob, Judy, Jack-simultaneously Biblical and musical theatre. This bittersweet, Times Square-set fanfare is reprised twice more on the record-first as swaying, saxophone-stoked "street-rock" and then finally as a curtain-closing reverie. Broadway Danny Bejar dramatically switches scenes with "Dream Lover," all Style Council strut and brassy, radio-ready bombast (echoes of The Boo Radleys' evergreen earworm "Wake Up Boo!"). This being Destroyer, its paramours-on-the-run exuberance is judiciously spiked by his deadpan delivery: "Oh shit, here comes the sun." Like the other DB, Mr. Bejar has long displayed a chameleonic instinct for change while maintaining a unified aesthetic (rather than just pinballing between reference points). No two records sound the same, but they're always uniquely Destroyer. His latest incarnation often appears to take sonic cues from a distinctly British (usually Scottish, to be precise) strain of sophisti-pop: you might hear traces of Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice, or The Blow Monkeys. These songs merge a casual literary brilliance with intense melodic verve, nimble arrangements, and a certain blue-eyed soul sadness. Playfully rueful, "Sun in the Sky" foregrounds cryptic lyrical dexterity over pop-classicist strum before gradually left-fielding into rhythmically supple, delirious avant-squall. It's as if Talk Talk took over a Lloyd Cole show. Originally released on a collaborative EP with electronic maestros Tim Hecker and Loscil (the latter's drones are retained here), a retooled "Archer on the Beach" suggests Sade swimming in The Blue Nile, smooth-jazz marimba melancholy dilated by ecstatic ambience. Flecked in heady dissonance, elusively alluring, Dan hymns its eponymous "impossible raver on your death bed" while implicitly beckoning the listener: "Careful now, watch your step, in you go." That's Poison Season in essence: familiar yet mysterious, opaquely accessible. Arch, for sure, but ultimately elevatory. Record Label: Dead Oceans Style: Independent

Record Label: Afm Records Style: Metal

Record Label: Balloon Ranger Style: Pop

Beach House is Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. We have been a band for over a decade living and working in Baltimore, MD. Depression Cherry is our 5th full-length record. This record follows the release of our self-titled album in 2006, Devotion in 2008, Teen Dream in 2010 and Bloom in 2012. Depression Cherry was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana from November ’14 through January ’15. This time period crossed the anniversaries of both John Lennon’s and Roy Orbison’s death. In general, this record shows a return to simplicity, with songs structured around a melody and a few instruments, with live drums playing a far lesser role. With the growing success of Teen Dream and Bloom, the larger stages and bigger rooms naturally drove us towards a louder, more aggressive place; a place farther from our natural tendencies. Here, we continue to let ourselves evolve while fully ignoring the commercial context in which we exist. For us, Depression Cherry is a color, a place, a feeling, an energy… that describes the place you arrive as you move through the endlessly varied trips of existence… Record Label: Pias Coop/Bella Union Style: Pop

Los Angeles based Sextile have played three shows to date, one of which was opening for felte's Ritual Howls. The label hadn't heard a single song up to that point, but were so mesmerized with the band's raw energy and tightly wound performance, they knew they had to work together. The band's sound is an amalgam of The Jesus and Mary Chain, early Modern English, early The Cure, Christian Death, Coil, the post-punk era of Death in June and The Cramps for good measure. Record Label: Felte Style: Indie Rock

