DEBBY SCHWARTZ JOINS TWIN LAKES...NEW EP COMING THIS SPRING, LP THIS FALL

We can't tell you how thrilled we are to have Debby Schwartz be part of the Twin Lakes family. This came to be when Pat Gubler, a.k.a P.G. Six, reached out to us, asking if we might be interested in releasing a record he and the other members of P.G. Six had a hand in recording with Debby, the band's bassist and backing vocalist. I had met Debby briefly once at a P.G. Six show but didn't know anything about her solo work. Man, were we floored when we listened to the masters Pat sent us. In her flawless finger-picking, we heard Nick Drake; in her songwriting, we heard Neil Young and Bert Jansch; in its terse, bobbing and circular major-minor tides, we heard Pentangle; in her voice, we heard diamonds and rust. We were addled and propelled, and it kept getting better with each listen. To our ears, it was an instant addition to the canon of American hardscrabble songbook.

Her new EP Satan, You Brought Me Down comes out on April 18 on limited edition CD-R/DL and features stripped down cut-to-the-soul versions of songs off her forthcoming vinyl LP, A Garden of My Own, also due out on Twin Lakes this summer. Aside from being incredible songs, they benefit from the expert guidance of sound engineer/producer Ivan Julian, who is also known as a founding member/guitarist of the seminal punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids, at his N.Y. Head Recording Studios.

A celebration of sorts will be going down at Gallery E (459 Vanderbilt Ave. Brooklyn, NY) the day the EP drops. Supporting Ms. Schwartz will be Nebraskan cellist/singer Meaner Pencil and Pentangle tribute band Sport & Play. This is also a release party for Bob Bannister (P.G. Six) & Ember Schrag’s zine, Dead Language Airport. Admission is $10 and includes a free zine...it's going to be a blast!

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2013 HONORS FOR TTOTALS AND MICHAEL BEACH

Happy New Year! Man, what a year 2013 was. While it wasn’t our busiest in terms of the number of releases we put out, it was definitely one of our most exciting. I had the pleasure of watching Ttotals perform at this year’s Austin Psych Fest and meeting in the flesh excited fans who had just placed orders online for their critically acclaimed Spectrums of Light 7-inch that we released days before. Another highlight was meeting the man who had a hand in making this record sound so damn good hours before he blew us all away on stage…Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom. While Tate Eskew expertly handled recording and engineering duties, Sonic mastered this A/B slab of outer blues. Expect more doses of brooding psych sure to set your soul ablaze from these guys in 2014 in the form of a new LP. 

Ttotals at Cake Shop, NYC

August saw the release of Michael Beach’s sophomore LP, Golden Theft, a real genre-bending stunner. I got to tour the East Coast with Beach, backing him on drums, while his regular bandmates waited for him to return home to San Francisco for some West Coast dates. That week saw us share the stage with Matt Valentine (MV&EE) and John Moloney's (Chelsea Light Moving) new project, Home Comfort, as well as Chris Forsyth and other great bands, like the Estrogen Highs, Fatal Film, and Margaret Mead. We managed to wrangle a gig in an old church on the stunningly beautiful Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. What a blast!

Beach at The Elevens, Northampton, MA

Both of the aforementioned additions to our catalog turned many heads this year and earned end-of-year honors. Ttotals appeared on The Styrofoam Drone’s Top 7” Records of 2013 list, while Beach broke the top 5 on both The Vinyl District and SF Weekly’s Top Albums of 2013 lists.

Twin Lakes has never been about the sheer volume of output…it has been and always will be about turning people on to the music we carefully curate because we love it. We’re looking forward to continuing to do so in 2014 with more from Ttotals, long-awaited releases from Closely Watched Trains and Myty Konkeror, and who knows what else? In the meantime, head on over to our Bandcamp page where you can download for free a Twin Lakes compilation.

MYTY KONKEROR IS BACK... BEACH BACK IN OZ WITH SHOVELS

Just wanted to get everyone up to speed on some key happenings in the Twin Lakes family. For starters, after taking about a year off from shows, Myty Konkeror is back in action. This coming Sunday the 17th, they will be helping heavy psych jammers Eidetic Seeing release their new LP at Brooklyn's Death By Audio.  The new record, Against Nature, features some serious stoner riffage amidst doses of improvisation, prog explorations, and some of the sweetest melodies we've heard from a band this heavy. I hear they put on a killer live show, too. And if you haven't seen Myty Konkeror in a while, you won't want to miss them either, as their live set continues to evolve and explore uncharted waters. They've been working on some new sounds for the follow-up to their highly-acclaimed 2011 LP "I miss the future." so come see what they've been up to. Check the full lineup here.

