This Frontier Needs Heroes on PIAPTK Records

Mike from PIAPTK told me a while back about another amazing idea he had to cut a record groove on top of a CD of the track burned onto the CD, basically so you could play the disc in your cd player or turntable. I'm not sure if he had to specially manufacture CD's to fit a turntable spindle which would be at least one of the hurdles with this project. Not to mention Mike must have had to cut each of the 300 discs himself for the 22 !!!!!! artists involved, everyone from Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Money Mark, R. Stevie Moore and This Frontier Needs Heroes. It's a massive manual undertaking and this isn't even the first time PIAPTK has cut a lathe disc for the band. Back in 2012 I found out about the sibling duo and their eight inch picture disc thanks to the label.

This is a great project on so many levels, especially my nerd technical side that loves when vinyl is taken to a new and weird place by people with crazy ideas that will now live forever as legendary...like the piss and hair single from Eohippus. I hope someone publishes a book about the craziest pressings of records because Mike would have an entire freaking chapter.

This Frontier Needs Heroes is also a unique group to end up as a cd/records. You don't come across too many related duo's and for good reason. You would think it would be natural to want to play in a band together given you'd already have that unspoken telepathy when performing but for all the things that make it easy I bet that makes it hard as well. "I can't live like this anymore" opens on a lonesome sounding, slightly distorted, hot electric, with the mic cranked up next to the amp trying to capture notes from barely brushed strings. It's setting that sad Songs:Ohia feel when all of a sudden this launches right into the chorus, their vocals playing off each other in a deadly perfect way that would be impossible to duplicate on so many levels. It's not even an obvious harmony, Jessica takes her own higher path but with her own melody, far off, the echo strong in the distance, not just the complementary chords. They introduce the only thing to take this to a more apocalyptic place; a single violin sounding like all hope is lost. Like the Bowerbirds despair or early Iron and Wine except eventually they break that horizon to horizon sound with an edge of the cliff solo coming in with that final I can't live like this anymore and you've been through it all from hopelessness to futilely fighting and back to submission. Your choice, hit repeat or put the needle back at the beginning. I want a turntable with a laser reading the bottom of the disc while the needle plays the top at the same time. My guess is this gets even better with the natural hiss and crackle of grooves cut into the obsolete format known as the compact disc. I could imagine it would be great to pull this out of your discman and slap on a friends turntable just to see the look on their face.

PIAPTK says:

The CD-Record series is an ongoing series of CD singles with one song on the burned part of the CD and the same song with lathe cut grooves on the backside of the CD so it plays on your turntable and in your CD player. Each CD-Record will come with a center spindle adapter. Each disc comes in a professionally printed mini-LP sleeve. Discs are sold individually or as a set.

Artists in the first series:
Scott Mcmicken (Dr. Dog), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Circulatory System, Little Wings, Wooden Wand, Simon Joyner, Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), R Stevie Moore, Benoit Pioulard, Julian Gasc (Stereolab), Spaceface (mem of the Flaming Lips), The Blank Tapes, This Frontier Needs Heroes, Juston Stens, Great Lakes, Cory Gray, Briana Marela, Assateague, LABRYYYNTH (mems of Dr Dog and Golden Boots), American Monoxide, and Graves.

All CD-Records will be limited to only 300 copies each.

Order the disc/record from PIAPTK.

PIAPTK - THE FIVE SIDED LATHE CUT - PREORDER

I had to interrupt regular posting to spread the word about an incredible breakthrough in lathe cutting from Mike at PIAPTK records. Mike texted me photos of this ten inch one evening and I don't think the reality completely hit me until this morning. There are five tracks on this 10" lathe cut in olympic circles that continue to play straight through the grooves on the other tracks. You have to cycle through the five 'center' holes to hear each separate track. Each song is effected by the other tracks, the best part being that this could only be done in this format and by someone with pretty intense lathe cutting skill. That would be mind blowing enough but Dimitri Manos, the electronic manipulator from Dr. Dog has composed the tracks to incorporate this chirp as the songs cut through one another and the tracks end in locked grooves.

