US/THEM group 2022 Year In Review

Below is a quick roundup of all of the releases from 2022 that we've had the pleasure of promoting this year, for your Best of 2022 consideration. Please let me know if you need any additional information — and of course, if you plan to include some of them in your year-end picks, we’d love to know!

02/04 Omnibael Rain Soaks The Earth Where They Lie (Cruel Nature Recordings) STREAM

"They make a rather vicious noise reminiscent of early Godflesh, peak-era Ministry, Cop Shoot Cop and Unsane." -- Side-Line Magazine

02/18 Die! Die! Die! This Is Not An Island Anymore STREAM

Original lineup of groundbreaking New Zealand post-punk trio returns with furious new album.

02/25 Firebreather Dwell In The Fog (RidingEasy Records) STREAM

“Hands down their best work to date…Brace yourselves for a mind-bending experience, and don’t be surprised if you see Dwell in the Fog in the top albums of the year.” – Doom Charts

03/04 Karma Vulture Death By Comfort STREAM

"Stacks up the riffs... If you're dying for something like Monster Magnet or old Queens of The Stone Age, then you're going to dig Karma Vulture." -- Metal Injection

03/04 Thirsty Curses To The Ends of the Earth STREAM

"A refined take on the band’s punk-pop sound that showcases its most sophisticated hooks to date." -- Big Takeover

03/18 Wrack Repulsive Gravity STREAM

“Spinning, crushing death metal.” – Metal Injection

04/20 V/A Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip (RidingEasy Records) STREAM

Popular compilation series of long-lost and unreleased 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles.

05/06 N8NOFACE Homicide (Blackhouse Records) STREAM

“The futuristic and post-apocalyptic sound he’s refined over the last decade sonically encapsulates our increasingly dystopian present. N8 bolsters walls of buzzing, ominous synths with blistering drums he’s sampled from old punk records, chopping them for minimal parts and maximum dirt.” -- SPIN Magazine

06/03 “It Came From Aquarius Records” documentary TRAILER

Incredible documentary about beloved and influential SF record store featuring Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), John Darnielle (Mountain Goats), Ty Segall and many more. 

07/01 Light Creates Shadow ghosts pass through, running from the body STREAM

Powerful, dramatic and intelligent post-metal produced by Matt Bayles (Mastodon).

07/27 My Heart, An Inverted Flame “The Blood of The Heartless (feat. Banshee)” (tUMULt) STREAM

Glorious marriage of slow synth-doom duo MHAIF with trap metal Tik Tok star Banshee. 

08/08 The Living Pins “Chateau” / “On Yeah” single STREAM

Austin indie-glam-pop duo, featuring Carrie of Sixteen Deluxe, already a local Austin radio hit. 

08/12 Dreckig Digital Exposure (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

Latin dance rhythms filtered through Krautrock grooves and electro pop sounds. 

08/26 Pineid Blue Doom (Sympatry Records) STREAM

Members of Zappa Band, Dethklok, Dr. John produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins)

08/26 Culpepper Superreactor STREAM

Clever, poetic Britpop laced rock with psychedelic grooves and insightful lyrics.

09/02 The Schizophonics Hoof It (Pig Baby Records) STREAM

Spotify for Artists calls them "the wildest band in America!"

09/06 High Heavens “Life Is a Loan Shark” / “100 Bullets” STREAM

Ex-members of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, New Wet Kojak, Edsel, Glorium, and Crime In Choir

09/16 Pink Frost Until The Summer Comes (Under Road Records) STREAM

Glorious return of Chicago alt-punks merging heavy punk with 90s alternative hooks.

09/16 Torpedo Orpheo Nebula (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

Swiss proto-punk trio evoking early Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, The Xx.

09/23 Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol Doom Wop STREAM

The biggest album of the year. Revolver Magazine: "Epically catchy... Imagine the ear-wormy fuzz-rock riffage of Dinosaur Jr. if it was played on an eight-string guitar with super heavy low-end."

09/23 Jochen Arbeit Tiere Macht Töne (Dymaxion Groove) STREAM

Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist's beautiful solo album on homemade instruments.

09/23 Carlton Melton Microwavelengths (Broken Clover Records) STREAM

"A game of two halves. May be their most interesting record yet... Arguably their most compelling and original work yet." -- The Quietus

10/28 WHIMZ PM226 (Literal Gold Records) STREAM

Blackwater Holylight singer/bassist Allison "Sunny" Faris & Night Heron's Cam Spies.

11/04 N8NOFACE Bound To Let You Down (The Remixes) (Eyeball Records) STREAM

Eight songs from L.A. synth-punk anomaly's 2021 breakout album, remixed by Eyedress, ADULT., Peanut Butter Wolf and more. 

