[engl] Written in the days after the 2017 Presidential inauguration, POST-'s lyrics get (really) heavy but the melodies are so catchy and the builds are so big and bright that the end result is more of a rallying cry than a surrender. The album was recorded in a one-week, 86-hour marathon recording session with Jack Shirley (Joyce Manor, Deafheaven) at the Atomic Garden in East Palo Alto, CA.

[engl] “I was guzzling wine at my favorite bar in San Francisco, the Rite Spot, and the entertainment that night was some local opera singers singing along with a big video screen showing a collage of various operatic moments with subtitles. One particular subtitle, ‘Ah!-(etc)’ made me laugh, I thought it was a perfect description of life - the joy of existence against the etcetera of it all, the struggle. With a heavy head of rose’ it seemed like ecstatic poetry! I scribbled it on a napkin and thought it might make a good title for something” And so the mystery behind the title of Kelley Stoltz new record is solved. Less of a mystery is the quality contained therein… after 12 self-titled releases and a several more under pseudonyms, Stoltz is the word for “one-man-band-home-recording-pop-songs of idiosyncratic character.” A quick follow up to his more power pop and pub rock LP only “Hard Feelings” offering in the summer, “Ah-(etc)” finds Stoltz returning to his sweet spot, writing songs that never were, but should have been in the 60’s and 80’s. As with other LPs Stoltz makes virtually every noise on the album which was written and recorded in 2019 at his Electric Duck Studio in. San Francisco. A few friends popped in to play along… Stoltz former bandmate, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant adds electric guitar to “The Quiet Ones” a sort of Scott Walker lyrical take on strangers and neighbors. Karina Denike formerly of Dance Hall Crashers adds gorgeous vocals on the bossanova groover “Moon Shy”, where Sergeant pops up again in a spoken word role on the outro. Allyson Baker of SF’s Dirty Ghosts sings on “She Like Noise”, a song Stoltz wrote for her in celebration of her love of seeing live bands. The album was mastered by Mikey Young in Australia. Tour dates scheduled for summer 2021.

[engl] The Stylist", Kelley Stoltz's 17th album finds him following up the Third Man Records reissue of his 2001 "Antique Glow", with a collection of 10 new songs. The album was recorded early in 2021, and has been languishing in the vinyl pressing log jam ever since - but luckily Stoltz writes timeless songs, the kind that might've appeared on the fringes of the late 60's or mid 80's. Acoustic guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and strong melodies abound. As with his other classic records "Below the Branches", "Double Exposure" and "Ah! (etc)" Stoltz plays most of the instruments himself and records in his home studio in San Francisco. Kelley says, "I chose the title 'the Stylist' because musically I guess that's what I am... because of the way I write, at my leisure over a period of months at home, I kinda flit around between styles. It's all in the pop-rock vein, but there's usually a wide range of sounds and inspiration from song to song. It sort of fits together in a mix tape kind of way, rather than an exploration of one particular mood. That's always been the case with my albums." The chorus-y guitar jangle of "Your Name Escapes Me" somehow name checks the New Bomb Turks, while reflecting on familiar if forgotten faces from Stoltz's past. On "My Island" insistent piano and saxophone solos take the listener on a tropical trip to the soft rock radio dial. Stoltz played rhythm guitar in Echo & the Bunnymen for a few years, and "We Grew So Far Apart" clangs like a lost Liverpool 80's classic. Stoltz says, "There's a touch more piano on this record... going back to my Sub Pop days, when I was writing more Beatle-y bits... Harry Nilsson... that kind of thing." Indeed, the piano led "It's a Cold World" plays like a holy union of Todd Rundgren and the Zombies where Stoltz declares, "it's a cold world at times, but I'm not ready to give up the fight." Thankfully, after 23 years the beat goes on... and no matter what style Stoltz chooses, "The Stylist" is another platter of tuneful delight in the impressive catalog of one of the great songwriters of our time.