No samples of this anywhere but this sells itself, a completely unique one of a kind artifact that - oh yea - is a record that plays music. It's hard not to frame this thing and hang it on the wall.

This is a PREORDER - Will not ship until around August 1st.

This is by far my favorite record I've ever made. It is the product of many hours of experimentation, measurements, blind luck, and dumb jokes being made real by sheer force of will.

This is, however, no longer a joke. This is a real 5 holed record that plays.

This Six "Sided" 10" record is composed of six distinct groove rings. Each side has a Venn Diagram of Groove in the middle and a short ring on the outside of the 10". As the grooves of the Venn Diagram cross, they make a little chirping sound. They will usually not skip, but you may need to adjust your tonearm weight and anti-skating a little. Dimitri specifically composed a 16 minute sound collage with this chirp in mind.

Each Great Six Sider 10" is somewhat unique, in that the rings were cut using an unspecific portion of Dimtri's composition and were then locked off into locked grooves when the ring ends. No rings or locked grooves are the same.

Mike also says this is only the beginning future shapes and they get more insane from here. I worry about him.

GET IT OVER HERE.

Golden Boots - Xray Flexi on PIAPTK

When I first heard about this Xray flexi disc by Golden Boots from PIAPTK, knowing how innovative Mike has been about pushing the vinyl format, I just assumed this was the first time sweet rock and roll was cut into Xray film. I was completely wrong. I had never even HEARD of the insane history of the Roentgenizdat practice in the soviet union of smuggling in western recordings by lathe cutting or pressing this readily available source of thin plastic. Incredible, changed this whole release from PIAPTK for me. This release in particular even started out with Nathan writing the original track, "White Skeleton" in honor of the xray records which Mike first made with regular clear lathe cuts and gluing an xray on the reverse...so years later they both took another stab at this along with Pirates Press and actually pressed some xray flexi's exactly the way they would have been made those years ago behind the iron curtain. So what track do you put on this latest incarnation? Well, the live version of the original track of course.

The studio version took a weird drum machine percussion pile and loose lines of jangle electric in a junkyard pop style. Bits of digital hits of conga and shakers sounding compressed and glitchy with a real country spirit nonetheless and when everyone came in on that chorus it's combining both of these weird worlds in a great way. Sort of in the spirit of the Flaming Lips or Beck with homemade crafts jammed together in a purely experimental way but ending up with something accidentally great. Bass notes struck as hard as possible twanging out with a real slow BOING. It devolves for a second into a capella scat...pretty crazy for what I've heard from their usual offerings.
The live version included on this flexi takes that studio blend and truns it into a rolling along countrified number, the band coming in with a honkeytonk ensemble style. The guitars jangling along faster than ever, ramping up the speed. The kind of track that plays witht the dynamics, taking it down slow to build it back up with slide guitar taking a stronger place in this composition.
It sounds like live they're even having some fun with this, making sure to keep it a loose folk song that they managed to drag out of the bedroom and out on to the porch just as the sun is going down.

Get it from PIAPTK.

The R. Stevie series has ended by the way, incredible effort, and I hope you got a chance to pick sme of those up, I'll admit by the time I went to check Sunday evening the 24 hours was always over....I'm the worst.

R. Stevie Moore on PIAPTK

Mike has started this incredible Saturday Singles series with R. Stevie Moore, taking orders for these for only 24 hours and then hitting the lathe cutting machine to cut them just once. He's already up to the 5th installment (?!!!) and I'm sure once these are gone, that's it. Could be the only time these tracks ever end up on vinyl and as you can see from the pic above PIAPTK has gone the extra mile in packaging in hand numbering and letter pressing these cool sleeves. On top of this it is the undeniable genius of R. Stevie, and as overwhelming as his deicography is, this would be a nice place to start. The package here is as intimate and detailed as the material itself....a completely insane labor of love to this legend.