Record Label: Secretly Canadian Style: Indie Rock

Music For Dogs is a deeply personal album on which Gardens & Villa pokes, prods, and even strangely celebrates the zeitgeist of music commerce, pleasure culture, technological advances and the new home they've found in Los Angeles. The New Age and Eastern Religion sentiments that rippled across their first two albums (2011's Gardens & Villa and 2014's Dunes) have been swapped out with a new sort of zen pop- Nihilsm. What's Nihilism anyway but Buddhism with a fuck-it attitude? They've found a way to live on the firing line, a way to actually harvest creative energy from our sad Internet tendencies, the uncertain future. "My whole life fixation/See if we can make it underneath the radar," goes the respective call and response of primary songwriters Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen on "Fixations," a song about the beauty in bottoming out and then finding the false bottom. Lynch could mean living as a creative in the underground or living outside peripheral view of the NSA. Under the stewardship of visionary producer Jacob Portrait and with irreplaceable rhythm section Dusty Ineman (drums) and Shane McKillop (bass), "Fixations" - and a great deal of Music For Dogs - is really just Gardens & Villa doing what it has always done best. G&V creates Byzantine melodies and richly interwoven arrangements for synths, guitars and vocals that work incredibly well on a cerebral level, but wouldn't upset a late night Korean karaoke outing either. The jaunty, jarring piano and bass that begin "Everybody" perfectly frame the song's anxiety-riddled themes of 21st Century voyeurism, surveillance and the turnstile of avatars intended to represent our true selves. "Everybody wants the new you/No one cares who you are," Lynch sings in a repeating chorus before the band collapses into a lovely out of time mall piano breakdown, which itself drops effortlessly back into the jaunty verse section. And the speedball ripper "Maximize Results" that begins the record is perhaps G&V's most ecstatic, vulnerable moment laid to record to date. It alone is worth the price of admission Record Label: Secretly Canadian Style: Indie Rock

Downloadcode / 180g. THE FRATELLIS new album ‘EYES WIDE, TONGUE TIED’ out on COOKING VINYL They say that vertigo is not the fear of falling but the fear of wanting to jump. But Jon Fratelli knows no fear. With ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ the new album by The Fratellis, he and the band have jumped from the precipitous heights that three albums (two top 5’s), a Brit Award, four sold-out nights at Brixton Academy and countless sell-out shows around the world took them to. Exuding Zen-like calm Jon has embraced the free-fall, abandoned the baggage and has never got on better with his band mates or enjoyed playing live as much as he does now. And boy, does it show. ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ is the sound of freedom. It is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers. An exhilarating trip; it’s as much flying as it is falling with style. Listening to it; from the rush of album opener ‘Me And The Devil’ to the elegant landing of closing track ‘Moonshine’, it is obvious that The Fratellis are the embodiment of the maxim, “leap and the net will appear”. This is an album that oozes confidence and verve. After the release of 2013’s ‘We Need Medicine’, the Glaswegian trio, completed by Barry Fratelli (bass) and Mince Fratelli (drums) spent a year touring the world. At the tail end of 2014, they decamped to LA to work on album number four with Tony Hoffer (M83, Depeche Mode and Belle & Sebastian), who also produced their first album smash ‘Costello Music’. With Hoffer at the helm they were released. The pure enjoyment of ‘playing for the fun of it’ was back. The band had initially thought they’d produce the record themselves, but with Tony as ‘director’ all but two of the songs were thrown to the wind and in just four short weeks the album was written and recorded with The Fratellis relishing instrumentation and possibilities they wouldn’t have even thought about, without the direction of Hoffer. That unique, bright clarity of California sunshine seems to permeate the record and the band channelled it to create an album that represents what they do best. At the heart of ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ there’s a fun, energetic soul reminiscent of their 2006 debut. It’s wonderfully vibrant, playful and the stories and characters it projects embody the spirit of LA (the first place Jon Fratelli ever went to outside Scotland). With recognisable nods to 70s Cali-rock, rockabilly and glorious hints of Americana and country layered high, it’s a glorious homecoming with roots in both Scotland and LA. Littered with standout tracks; The foot stamping ‘Baby Don’t You Lie To Me!’, The spiralling riffs of ‘Getting Surreal’ and ‘Thief’ all big choruses and live crowd pleasers. ‘Dogtown’ parades along with its strident brass section and funk-driven bass line it’s early seventies Stevie Wonder covering The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’. While the delicate, drifting layers of ‘Moonshine’ bring us to a reflective, poised ending. Open your mind, take a leap with The Fratellis ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ and the net will catch you. Record Label: Cooking Vinyl Style: Alternative Rock

This album is an intensive rollercoaster through different moods and ways of expression, yet firmly rooted in the British songwriting tradition and personal life experience. Weird references abound, from post-punk to folk to deep psychedelic atmospheres and atonal experiments. The result is wry, idiosyncratic, and definitely unique, as it was made and produced by someone whose indifference towards any such thing as „current affairs“ can cheerfully called pathological. Yet in his stories about the inner and outer going-ons, you can hear his longing for contact Record Label: Schamoni Style: Alternative Rock