[engl] Kindling is comprised of my good buddies Stephen and Andy who also play in WMass hardcore outfit Ampere, as well as Gretschen (who plays guitar and sings) and Andrew, who plays bass. I can tell you these people have the most solid musical knowledge I know… While it would be easy to compare them to My Bloody Valentine, a closer listen will also led you to find evident traces of Superchunk guitar riffs, Teenage Fanclub and Jesus & Mary Chain melodies to serve a very personnal and unique sound… They blur they dreamy melodies into a wall of a massive fuzz sounds with a a pop sensibility rarely found when the volume and attack ends up this far in the red. While they spent a week at Sonelab in rural Easthampton, MA with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, Speedy Ortiz, Sonic Youth, etc.) to record their first full length Galaxies for the amazing No Idea Records in Florida, they cut 6 extra songs for this euro-only release ! Adagio 830 and Echo Canyon team up one more timeto bring you this amazing EP for you! Those songs will also be released on tape in the US on Old Flame records !

[engl] The Kings of the Fucking Sea are Sara Nelson (b), Poni Silver (d), and Chet Weise (g,v). All three members have toured and released records with critically acclaimed bands such as The Little Killers, The Ettes, and Immortal Lee Country Killers, respectively. The group's first record, In Concert (forthcoming from Agitated Records), was recorded live on a tascam reel-to-reel in a Nashville screen printing shop called Soft Junk. About the group's sound, Walter Scott Award winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing, Benjamin Myers said, Kings of the Fucking Sea make me want to mask-up, topple statues, carve Iggy’s face in Mount Rushmore, storm the White House and paint it black. Their noise hits on a visceral level and will scorch the edges of your very DNA. if MC5 and Black Sabbath had a baby it would be a biological miracle, and they would call it Kings of the Fucking Sea. Troubled times need troubling music: here it is, a live soundtrack to a crumbling empire. Totally righteous.

[engl] When L.A. Takedown hovers over your ear hairs the first time, so much is communicated without a word - there are patient, capable hands at the wheel as we phantom through a neon Los Angeles of the mind, a Los Angeles that only three harmonized electric guitars can conjure, with a sunset so infinitely variegated in color that only synthetic washes of synth could serve as your fainting couch. Studio magic dust seems to drip off these android dreams projected against the wall - in person it defies logic that such a sound is coming from humans, but as you watch their hands it’s unmistakable - these are calm warriors sallying forth these sweeping, swooning epics, crowned with triumphant tripartite thunderbolts of wail. For a few fleeting moments, things seem right with the world; our hero has prevailed, the race was won by a hair, the unmanned drones levitate & strafe the coast, rending the coral sky with a psychic boom, shaking loose a few palm fronds and setting off some car alarms but otherwise leaving the sprawl unchanged and teeming. While produced and performed by Aaron M. Olson, Our Feeling of Natural High was engineered and mixed to glossy perfection by Jason Quever and (we hear) it benefits greatly from the seamless contributions of John Herndon, Jason Quever, Marcus Savino, Miles Wintner, Mose Wintner, Nicholas Krgovich and The Musical Tracing Ensemble. We’re even treated to a city-hum lullaby to humanity as a nightcap, with Nedelle Torrisi and Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi on vocals, truly a mint on the pillow of this fantastic soundscape. For fans of Michael Rother, Top Gun, later Tangerine Dream, convertibles and long walks on the beach.