A-Side's "Advertising Agency of Fucking" is such a punchy uber-pop track. I was playing that double LP Hearing Aid for holiday visitors who were making comparisons to Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything? album which I had never heard of and a new link in the Moore universe. This track is another masterpiece with extra drum machine sounding percussion and a phasered effect on cymbal crashes and a fantastic chorus with a farther away stevie buried under handclaps. Full of abrupt starts and stops that make his brand of pop so unique and R. Stevie wastes no time in getting right to the heart of this one. Launching straight into the innuendo-less lyric, "I don't wanna give you head no more".
Pulling no punches in material and melodies.
The fact that Mike carves out such a limited supply of these bad boys gives it a special AM radio quality that could exist on the original...I mean the cut is great, it's clear, but the added alien surface noise really makes this sound like an alien transmission from the heavens. Driving at night, in the middle of the desert you can pick up ancient soviet broadcasts. This track is fast and furious, the muddy texture obscures everything but the important parts and what really keeps being pounded over and over into my skull is just how incredible he is with an insane amount of limitations. Those things make you better after all and R. is the posterboy for not sitting on your ass and making excuses... archivists will be excavating his material for decades after you're gone.

B-Side" Conflict of Interest" starts with a low disco beat, some belted on synth and a groove bassline starts alongside an echo snare. Stevie's a little distorted this time, in a darker tale with bleating synth horns. His talky, menacing vocal is buried under a piano bouncing in. Chiming guitars... there's no reference for this, except a lifetime of experimentation. Masterful self call and response, voices talking back and forth to each other about a conflict of interest. Almost new wave. No era of music or genre escapes him. But what does RSM listen to? What's on Stevie's record player? Part of me thinks nothing...ever... but then how would you arrive at these conclusions?
Works of the highest order...and this is hapening every Saturday or so?!!! Shit.

Pressed at 33, handmade as hell with handprinted center labels and lovingly cut into blanks by Mike at PIAPTK. Unbeliveable. I also got some found photos and an ACDC card, one mister Angus Young known for his 'delinquent schoolboy image'.

These are gone, but sign up for the email announcements when the next one is scheduled to go up for sale over here: http://eepurl.com/o2vLD

This Frontier Needs Heroes - 8" Picture Disc on PIAPTK Records

I met up with Mike from People in a Position to Know Records a few months back to catch Owen from Advance Base at his show over at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn. Lots of drinks in he told me about his up and running lathe cutting operation and this pyramid shaped picture disc from This Frontier Needs Heroes, an alt-folk duo of Brad and Jessica Lauretti. I can't imagine doing the research and putting together a real working disc cutting operation in your garage... having the space for multiple lathe cutters and all their replacement parts. I have enough trouble keeping my turntable working sometimes. But then again Mike's realized the dream of being able to cut his own records. Whatever he wants on disc, any of your own side projects, friends bands, no one to stop you from cutting together a mix record...the possibilities are endless...like a pyramid shaped picture disc maybe? Exactly.
It also takes a label like People in a Position to Know to be out there championing artists like This Frontier Needs Heroes who are probably right down the street and I would have never come across them. It's really the best to sit down one morning completely ignorant of what these guys are going to sound like, just trusting PIAPTK and setting down the needle on "2012". The track starts with some barely audible distorted vocal that announces the band and title when a garage, '60s sounding drum kit fill pounds in, like on the percussion from Peter Bjorn and John, there's a distanced cavernous sound to all these minimal elements. It gives everything an immediately homemade huge sound that reminds me a lot of Woods, or Wooden Wand...simply approaching the songwriting without a lot of gimmicks. It just comes down to this melody and the back and forth of Brad's lead and Jessica's angelic harmony. Far off rock steady snare, fingerpicked acoustic, a triangle clang, slow tambourine...it's a dreamy indie folk rooted in that garage soul sound. That heavy wall of sonics like the Shangri-la's, a similar catchiness and texture. Now I have to go see if these guys have a full length out.

Pick up this impressive hand cut (in multiple ways) 8" picture disc from PIAPTK. The black and white pyramid is housed in a heavy handscreened cardstock sleeve, all basically a one man operation at this point. I think he's got a machine to make polyvinyl bags for these too. When the apocalypse comes 7inches might still have releases to write about thanks to Mike.
His lathe is available for all your weirdo cutting jobs. I'm sure he's up for anything and even has a referral program where if you mention 7inches for example, then if I place an order (and I will) then I get a couple extra discs free.