12/02 blackwinterwells protector (Eyeball Records) STREAM

Helix Tears Collective musician and producer offers an ethereally nuanced collection of tracks crafted with symphonic songwriting in mind. 

Cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, Earth) & trumpeter Greg Kelley share first track from Broken Clover Records album out in January 2023

 

Renowned cellist Lori Goldston and experimental trumpeter Greg Kelley share the title track to their forthcoming album All Points Leaning In today. The album will be released in January '23 on Broken Clover Records. Hear and share "All Points Leaning In" via New Noise Magazine HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

All Points Leaning In was created after a couple of years of Greg Kelley and Lori Goldston performing together often throughout the Pacific Northwest, as a duo and in various ensembles, usually in artist-run spaces and occasionally scoring silent films. Most often they play completely improvised; occasionally their work is loosely structured or composed. Both are classically trained, and known for exploring deeply textured, expansive sounds on the outer edges of their instruments, drawn to pushing past the point of stability into less controllable threshold states. 

 

The album was recorded at the home studio of producer Steve Fisk, who contributes a legendarily fine, bold ear and originality. It was tracked live, through amplifiers and effects pedals, without overdubs or looping. The sound is visceral and airy, droning and densely layered, ecstatic and precise. 

Bio: Lori Goldston

Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, her work drifts freely across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography.

Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Steve Von Till, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Maya Dunietz, Mik Quantius, Embryo, O Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Christian Rizzo and Sophie Laly, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell, Lynn Shelton, and many more.

Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Festival, Cineteca Nacional de México, Tectonics Festival, Frye Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Paris Fashion Week, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Joe’s Pub, the Stone, University of Chicago, and venues large and small throughout North America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Bio: Greg Kelley

Greg Kelley began studying the trumpet at age 10. He attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where in addition to studying the Conservatory curriculum, he immersed himself in a deep study of avant-garde and experimental music, eventually coming to the conclusion that his musical focus fell outside of the academic sphere. After his studies, Kelley moved back to his native Massachusetts, quickly situated himself into the local avant-garde circles and soon commenced a period of intense travel and collaboration, bringing him throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Argentina & Mexico. In 2020, he relocated back to the greater Boston area after spending 6 years in Seattle.

He has appeared on over 100 recordings as a member of Nmperign (with Bhob Rainey), Heathen Shame (with Wayne Rogers & Kate Village of Major Stars), Cold Bleak Heat (with Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano & Matt Heyner) and Hound Dog Taylor's Hand (with Jeffery Taylor, John Seman & Mark Ostrowski) and has collaborated with Jandek, Keiji Haino, Donald Miller (Borbetomagus), Lori Goldston, Anthony Braxton, Kevin Drumm, Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee and Lionel Marchetti, among others. In addition to playing the trumpet, Kelley has also recorded music using electronics and musique concrete elements,

All Points Leaning In will be available on LP and download on January 16th, 2023 via Broken Clover Records. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Artist: Secret Lori Goldston & Greg Kelley

Album: All Points Leaning In

Record Label: Broken Clover Records

Release Date: January 16th, 2023

01. Toward Clarity

02. All Points Leaning In

03. You're In Good Company

04. Seeing Stars

On The Web:

lorigoldston.com

brokencloverrecords.bandcamp.com

instagram.com/legoldston

blackwinterwells to perform entire upcoming album at Boiler Room x Subculture live & livestream event, album out Friday, 12/2

"A genre tag for genre-less music." -- Vice

"Reinventing the emo genre." -- Alternative Press

"Hyperpop, digicore, SoundCloud pop – call it what you want, but blackwinterwells has been one of its key creative voices." -- The Fader

Canadian musician and producer blackwinterwells will perform the latest full length titled protector in its entirety on album release day, this Friday, December 2nd. This special performance is part of the Boiler Room x Subculture live event at Catch One in Los Angeles, which will also be live-streamed worldwide. Tickets and more information HERE. 

The blackwinterwells album protector will be in stores everywhere on December 2nd via Eyeball Records. Pre-orders for protector are available HERE. Eyeball Records' merch store for blackwinterwells albums, bundles and more is HERE.

Watch/share the official video for the "archangel" single via YouTube HERE. 

It's not uncommon to create labels for sounds and styles of music. Understanding how an album fits into a

"genre" allows listeners to safely navigate an artist’s body of work.

In the case of blackwinterwells, you'd be remiss to go by the previous headlines of "hyperpop" and electronic musical-architecture. This Hamilton, Ontario native shape-shifts the moment you think you have it all figured out.