[engl] La femme is a conundrum. A resounding expression. An episodic band with various faces. La Femme shows up and it’s all of her grimy spleen that stains the city’s grey pavement, in a synthetic rain beamed by livid burstings. La femme was born during the X years in Biarritz, when Sasha and Marlon started composing on their guitars music they recorded on Garage Band. Together they ride surfboards, pianos and synthetiseur as they gave a try to various styles, from 60s yéyé French pop to Californian surf music. Marlon moved to Paris, and there he met Sam, who played bass. Together they formed SOS Mademoiselle along with Olivier Peynot, and played vintage French rock, as Sasha was practising his scales in reverb feed surf band « Les redoutables! » After getting his grade, Sasha joined his friends in Paris, where they discovered French cold wave and synth pop, Marie & Les Garcons being one of their favourite. They polished a style that could be described as one of these following : Surf wave, Bizarre wave, strange wave, weird witch wave, silly mental wave or Psycho tropical Berlin ». In fact anything you want as long as it ends with « wave ». And the boys created LA FEMME. La Femme has no frontier, neither in her style nor in her voice. She’s always on a quest for new sounds, images and sensations. Joined in 2010 by drummer Noé and female singer Clémence, La femme formed its first live roster in few days after French rider and artist Pandora Decoster asks them to play on stage for a big surf contest in Biarritz. From her hazy and changing background, La femme takes shape and release that same year its first anthem « Sur la Planche », a song that was made to be hummed and whistled while ridding a board. La femme uncovers, boys, girls, plenty of option, a bit of mystery, loads of energy. Later she released her second EP, Paris 2012. In the music video she produced for this song, she blows down the effeil tower as a symbol, it’s time to go ans see something else. After swilling Paris bars, La femme goes for a tour in USA, en mode journey, and come back in France with improved reputation where they play for various festival. Soon joined by fancy rhythm drummer Nunez Ritter Von Merguez aka « La Sauterelle » and gorgeous singer Clara Luciani, La femme takes for a ride around Europe : from beyond the grave to Berlin, by London, Bruxelles and Roubaix. Cryptic and Mysterious, La femme is in perpetual motion and the band, based around full time and up-to-date boys (Sasha, Marlon, Sam), invites over the course of its wish and needs in studio a whole cast of female singer : Clémence, Clara, Marilu, Jeanne… Sooner this year, La femme released a self titled EP, that went by along with a 11 minutes long psychedelic music video, an epic and baroque short film for tracks « La femme, Hypsoline », preceding the release of her first album in April : « Psycho Tropical Berlin »: It’s the story of a couple who slipped chaos and survives by watching each other. Le Danger est partout - Peril is all around as written in the booklet. Rock and pop, rococo bahaus, fed from multiples influences (Krafwerk, Elli & Jacno) La Femme just want to please you. Generous and welcoming, she stretches you her white hand in the dark, if you grasp it, it could be the shiver of you life.

[engl] La Plie is a trio including Wilf Plum (Dog Faced Hermans, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp) offering 12 instrumental tracks between experimental free-rock, playful minimalism, post-punk and dub. Enjoyable and entertaining with its varied sounds.

[engl] Since the mid-1990s, Stockholm’s Last Days of April have created a succession of luminous, hook-laden LPs, earning the band’s lead vocalist, guitarist, and all-around auteur, Karl Larsson, a reputation as a bonafide songwriter’s songwriter. With EVEN THE GOOD DAYS ARE BAD, Larsson and Co. return with their 10th long player (following 2015’s Sea of Clouds), a shimmering collection of eight new Larsson-penned songs that show him at the apex of his craft and LDOA achieving new levels of strength, honesty, and brilliance.

[engl] While Last of the Easy Riders formed last summer in Denver, the band of sonic nomads each converged high in the Rocky Mountains individually from various parts of the country. Even with dissimilar backgrounds, each of the musicians shared one common vision: to create cosmic rock ‘n’ roll. The outcome is the band’s naturally formulated blend of raw Midwestern treble and passionate deep-south rhythm and bass. That acoustic integrity shines bright on the group’s gutsy self-titled debut EP on Agitated Records. Much like their iconic heroes in bygone country-rock outfits like The Byrds and The Band, each member contributes song credits to the new disc. The band comprises guitarist/vocalist, Christopher Minarik, Mitch Mitchum (drums, vocals), Daniel Duggan (bass, vocals) and guitarist, Bradley T Grear. “It’s what makes us dynamic – four individual songwriters playing in one band,” said Minarik, who refers to Last of the Easy Riders as “southwestern psych-rock.” The earthy, inspired track list projects the tranquility of the outdoors, or perhaps hazily driving through Joshua Tree National Park with the windows down, while a CCR cassette warmly hums in the background. It’s an honest, but optimistic batch of original tunes. “It conveys the aspect of moving across the country,” Minarik added. “Or overcoming past experiences and crossing into the next stages of modern adulthood.” And even though this freshly pressed EP was recorded earlier this year in a remote cabin in Rollinsville, Colorado – the production and arrangements throwback to the golden days of ‘60s American music – back when Buck Owens still ruled Bakersfield and Gram Parsons still had a chance. A full album is due in 2017!