As always, Michael Beach remains active. Quick on the heels of his summer dusk tour around both US coasts, he's back in Australia for a long string of both solo shows and plenty of gigs with his mates from Electric Jellyfish, who have recently undergone a name change to mark the release of their new cassette--the eponymously titled SHOVELS. Same awesome riffs and intensity from these dudes who've mastered the art of unhinged Gothic blues-punk. 

Beach also continues to tour in support of Golden Theft, the genre-bending stunner of an LP that we put out in late August. One show in particular you will not want to miss if you're in "Brizzy" is this Thursday at the Beetle Bar. Our favorite music blogger from Brisbane, Sonic Masala, has curated a killer lineup with Beach as the headliner. Click here for details.

TTOTALS FALL EAST COAST TOUR

This past spring we turned a lot of heads with the release of Ttotals’ Spectrums of Light 7-inch. This Nashville duo’s dark, brooding twisters of sound down power lines with leagues-deep drums and haunting vocals, scorched-earth guitars, and flashes of sampled electronics...a careening vortex performing a muddy dance stomp along the Mississippi Delta as it flings the blues up to the heavens.

After a spring tour that saw Brian (guitars/vocals) and Marty (drums/electronics) make their first appearance at the always awesome Austin Psych Fest, they are ready to hit the road again, this time touring the Eastern Seaboard. Check the dates below to see when they'll be in/near your town.




TOUR DATES:


10/9 - Asheville, NC at Apothocary

10/10 - Richmond, VA at The Well with The Diamond Center

10/11 - Washington D.C. at Velvet Lounge with Dangerosa and More Humans

10/12 - Kingsport, NY at O+ Festival

10/13 - NYC at Cake Shop with Lead Stones, No Kill and Rudy Stoned Band

10/14 - Philadelphia, PA at Kung Fu Necktie with Creepoid and Harsh Vibes

10/15 - Harrisonburg, VA



Recently The Wire’s Byron Coley called Spectrums of Light “Boss...some kind of stripped down Bardo Pond psych crossed with early 1980s Liverpool mope action.” They were also mentioned recently in this piece in The Guardian UK about the modern psych movement and "the new generation of psychedelic adventurers." Check out Spectrums of Light and other sounds from Ttotals here.


EARLY PRAISE FOR MICHAEL BEACH'S "GOLDEN THEFT" ... TOUR UPDATE

Just a quick reminder that Michael Beach's Golden Theft has hit the streets. The physical pressings are extremely limited and will go quickly.  So far early reviews have been glowing. IMPOSE called it "...the grand theft surprise of the summer...an album that picks and chooses the best parts plucked out of the modern golden era that sound better than anything before," and The Vinyl District referred to it as a masterpiece. For more coverage, click here.

 

 

Choose your format before they're gone...

Gatefold LP (w/ poster and download card), Digipak CD, Digital Download (iTunes or Bandcamp) 

US Tour West Coast Dates
Beach and Kiefer had a blast on the East Coast leg of his Golden Theft US Tour, but he is now back on the West Coast with Utrillo Kushner (drums) and Muslim Delgado (bass) for the remaining dates...

9.13 - SEATTLE, WA - Bogarts w/ F-Holes, Pynnacles, The Dumps
9.14 - OLYMPIA, WA - The Northern w/ Arrington de Dionyso
9.15 - PORTLAND, OR - Valentines w/ Ruby Pins
9.21 - SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Hemlock w/ MV & EE, Herbcraft
9.26 - OAKLAND, CA - 1234Go! Records w/ Permanent Collection, Dead River (AU)
9.28 - DAVIS, CA - Third Space 

For those of you out that way, don't miss out on catching one of the most compelling performers you'll ever see. Watch him at a recent East Coast show playing "Static" off the new record at St. Vitus in Brooklyn, NY.