Compilation of Previously Released Limited Edition Tapes. VAGUESS (pronounced "Vegas") is the moniker of rock and roll nobody Vinny Vaguess. It's a band that's bound to elicit a lot of those "Crossed With" declarations. Like, "Man, they sound like The Seeds.crossed with The Reatards," or "Dude, they're basically The Mummies.crossed with The Vibrators," but let's just put all that bullshit to bed and get down to why Vinny Vaguess' songs have people reaching for their garage rock thesauruses. Since self-releasing a cassette called Back Off Warchild in 2012 (complete with a killer Xeroxed Swayze on the cover) and playing a triple-digit number of shows around the greater Los Angeles area, VAGUESS has tapped into punk rock at it's most elemental: fiery riffs, wiry attitude, and raw power with a prankster's sneer. Even underneath the muffling hum of a Tascam 4-track recorder, the rhythm section is a rolling thunderhead and the firecracker riffs smoke. The Bodhi Collection compiles the snottiest, loudest gems from Vinny's cassettes, all perversely remastered so that we don't get sued for frying your stereo. Even though these two-minute nuggets are caked with bonehead ¶ude and crackling distortion, Vinny's no slouch when it comes to songwriting and recording. The wobbly synthesizers on "My Dead Friends" recall Lyres and Lost Sounds or maybe ? & the Mysterians, while the quite lovely slide guitar in the chaos of "(You're) Only Happy When You Bleed" is straight off a Davie Allan & the Arrows LP. Slammed to tape in overnight sessions at the warehouse where Vinny works, these twenty dispatches from the Los Angeles underground are chock full of piss (really, there's a song called "Sinkpisser") and lighter fluid. Strike the match! Record Label: Sinderlyn Style: Garage Rock

Los Angeles based Sextile have played three shows to date, one of which was opening for felte's Ritual Howls. The label hadn't heard a single song up to that point, but were so mesmerized with the band's raw energy and tightly wound performance, they knew they had to work together. The band's sound is an amalgam of The Jesus and Mary Chain, early Modern English, early The Cure, Christian Death, Coil, the post-punk era of Death in June and The Cramps for good measure. Record Label: Felte Style: Indie Rock

Providing a retrospective of their early years,Vs, released in 1982, was to be Mission Of Burma's only full length studio album with the original line up before disbanding. The album was produced by Rick Harte founder of the Ace Of Hearts record label, wh Record Label: Fire Records Style: Independent

7 Bonustracks. THE FRATELLIS new album ‘EYES WIDE, TONGUE TIED’ out on COOKING VINYL They say that vertigo is not the fear of falling but the fear of wanting to jump. But Jon Fratelli knows no fear. With ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ the new album by The Fratellis, he and the band have jumped from the precipitous heights that three albums (two top 5’s), a Brit Award, four sold-out nights at Brixton Academy and countless sell-out shows around the world took them to. Exuding Zen-like calm Jon has embraced the free-fall, abandoned the baggage and has never got on better with his band mates or enjoyed playing live as much as he does now. And boy, does it show. ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ is the sound of freedom. It is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers. An exhilarating trip; it’s as much flying as it is falling with style. Listening to it; from the rush of album opener ‘Me And The Devil’ to the elegant landing of closing track ‘Moonshine’, it is obvious that The Fratellis are the embodiment of the maxim, “leap and the net will appear”. This is an album that oozes confidence and verve. After the release of 2013’s ‘We Need Medicine’, the Glaswegian trio, completed by Barry Fratelli (bass) and Mince Fratelli (drums) spent a year touring the world. At the tail end of 2014, they decamped to LA to work on album number four with Tony Hoffer (M83, Depeche Mode and Belle & Sebastian), who also produced their first album smash ‘Costello Music’. With Hoffer at the helm they were released. The pure enjoyment of ‘playing for the fun of it’ was back. The band had initially thought they’d produce the record themselves, but with Tony as ‘director’ all but two of the songs were thrown to the wind and in just four short weeks the album was written and recorded with The Fratellis relishing instrumentation and possibilities they wouldn’t have even thought about, without the direction of Hoffer. That unique, bright clarity of California sunshine seems to permeate the record and the band channelled it to create an album that represents what they do best. At the heart of ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ there’s a fun, energetic soul reminiscent of their 2006 debut. It’s wonderfully vibrant, playful and the stories and characters it projects embody the spirit of LA (the first place Jon Fratelli ever went to outside Scotland). With recognisable nods to 70s Cali-rock, rockabilly and glorious hints of Americana and country layered high, it’s a glorious homecoming with roots in both Scotland and LA. Littered with standout tracks; The foot stamping ‘Baby Don’t You Lie To Me!’, The spiralling riffs of ‘Getting Surreal’ and ‘Thief’ all big choruses and live crowd pleasers. ‘Dogtown’ parades along with its strident brass section and funk-driven bass line it’s early seventies Stevie Wonder covering The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’. While the delicate, drifting layers of ‘Moonshine’ bring us to a reflective, poised ending. Open your mind, take a leap with The Fratellis ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ and the net will catch you. Record Label: Cooking Vinyl Style: Alternative Rock