I know people have had trouble, (myself included) with certain lathe cutting places that haven't exactly panned out, but I can safely say Mike isn't going anywhere. He's got literally tons of pressing equipment he's now hoarded in his house, along with the releases from a label going on 15 years now so he's not going anywhere....even if he wanted to....and this disc quality sounds amazing by the way. The picnic plate lathe's he's cut previously are amazing for their own specific sonic weirdness, but honestly you wouldn't know this one was lathe cut at all, but I'm sure if you want a few extra layers of hiss you guys could work something out.
Highly recommended, this record, the label, the entire vinyl empire Mike has built. A class act.
He is not paying me.

PIAPTK launch R. Stevie Moore Saturday Singles Singles Series

Get ready to pick up a new square lathe cut from R. Stevie tomorrow morning or maybe tonight at midnight? from PIAPTK. I'm sure like the Ariel Pink mirror split, this will be gone, thus the advance warning. Synchronize your watches.

R. Stevie Moore Saturday Singles Singles Series –
Starting this Saturday, and Every(ish) Saturday thereafter, for as long as we and Stevie feel inclined, PIAPTK will be opening up preorders for a new R. Stevie Moore clear, square, lathe cut single in a hand-set letterpressed cover. The preorders will last for 24 hours. We will then make only that many records (plus artist copies) and the single will be out of print forever. To sign up to the PIAPTK Stevie email list (separate list that will only contain Stevie-related emails) to remind ya, click here.

They also have just launched a kickstarter for a crazy double LP tribute to Kris Kristofferson.

Preview ALL of the tracks
The Rising Cost of Livin’ High and Lovin’ Hard: A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson:
Wooden Wand feat. The Scrivener – Tell Me One More Time
Little Wings - I May Smoke Too Much
Simon Joyner - Help Me Make It Through The Night
Golden Boots – Best of All Possible Worlds
Calvin Johnson, Sandman The Rappin' Cowboy, Timezone Lafontaine, and Andras Jones – The Highwayman
Turner Cody – Sam’s Song
Karl Blau - Here Comes That Rainbow Again
The Blank Tapes – Other Side of Nowhere
The Gifted Children – Enough For You
Assateague – Josie
RFK Heise – Stranger
Ohian – Year 2000 + 7&5
Wckr Spgt – Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down
The Gift Machine – The Taker
The Great Lakes – Nobody Wins
New Science Projects – The Pilgrim: Chapter 33
Amo Joy! – Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down
Miniature and Presidential – Bottle to the Bottom
The Ocean Floor – For the Good Times
Daring Ear – Silver Tongued Devil and I
Southerly – Same Old Song
Matt Hopper – Jody and the Kid
The Black Swans – Moment of Forever
Good Saints – Breakdown
Bob Simpson – Jesus Was A Capricorn

Receive Special letterpressed covers, test pressings, exclusive colored vinyl, lathe cuts with bonus tracks, t-shirts, etc!

Golden Boots - Viking Moses/Teenage Mysticism handcut singles from PIAPTK

Mike makes me jealous. Not only is he doing really crazy things with the singles themselves, like this square translucent picture disc, but then he's cutting them himself. Basically to have that kind of freedom coming up with projects and runs of stuff would be pretty amazing. It's no wonder he's worked with some impressive big shots on previous stuff. I've only had a brush with Golden Boots before and don't know either of the guys on that split lathe picture disc, but when you're putting it on a work of art like that, the fact there's a song in those grooves is just a bonus. Pick up both of these artifacts from People in a Position to Know.

Golden Boots - BeezKneez/Be My Champ 2x7" - A double 7" picnic plate release of new Golden Boots tracks... One Dmitri tune (Be My Champ) and one Ryan tune (BeezKneez) on two one-sided picnic plates in beautiful hand-silkscreened medical folders made by the band. Limited Edition of 50. The band has 25 and we have 25.