MICHAEL BEACH CONTINUES TO EXPLORE, BEND GENRES ON HIS NEW LP, AVAILABLE AUGUST 20th ON TWIN LAKES

We are beyond psyched to announce the latest addition to our catalog...a new album by San Francisco's Michael Beach. On Golden Theft, Beach again teamed up with drummer Utrillo Kushner (Comets On Fire, Colossal Yes) and engineer Phil Manley (Wooden Shjips, Barn Owl) at Manley’s Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco.  Featuring mostly brand new material and a few remastered songs from previous EPs, this long-player was mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac) and continues with the musical intensity for which Beach is known.  On this record, we also see a gifted songwriter continue to hone his craft, exploring and bending genres, and cementing his place as a vital artist in today’s sonic landscape. Golden Theft comes out on vinyl in a gorgeous gatefold jacket (free poster and download code inside) on August 20 on Twin Lakes, the day Beach kicks off a US East/West Coast tour to support the record. You can listen to some of the new songs and order the album through this Bandcamp pre-order link. 

Beach has earned high praise for his previous work, most notably for his cassette-only Mountains + Valleys EP. Terminal Boredom made Greg Cartwright (Oblivions) comparisons, and Aquarius Records had this to say: “Hooky and a little bit heavy, driving and catchy like crazy, and that tempo shift just kills us every time, so unexpected, but so cool…..drifting from crunchy post punk, to woozy psychedelic drift, to countrified rust belt songsmithery, and several other stops in between... Gorgeous stuff for sure."  

Austin Psych Fest 2013 in Pictures

What an incredible weekend! I had the pleasure of spending the weekend of April 26 with Dwight Smith and the latest addition to our roster, Ttotals, at this year's Austin Psych Fest. Dwight provided stellar food, shelter, and companionship, while Ttotals was selected to play this year's festival and subsequently rocked the riverside Elevation Ampitheatre, turning many heads in the process. 

After their set was over, we took our time meeting lots of awesome people and taking in as much of this year's incredible lineup as we could. It was so great to be able to meet Lee all the way from the UK, who days before had ordered the new Ttotals 7" online. And seeing Spectrum, Black Mountain, Deerhunter, Woodsman, White Fence, Boris, Black Angels, and Goat, to name a few....pretty mind-blowing to say the least. Hope to be back there soon. Enjoy the pictures.

SONIC BOOM AUSTIN PSYCH FEST MIXTAPE FEATURING TTOTALS

Psych rock legend Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom, has put together this mixtape featuring some of the bands playing this year's Austin Psych Fest, and one of the songs from Ttotals new 7-inch (available April 26th) made the cut. Tune in to 75 minutes of aural bliss below...

SOURCE OF YELLOW, COLIN L ORCHESTRA, OLNEYVILLE SOUND SYSTEM AND MORE PLAY THE SILENT BARN THIS SATURDAY

This Saturday Source of Yellow will be playing what some are calling one of the best shows going on in NYC this weekend. The Silent Barn is know for killer shows featuring some of the most compelling acts around, and this one is no different. SOY joins The Colin L Orchestra (mem. USAISAMONSTER), Providence's Olneyville Sound System, Russian Tsarlag, and Bernard Herman. Plus DJ Greg Fox (Guardian Alien, Zs) will also be there spinning tunes throughout the night. Check the poster below...

NASHVILLE'S OUTER BLUES DUO TTOTALS JOINS TWIN LAKES

We are beyond psyched to announce the latest addition to our catalog...a new 7-inch by Nashville’s outer blues duo Ttotals. These guys reached out to us about a year ago, and we were immediately sucked into their dark, brooding twisters of sound, featuring leagues-deep drums and haunting vocals, scorched-earth guitars, and flashes of sampled electronics...a careening vortex performing a muddy dance stomp along the Mississippi Delta as it flings the blues up to the heavens. So we invited them to play our showcase at the STPP Music Fest a few months later, and they were even better live! The band will be hitting the road in support of Spectrums of Light on April 19, which sees its official release on April 26, the day Brian (guitars/vocals) and Marty (drums/electronics) arrive in Austin, TX to make their first appearance at the always awesome Austin Psych Fest.