[engl] From high in the Rocky Mountains, Last of the Easy riders descend with Unto the Earth, its new psych-infused country-rock long-player. Like the Denver-based band’s debut, a 2016 self-titled EP, the new full-length will be issued in January 2018 by Agitated Records on vinyl, CD and digital. While the Easy Riders’ first outing exhibited the band’s kaleidoscope of trippy guitar sounds and production techniques, Unto the Earth unveils the band’s earnest songwriting chops and knack for genuine Bakersfield-Sound country. Though, the guys certainly didn’t abandon its lysergic-leanings, especially on the mind-warping title track – which also serves as the lead single. With no shortage of jangly guitars, piano and pedal steel, the LP no doubt echoes Clarence White-era Byrds, but it doesn’t stray far from the band’s Southwestern-rock ‘n’ roll roots. The early-‘70s AM rock sounds of “Free Wheelin’,” the opening track, reverberates the band’s nomadic lyrical tendencies, while promptly setting up the sonic road trip Unto the Earth delivers. “Turn the Tide,” which closes Side A, melds brilliantly modest Tom Petty-esque guitar riffing with the Easy Riders’ signature vocal harmonies – which soar across both sides of the wax. Being the first full-length for the band, the members – whom all share songwriting credits – were able to stretch out and laydown some lengthy and tastefully-stacked arrangements. From the fiery doors-esque jamming on “Woodland Echoes” to the ominous western guitar lines of “Shadow Cruiser,” numerous moods freely wander across the nine-song track list. “Almost all the lyrics are intended to paint vivid picture, and give listeners a sense of place,” says the band’s co-founder Christopher Minarik (guitar/backing vocals). “Certain songs and lyrics really lay it on the line and say exactly how the songwriter felt, or what they were going through. It’s the most personal and honest songwriting I’ve ever done.” Rounding out the lineup heard on the LP is bassist/vocalist Dan Duggan, guitarist Bradley Grear and drummer Mitch Mitchum. Unto the Earth was recorded in March 2017 in Lansing, Michigan by producer/songwriter George Szegedy – who also offered up his own song for the disc, the twangy-and-wistful “It Won't Be Long” After five months of mixing and fine-tuning, the Last of the Easy Riders were ready to deliver the record. In support of the album, the band’s 2018 live shows will feature new bassist Gann Matthews and Hamilton Belk, who played pedal steel on the album.

[engl] Strap yourself in people, we have here the debut full length from Philly’s Laurel Canyon; after some online EP releases, and a (now) sold out 7” with Savage Pencil, Agitated Records is excited to announce the release of their s/t album! Guitars are drenched in an Asheton worshipping haze and pummel, melded alongside a Velvets chug and mid-to-late 80s Pacific Northwest guttural / primal howl... this is American primitive music at its most powerful. Pigeonholers beware, this album takes its cues from all the most potent places… Funhouse, Loaded, Green River, early Sub Pop, all providing valid reference points. In amongst this over-amped harmonious murk are 10 visceral and catchy pop songs practically screaming for attention, the core members of Serg, Nick, and Dylan have created a beast of a record. Some tracks were recorded with Steve Albini, some with Bryce Goggin and all were mastered by Howie Weinberg. The band played 40 chaotic shows in 2022 alone from New York City to Los Angeles, where they opened for Agent Orange and Strawberry Alarm Clock on two separate occasions at the Whisky a Go Go. BAND BIO: Punk rock band Laurel Canyon formed in 2019 when Nick and Serg met through a mutual friend in their hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania. After connecting over a shared interest in both Arthur Rimbaud and The Stooges, the two began to rehearse together in Serg’s garage. By October 2020, Serg and Nick began composing original songs together as Laurel Canyon, the first of which, “Two Times Emptiness,” was released on May 1, 2021. Following the release of “Two Times Emptiness” b/w “Enemy Lines,” Nick and Serg traded in their characteristic jangle for fuzz pedals and established a relationship with veteran producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, The Lemonheads) at Trout Recording in Brooklyn. Between July and November of 2021 the group recorded a 5-track EP “Victim,” released on January 14, 2022, rounding out the line-up with bassist Dylan Loccarini.

[engl] Lausch unite elements of classical 90s rock, post rock and progressive to an unconventional and catchy alternative sound. Their previous work, which comprises five studio albums and a live EP, allows comparison with the spheric instrumental works of Long Distance Calling as well as the anthemic rock sound of Biffy Clyro. Edgy riffs and heavy hooks alternate with melodic fragility, intensity is followed by reduction, complexity and eagerness to experiment harmonize with straightforwardness.

[engl] french Psychrock.