Viking Moses/Teenage Mysticism Split 7" Translucent Picture Disc - These went from concept to reality in less than 3 days... Put together for a VM/TM tour which included some dates opening for Viking Moses' old protege, Deer Tick. Beautiful translucent lathe cut square picture discs in hand-made covers. Each cover has one side watercolored by Viking Moses and one side is water colored by Teenage Mysticism. Each one is unique. Only 50 made.

Don't forget Mike will spend this kind of time and attention on your weirdo vanity project at Lathecuts...bust out those cassettes for 'remastering'!

Second H. Sam - s/t EP on Shit Music for Shit People and a Record Store Day PIAPTK release

Got a notice about this solo project from Second H. Sam on the Shit Music for Shit People label, looks like they're based 'somewhere between Portugal and Italy"...founded a few years back they're trying to combine great music and art together, putting a lot of effort pairing artists together and getting sleeves like the one above.

The couple of tracks I found on his bandcamp page sound  like a ramshackle trudging Doo Rag busted folk with slide guitar, and SHS's deep reverb Leonard Cohen style drawn out vocals. Random percussion picks up this warped carnival feel on "Cherie Cherie Maria", clinking bottles and metal trash can lids.
Another one, "Sick About You and I" has a delayed warble tremolo guitar, picking up the pace and mixing a kind of junkyard folk with Serge Gainsbourg. Plus plenty of time at the multitracker fiddling around with just the right kind of weirdo layers. This one's got a drum machine and a little bit of a garage feel, loose with layers and laid back vocals, super clean. Check out these samples below and pay that sweet air shipping for this one from Shit Music for you, I mean, Shit People Records.

Shit says:

In less than a year of live shows he amazed the audience with his minimal approach to the music, inspired by glowing romantic scenarios, seen through psychedelic and lo-fi glasses. In his music you can find a little of Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, Fred Neil, Nick Cave, Lee Hazlewood, Fabrizio De Andrè, Daniel Johnston, Syd Barret, Beck & Thurstone Moore. They say about him: "A blues author from the age of the computers, a Muddy Waters with a MIDi keyboard, a Daniel Johnston without obesity and ADHD syndrome. Reverbered semi-acoustic guitar with vocal sinking in a sea of tape-echoes".
His debut EP is available in vinyl 7" from the italian/portuguese label “Shit Music For Shit People”.
The four songs were recorded at the “Outside Inside” in Montebelluna, with the artistic production of Emanuele "Nene" Baratto from the Movie Star Junkies.
Sam is the singer of the Hormonas from Venezia and the Buzz Aldrin from Bologna. He was also the singer of the John Woo, a punk wave band from the 2000s.

The other thing I wanted to be sure to mention before this weekend is this Record Store day release from Mike over at People in a Position to Know Records, this really cool split single from Wooden Wand and Catherine Irwin covering Hazel Dickens, who I'm just finding out about myself, and it's always great when a record like this can be just great on it's own and paying tribute to a deeper music history...an underappreciated songwriter who wasn't in it for Coachella or Bonoroo, I don't even care if I spell that right. Old time protest music and not making a dime.

Wooden Wand's side is as minimal and just plain heartbreaking as this material should be, slow, mindfully recorded acoustic guitars, and a smooth backup vocal. Recorded in perfectly silent pin drop warmth that ought to be perfect for turning up and putting the speakers in the windows of the porch. Reminding me tonally of that first Iron & Wine record, when you can get away with a single mic and a guitar, why wouldn't you? Because you would probably sound stupid. James Toth  does not.
Catherine Irwin does "Lost patterns" an equally intimate tiny room recording with a lonesome lap steel and barley strummed guitar. It takes a single like this with such attention to detial that makes you want to find out more about the original artist who could write songs about sitting at the kitchen table drinking beer. Great harmony's and Catherine has that crazy range from growly despair to southern twang...all housed in PIAPTK's matchbook style letterpressed cardboard sleeves.

