Fake Eyes "Saccharine Scream"

LP - $17.90
STREET DATE: 12/13/24
CAT#: SDR-130
LABEL: Sunday Drive

"Saccharine Scream" is an LP that almost didn't see the light of day. Written and recorded around 2020--2021, it features some of Fake Eyes' best songs to date. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the record was temporarily shelved until early 2024, when the band revisited it with renewed determination to release it and return to performing and writing.

Throughout the ten tracks, Paul Vuksanovich, Grey Peters, Alexa Finley, and Stephanie Wesner craft a cohesive and dynamic record. Vocally, Paul is in top form. The mix showcases vocals more prominently than any previous Fake Eyes EP, with Paul delivering rhythmic hooks on nearly every song, complemented by thoughtful, often poetic lyrics.

Sonically, Fake Eyes build upon the foundation established in their earlier records--drawing inspiration from bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Hum--while achieving a more layered, expansive sound. This evolution is particularly evident on standout tracks like "Butterfly Boy" and "Never Speak."

The album closes with "An Astronaut Song," an atmospheric piece with a hint of twang. It's a distinctive finale that the band executes masterfully, rounding off the record in an unexpected yet fitting manner.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Understated
02. Saccharine Scream
03. Losing Skin
04. Never Speak
05. Inside the Dream Life
06. Faulty by Design
07. Brood Over You
08. Scathed
09. Butterfly Boy
10. An Astronaut Song

MARKETING POINTS:

  • Debut album on Sunday Drive

FOR FANS OF:
Hum, Sunny Day Real Estate, Smashing Pumpkins

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Kowloon Walled City "Gambling on the Richter Scale"

LP - $17.25
STREET DATE: December 13, 2024
CAT#: VIS020
LABEL: Persistent Vision

In the world of heavy music, few bands embrace dynamics and negative space like Oakland, CA’s Kowloon Walled City. Since forming 17 years ago, the band has increasingly refined its deconstructed approach to noise rock, math rock, and sludge.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, Persistent Vision is proud to present a much needed reissue of Kowloon Walled City’s first album, "Gambling on the Richter Scale". Initially released in 2009, the album laid the groundwork for a series of subsequent albums over the years including Container Ships, Grievances, and Piecework, released via labels such as Neurot Recordings, Gilead Media, and Brutal Panda Records.

This early album is a snapshot of the band’s sound in a much dirtier, noisier, sludgier environment. Kowloon Walled City have always been a band focused on tone and atmosphere with their unique style of heaviness, and the very intentional grit on this album shows another face to a band that has grown to embrace a cleaner, overdriven sound in recent years.

Gambling on the Richter Scale was recorded and mixed by guitarist/vocalist Scott Evans, whose engineering work includes Sumac, Great Falls, Old Man Gloom, and many others. The record comes packaged in a full color matte finish jacket with two color vinyl variants, Ice Blue & Black Galaxy and Violet & Black Galaxy, each limited to 150 copies.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Annandale
02. Diabetic Feet
03. Clockwork
04. Sleep Debt
05. Paper Houses
06. Gambling on the Richter Scale
07. Bone Loss
08. More Like the Shit Factory

MARKETING POINTS:

  • Out of print for several years, this reissue coincides with the 15 year anniversary of the album.
  • Kowloon Walled City will be touring the US east coast and southeast supporting SUMAC in early December 2024. They are already working on plans for 2025 including a performance at Prepare the Ground Festival in Toronto with Kylesa, Khanate, Steve Von Till, and more.
  • Previous touring history with Neurosis, YOB, Metz, Rid of Me, Jay Jayle, and others.

FOR FANS OF: Neurosis, KEN Mode, Godflesh, Chat Pile

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Underdark "Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re​-​Entry"

LP - $19.40 / CD - $9.60
STREET DATE: 12/13/24
CAT#: CRR234
LABEL: Church Road

While still utilising a dreamlike and heavy mixture of black-metal, post-metal and shoegaze, Underdark's debut album also packs a renewed punch alongside a ferocity and intensity matched only by the innovative and engaging song structures.

Recorded & mixed with Misha Herring at Holy Mountain Studio (40 Watt Sun, Inhuman Nature, Idles, Spiritualised, Puppy) & mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering (Emma Ruth Rundle, Southern Lord Records, Power Trip, Mizmor), the album captures five tracks of intense & emotional progressive compositions, not limited by genre to create a tidal wave of sound; that shift in emotions, drowning you between sections of crushing blast beats and ear splitting vocals to blissful, atmospheric soundscapes that engulf you within them.

Lyrically the album covers personal issues such as addiction & psychosis, to inhumane border control & the shameless exploitation of the lower classes at the hands of landlords.

The band comment, 'despite numerous setbacks, pandemic related and otherwise, we're honoured to be working with some of the finest independent labels in their respective regions to realise a vision many years in the making. Our Bodies Burned Bright On Re-entry is the sum of our efforts in that time, we put everything we have into this record.'

TRACK LISTING:
01. Qeres
02. Our Bodies Burn Bright On Re-Entry
03. Coyotes
04. With Ashen Hands Around Our Throats
05. Skeleton Queen

MARKETING POINTS:

  • Recorded & mixed with Misha Herring at Holy Mountain Studio (40 Watt Sun, Inhuman Nature, Idles, Spiritualised, Puppy)
  • Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering (Emma Ruth Rundle, Southern Lord Records, Power Trip, Mizmor)

FOR FANS OF:
Deafheaven, Svalbard

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