Following the debut Eyeball release of Crystal Shards, comes protector, an ethereally nuanced collection of tracks wholly engineered and produced by blackwinterwells, and featuring a guest collaboration with 8485 on the track "paper plane." While the album infuses the electronic elements found in previous blackwinterwells releases, these compositions are built with a unique wall-of-sound noise. formed with symphonic song-writing in mind. In a world filled with artists making individual songs to capture the most plays, protector offers a refreshingly patient body of work that sounds best when absorbed as a full album.

Boiler Room is an independent music platform connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and IRL through parties, film and video. They will be pairing-up with Subculture for this packed lineup featuring live performances from artists such as 3L3D3P, Carpetgarden, 8485 and Dana Dentata.

protector will be available on CD and download on December 2nd, 2022 via Eyeball Records.

BLACKWINTERWELLS LIVE 2022:

12/02 Los Angeles, CA - Boiler Room at Catch One

Artist: blackwinterwells

Album: protector

Record Label: Eyeball Records

Release Date: December 2nd, 2022

01. archangel

02. gutter

03. the silver gate

04. metallurgy

05. kyphosis

06. valiance

07. for yanny

08. your tattered wings

08. paper plane

09. springloader

10. fabled protector

On The Web:

instagram.com/blackwinterwells 

twitter.com/blackwntrwells 

open.spotify.com/artist/4tF39UYlbBLqTo5JK3qX1u 

tiktok.com/@blackwinterwells 

www.blackwinterwells.com

blackwinterwells shares "archangel" video, announces forthcoming album 'protector' on Eyeball Records

 

"A genre tag for genre-less music." -- Vice

"Reinventing the emo genre." -- Alternative Press

"Hyperpop, digicore, SoundCloud pop – call it what you want, but blackwinterwells has been one of its key creative voices." -- The Fader

Canadian musician and producer blackwinterwells shares the official video for "archangel" today via the Helix Tears Collective. The song is from her forthcoming album protector on Eyeball Records. Watch/share "archangel" via YouTube HERE. 

Pre-orders for protector are available HERE. Eyeball Records' merch store for blackwinterwells albums, bundles and more is HERE.

It's not uncommon to create labels for sounds and styles of music. Understanding how an album fits into a

"genre" allows listeners to safely navigate an artist’s body of work.

In the case of blackwinterwells, you'd be remiss to go by the previous headlines of "hyperpop" and electronic musical-architecture. This Hamilton, Ontario native shape-shifts the moment you think you have it all figured out.

Following the debut Eyeball release of Crystal Shards, comes protector, an ethereally nuanced collection of tracks wholly engineered and produced by blackwinterwells, and featuring a guest collaboration with 8485 on the track "paper plane." While the album infuses the electronic elements found in previous blackwinterwells releases, these compositions are built with a unique wall-of-sound noise. formed with symphonic song-writing in mind. In a world filled with artists making individual songs to capture the most plays, protector offers a refreshingly patient body of work that sounds best when absorbed as a full album.

protector will be available on CD and download on December 2nd, 2022 via Eyeball Records.

BLACKWINTERWELLS LIVE 2022:

12/02 Los Angeles, CA - Boiler Room at Catch One

Artist: blackwinterwells

Album: protector

Record Label: Eyeball Records

Release Date: December 2nd, 2022

01. archangel

02. gutter

03. the silver gate

04. metallurgy

05. kyphosis

06. valiance

07. for yanny

08. your tattered wings

08. paper plane

09. springloader

10. fabled protector

On The Web:

instagram.com/blackwinterwells 

twitter.com/blackwntrwells 

open.spotify.com/artist/4tF39UYlbBLqTo5JK3qX1u 

tiktok.com/@blackwinterwells 

www.blackwinterwells.com

90s DIY punk reissue label Solid Brass announces previously unreleased Nuzzle LP, shares first single

 

Los Angeles label Solid Brass Records announces its second release today, sharing the lead single from the forthcoming previously unreleased album by SF band Nuzzle via New Noise Magazine. The album, No Love Like That -- The Stanford Sessions 1997 was originally recorded for short-lived Sub Pop subsidiary Die Young, Stay Pretty. These recordings became the stuff of lore for fans of 90s west coast indie music. Hear "No Más" HERE. (Direct Bandcamp.)

The label's three partners recently did an in-depth interview via No Echo HERE. The label founders are themselves influential members of the 90s underground scene and beyond (see below.) Solid Brass nods to great archival labels like Numero Group and Trust Records to properly resurrect key DIY records from the 90s-00s, as well as putting out new releases.

The label's first three releases are 1) the complete discography of Cleveland's 90s post-hardcore band Grain, 2) Nuzzle's No Love Like That -- The Stanford Sessions 1997 album, and 3) a new album from High Aura'd songwriter John Kolodij's reunited The Pines of Rome. All of them mastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering and street in First Quarter 2023, followed by many more exciting works to be announced soon. 