Wooden Wand & Catherine Irwin Sing the Songs of Hazel Dickens 7"
Wooden Wand and Catherine Irwin (of Freakwater) pay tribute to legendary bluegrass protest singer, Hazel Dickens.
This was INTENDED to be (and hopefully still will be) a Record Store Day Exclusive. Unfortunately, despite our sending in the info to them months ago, following up, jumping through hoops, etc, they STILL haven't put it on the list. So, until they recognize it as an official RSD exclusive, I will have some copies here for sale. Once they get back to me about it, I will be taking these down and official RSD stores will be the only places to get them. And that, of course, means you probably won’t be able to get them. 90% of the run went out to distro already, so I only have a few copies anyway. Limited to only 459 copies worldwide, (but numbered out of 500) each 7" comes in a beautiful, hand-set-letterpressed, silkscreened, and numbered Arigato Pak.

Doesn't look like there are any left from Mike direct at this point but you can hear samples of this single over at PIAPTK, look for it this Saturday, or send him an email, you never know.

Here's the original track from Hazel, "A few old memories":

Ariel Pink + R. Stevie Moore on PIAPTK Records

Just got word from Mike over at People in a Position to Know Records that I can finally talk about this amazing handmade single that he just put out. If you have to have everything from R. Stevie or Ariel Pink (because of the amazing B-sides, let’s face it) then you’re going to want to just immediately stop reading and head over there to pick this up. Limited, handmade lathe cut, acrylic MIRROR and freaking amazing. I know in theory, you should be able to cut playable grooves into any kind of plastic, but to see it in practice like this on a mirror backed clear surface is really unique. There won't ever be a another single like this...and that's before you even drop the needle.

Even more amazing than the track itself is the fact that PIAPTK has managed to put both of these artists together. Whether this is a tape or email exchange between Stevie and Ariel, or they actually were sitting next to each other in an isolation booth, it’s a pretty amazing document of a collaboration between generations of underground innovators.
Fashion has finally caught up with appreciating both Ariel and Stevie and I’m just happy they got together for a moment....like William Burroughs and Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, that’s almost enough on it's own. I almost don’t even need to hear it, and it can't be judged the same way as their solo releases...it's enough that they each did their unique thing together. They had a few words, played a few chords and history was made for an afternoon.

This crazy medium of this record itself is almost like being able to listen to the original cassette tapes, wound on a misshapen reel, and somehow you're even closer to the source material. The curtains are pulled back on the whole mysterious process just a little more than usual. Stevie begins the single sided track, “SteviePink Javascript” with a few low words after you get used to the amazing amount of hiss coming off this acrylic mirror, which for these two is an essential element. It’s another instrument, a layer to free them up for this improv back and forth jam. A distinctively warbled rhythm for Ariel comes up out of this pre-intro, as if all the tracks on his latest cassette scratch tape just run right into each other, there’s no beginning or end, just an abrupt change in tempo and the sound of the tape head turning on record.
Stevie’s whispering gives way to a synthy bassline, an odd rhythm with some vocal beatboxing and those synthy keys, from the Scared Famous era. Stevie’s almost autotuned or just buried under a variable reverb. This isn't your typical duet, they're stepping all over each other, Ariel busting into a high falsetto chorus over Stevie telling Ariel he’s thinking about running for Senate and if he’ll be his running mate. It’s informal, a chance to collaborate and appreciate each other for a minute... they’re fans and here get to literally play off each other lyrics, responding to the last line, a warped call and response.
Ariel starts:

you tell your friends about me and I'll tell mine about you
nice to meetcha
now... what do you call this music Stevie?
Ariel dreams
SteviePink / You do great shit
You’re better than I am
put a snare here right?
no, you're out of your mind

Ariel and Stevie half rap at points and Ariel breaks into his soul layered falsetto vocals, sometimes creating the guitar sound vocally and other times...well I'm not sure. This has to be well over 5 minutes, winding between their styles in a plodding broken AM see-saw rhythm. Stevie references the Prince line about partying like it’s 1999 and Ariel replies

Too much R&B it's all your fault
have your layer call my lawyer

Beyond the incredible track that was cut into this thing, every single piece of this single is recycled or repurposed. The 'vinyl' itself from mirrored acrylic plastic, each one handcut on Mike's 1940's lathe, each cover handscreened on this a crazy grip tape type of hologram material, even the insert describing the whole process is paper from a garage sale.