THE FRATELLIS new album ‘EYES WIDE, TONGUE TIED’ out on COOKING VINYL They say that vertigo is not the fear of falling but the fear of wanting to jump. But Jon Fratelli knows no fear. With ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ the new album by The Fratellis, he and the band have jumped from the precipitous heights that three albums (two top 5’s), a Brit Award, four sold-out nights at Brixton Academy and countless sell-out shows around the world took them to. Exuding Zen-like calm Jon has embraced the free-fall, abandoned the baggage and has never got on better with his band mates or enjoyed playing live as much as he does now. And boy, does it show. ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ is the sound of freedom. It is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers. An exhilarating trip; it’s as much flying as it is falling with style. Listening to it; from the rush of album opener ‘Me And The Devil’ to the elegant landing of closing track ‘Moonshine’, it is obvious that The Fratellis are the embodiment of the maxim, “leap and the net will appear”. This is an album that oozes confidence and verve. After the release of 2013’s ‘We Need Medicine’, the Glaswegian trio, completed by Barry Fratelli (bass) and Mince Fratelli (drums) spent a year touring the world. At the tail end of 2014, they decamped to LA to work on album number four with Tony Hoffer (M83, Depeche Mode and Belle & Sebastian), who also produced their first album smash ‘Costello Music’. With Hoffer at the helm they were released. The pure enjoyment of ‘playing for the fun of it’ was back. The band had initially thought they’d produce the record themselves, but with Tony as ‘director’ all but two of the songs were thrown to the wind and in just four short weeks the album was written and recorded with The Fratellis relishing instrumentation and possibilities they wouldn’t have even thought about, without the direction of Hoffer. That unique, bright clarity of California sunshine seems to permeate the record and the band channelled it to create an album that represents what they do best. At the heart of ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ there’s a fun, energetic soul reminiscent of their 2006 debut. It’s wonderfully vibrant, playful and the stories and characters it projects embody the spirit of LA (the first place Jon Fratelli ever went to outside Scotland). With recognisable nods to 70s Cali-rock, rockabilly and glorious hints of Americana and country layered high, it’s a glorious homecoming with roots in both Scotland and LA. Littered with standout tracks; The foot stamping ‘Baby Don’t You Lie To Me!’, The spiralling riffs of ‘Getting Surreal’ and ‘Thief’ all big choruses and live crowd pleasers. ‘Dogtown’ parades along with its strident brass section and funk-driven bass line it’s early seventies Stevie Wonder covering The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’. While the delicate, drifting layers of ‘Moonshine’ bring us to a reflective, poised ending. Open your mind, take a leap with The Fratellis ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’ and the net will catch you. Record Label: Cooking Vinyl Style: Alternative Rock

Record Label: Rough Trade/Beggars Group Style: Alternative Rock

Record Label: Small Stone Style: Stoner Rock

Record Label: Beggars Banquet/Beggars Group Style: Electro Pop