About Solid Brass Records:

Solid Brass Records started in 2022 after a few friends from the 90’s DIY music scene reconnected over their shared appreciation for the community, people, and bands that influenced them 30 years prior. They decided to pool their collective knowledge and resources to start a label focused on reissuing music from that period as well as showcasing new bands similarly inspired by this scene. 

 

Jason Pearson lives in Los Angeles and runs the day-to-day operations of the label. He grew up in Richmond, VA and also lived in Cleveland and Chicago before spending 15+ years working in project management and customer operations roles for several tech companies in the SF/Bay Area.

 

Chuck Pettry lives in Los Angeles and spent the 90s and early 2000s in Oakland where he worked for Alternative Tentacles, the merchandise company Cinder Block, and ran his own label Sound On Sound. Currently he helps run Sandbag, a music merchandise company known for their work for some of the largest artists in the industry. He also plays in the metal band, Glaciers.

 

Justin Sinkovich lives in Chicago and is currently a Professor at Columbia College where he teaches students how to launch their own businesses. During the early dotcom era he co-founded, and sold, the music streaming site Epitonic. He also worked as the US label manager for Southern Records as well as Head of Digital at Touch and Go Records. In the 90s Justin played in Thumbnail and Atombombpocketknife. He currently plays in The Poison Arrows.

About Nuzzle's No Love Like That - The Stanford Sessions 1997:

Originally recorded for Die Young Stay Pretty (a short-lived Sub Pop subsidiary), these previously unreleased recordings became the stuff of lore for fans of 90s west coast indie music. Essentially a demo and precursor to Nuzzle’s 1999 LP San Lorenzo’s Blues, these tracks are raw, energetic, and representative of Nuzzle’s live shows. Newly remixed and mastered, No Love Like That: Stanford Sessions 1997, is quintessential Nuzzle at their pinnacle. 

Nuzzle began as a trio; Nate Dalton (guitar), Simon Fabela (bass) and Ricardo Reano (drums) in Rosemead, CA in 1991 before ultimately settling in Santa Cruz. In 1993 Nate’s older brother Andrew joined on guitar and switched to vocals early in 1994, solidifying their lineup.

By the mid 90s Nuzzle had already released several 45s, their Follow, For Now LP on Youth Strike Chord, and several compilation tracks. They had also completed a successful US tour with Fisticuffs Bluff, and had become staples in a loosely knit but deeply felt west coast scene anchored by Kill Rock Stars Records in Olympia and Gravity Records in San Diego. The buzz they generated helped them find their way onto bills with bands like Evergreen, Unwound, Lync, Bikini Kill, Modest Mouse, The VSS, Clikatat Ikatowi, and more. 

In 1996 Nuzzle teamed up with friend and engineer Andy Radin to record 8 new songs at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, where Radin was recording bands during graveyard shifts from 10pm to dawn. “The legend goes that these recordings were originally meant for release on a ‘big label’ and were short-sightedly passed on,” recalls George Chen from Zum Audio. 

Nuzzle never returned to the Stanford studio for a final mixing so Radin labeled his cassette copy 'Nuzzle Rough Mixes' and shelved the project while the band continued to play shows up and down the CA coast in 1997 and 1998.

Bassist Simon Fabela recounts, “We re-recorded the Stanford songs with Jeff Pinn from Zilla/Hyde Street Studios in an abandoned, supposedly haunted, half-way house in San Jose. That became San Lorenzo's Blues and was released in 1999 on Troubleman Unlimited.”

Radin and the band all agree the LP on Troubleman is strong, but these Stanford sessions capture Nuzzle as they were live; raw with more plaintive urgency in the vocals. “None of us had heard it in nearly 10 years. We actually really like the recordings since they captured what Nuzzle was like live back then,” says Simon Fabela, bassist for Nuzzle (and now Duster). “I was talking with a friend recently and she was saying that none of our recordings really captured the sound, the energy, the rawness of Nuzzle as she remembers us live. Listening to the Stanford sessions, I think these recordings came the closest,” says guitarist Nate Dalton.

No Love Like That: Stanford Sessions 1997 has been remixed by Liam Andrew Nelson, mastered by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering in Los Angeles, and will be available on LP and download in April 2023 on Solid Brass Records.

Artist: Nuzzle

Album: No Love Like That -- The Stanford Sessions 1997

Label: Solid Brass Records 

Release Date: April 2023

01. Daedalus and Us

02. No Más

03. Unbreakable You

04. Allen Says

05. We Almost Lost Del Mar

06. The Word #2

07. No Love Like That

On The Web:

solidbrassrecords.com

instagram.com/solidbrassrecs

instagram.com/nuzzleband

nuzzleband.bandcamp.com