This is where I get to the bad news part, this is such an incredible document, I am legitimately sad that only 87 other people are going to be able to hear this. I know that's the point of something this homemade both musically and so intimately handmade, but it's so important, it's got to be shared int he future.

If you're reading this late and PIAPTK is out, go pick up R. Stevie's Phonography, as completely mindblowing and an early blueprint of Ariel. I respect both of these guys so much, Ariel for introducing me to Stevie and Stevie for making this kind of handmade folk pop before I was even born. So inspiring... and with a back catalog like this thankfully it's going to be a million years to make my way through everything.

We can also hope this is the beginning of an entire album collaboration, it sounds too damn fun and completely a part of both of their processes. It's a perfect match. There's no doubt this is going to be gone. I'm happy Mike gave me the chance to hear it and let you guys know about it first, now go pick up this incredible artifact...and hey in the future apocalypse you could even use it to shave or something...it's a win win!

(Even joking about that, I get a little upset.)

Advance Base / Hello Shark split on PIAPTK Records

People in a Position to Know have been consistently coming up with the most amazing packaging for the lowly single and beyond, from an 8" square colored vinyl of Springsteen covers from Owen Ashworth and his brother to a sprawling 6 LP Wooden Wand boxed set (in appropriately enough...a wooden box), picnic plate shaped lathe cuts if I remember correctly he cut himself on his own machine...well machines plural because you can't have just one....literally, every piece breaks and you probably need to have a couple just for spare parts. It makes you want to move out into a part of the world where the cost of living is way less than brooklyn and start tracking down enough pieces to press your own records...in the meantime I will just be buying what PIAPTK is crazy enough to put together, always amazing, and worthy of blind buying their entire output. Consistently great, I admire all the projects they come up with over there.
It's no wonder Owen agreed to release a second single from his latest project, Advance Base, this time split with Hello Shark out of Burlington, VT, in a really nice matchbook printed chipboard sleeve from Stumptownprinters.
The Advance Base side starts out with a typically heartbreaking track, "Whirlaway The Horse", a Rhodes organ and a Whippany Rhythm Master (thanks liner notes) which is the sole core of his ever skeleton minimal structure. It serves to highlight Owen's songwriting, and this one is just a perfectly crafted story of the horse, Whirlaway that reveals a bar owners story verse after verse, and if this isn't based on some actual conversation late one night in a lonely bar then Owen, you are more of a genius than ever. Delivered in his deliberate understated style, barely rising above the trembling warmth of the organ melody, which against this ancient drum machine always reminds me of the sparse lonely sounds of Arise, Therefore, but Owen always manages to make these sad stories sound optimistic, the pieces seem to be always sort of working against that idea, and that's always the biggest trick of his songwriting, to give those kind of melancholy moments enough charm to be a little bit deceptive almost....once you start to investigate a little deeper.
Next up from Base is "Spanish Flangdang", which is listed as a traditional cover, and has a carnival uptempo carousel melody, which actually is so related to the Whirlaway melody they may as well be twins. This one still is riding that line of sadness, but maybe it's the closeness of these two that makes this sad somehow.
The B-Side from Hello Shark, starts out with "Stayed on an Island", recorded by Joey Pizza Slice in his apartment, the 4 piece reserved band lead by Lincoln Halloran on guitar and vocals, sounds like it works right alongside on old Palace album, he's just as understated in his delivery as Owen and the simple sentiments of making an island out of a mattress or giving a good friend a solo cigarette, come off as intensely personal, you're being let in on this intimate performance that doesn't ever need to be loud or scream for your attention. "Stars are Glow" continues this loose, good friends together writing music, a sleepy melodic track with Brooke Morrison bringing a high register harmony to the low key proceedings. A great pairing with Advance Base, and a serene end to 2011.

Get this one from PIAPTK who says:

The debut release from Casiotone For the Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth's new band, Advance Base is a split with his Vermont buddies in Hello Shark (voted one of the 50 best new bands in America by the Boston Phoenix). 2 tunes each, in hand-screened arigato paks with free digital download coupon (and instant download upon checkout!).