Tour dates:

April 19th - Kansas City, KS, Art Closet
April 20th - Denver, CO, Sidewinder
April 21st - Denver, CO, In-store at Wax Trax Records
April 24th - Albuquerque, NM, Gold House
April 25th - Lubbock, TX, TBA
April 26th,27th & 28th - Austin Psych Fest
April 29th - New Orleans, LA, TBA
April 30th - Memphis, TN, Murphy's  

 

Spectrums of Light was recorded and mixed by Tate Eskew at Zero Art Studios and mastered by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum) at Atlantis Sound in Rugby, England. It will be available in both vinyl (limited to 300) and digital formats from our website and most online stores on April 26, 2013. But you can listen to it and pre-order it right now over here. Then check out their previous releases over on the Ttotals Bandcamp page. Here they are perfoming a song off their 2012 self-released Silver on Black 10".

TWIN LAKES FUNDRAISER FOR THE ROCKAWAYS

While it's been over a month since Superstorm Sandy reared her ugly head, some communities are still struggling to get back on their feet. In Queens there are still many people in the Rockaways without shelter or electricity. 

So a few weeks ago we developed a plan to raise money to help this community rebuild. We commissioned Twin Lakes' own Dwight Smith to record a cover of the Ramone's "Rockaway Beach". Dwight's unique take on this Ramones classic is truly inspired -- a gorgeous arrangement that's hypnotic, a little sad, but full of hope. Listen and download it here. All proceeds from your downloads will go to the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance. But that's not the only way you can contribute to this fundraiser and score this little gem...

We also commissioned master silkscreener Andy Perkowski from Black Unicorn Studios to design some Twin Lakes t-shirts. Featuring the Twin Lakes logo in negative on black 100% cotton, they come in both men and women's styles, and all purchases come with an immediate free download of Dwight Smith's "Rockaway Beach". As you can see from the photo, Andy did an amazing job on these, and between now and the New Year, all t-shirt sales will go toward this fundraising campaign. We think they'd make for a pretty rad gift for the holidays, or grab one for yourself here.

NEW ALBUM, TOUR FROM DWIGHT SMITH

Earlier this year we shared Austin's Dwight Smith and his musical vision with the world with the release of his debut offering--a critically-acclaimed virtual 7-inch titled Plumed Serpent. Now we are proud to announce the October 23rd release of his highly-anticipated debut album Lateral Drifts, available on CD and DL. Somewhere in his travels across two continents, he seems to have developed hands with a touch like Nick Drake's, a voice as powerful as Marc Bolan's and a lyrical ability all to himself. 

On his latest effort, ringing voices, plaintive horns, and sparkling keys drift over a sunset river of shimmering, spiraling, tumbling fingerpicked melodies, carrying us to a place of shared fragile exhilaration. Your viewers can stream the album now and submit pre-orders for the CD here. 

Dwight is currently touring the Northeast in support of Lateral Drifts. See the full list of tour dates below.

 

 

TWIN LAKES SHOWCASE AT THIS YEAR'S STPP MUSIC FEST

OCTOBER 6TH, 2012 at the Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW, 4PM-Midnight: 
All-Day All-Night Rock and Noise Open House Party, 18+ $10, 21+ $8

An afternoon, evening, and night of psych rock, heavy rock, folk, noisy composition, and compositional noise featuring Twin Lakes artists and some of our other favorite bands, like Nashville's Ttotals and from Drag City Records, P.G. Six! Plus a very special performance by a large-scale all-star rock orchestra from D.C. and abroad performing compositions from Erik Satie's Furniture Music collection, led by acclaimed guitarist/composer and Georgetown music prof Ben Harbert.
 

SOURCE OF YELLOW JOINS TWIN LAKES TO RELEASE NEW EP

We are thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Twin Lakes catalog -- Source of Yellow's The Said, a three-song EP of unique beauty, offering a heady and guileless take on playing against the psych-wardens, the noise-canon, the must-listen-to and hard-listed. 

This Brooklyn trio doesn't just trade on the value of knowing the old explorations, but instead take the most outré edges and sonics from our masters and contemporaries as their starting point -- then they sing to them and coax them into an intimate and amplified complexity. 

On The Said SOY yanks energy from space to sling it hard back to the earth:

I. The Said: Two notes urgent and sparkling.  An incantation. Bass and drums suddenly pushing harder than expected with an exhortation to come along on ferocious drops through knotted loops, speed changes, and rattling hard turns.  You are locked on a variegated three-loop ride from the ether ending hard and fun in the dirt. 

II. 1 & 9: A smile and then a swooning sleep. A heartbeat, a jangle like cicadas and the breeze in summer, a tangle of descending arpeggios as birdsong. A further fall into a dreamless theta state. Days or years are passing.

III. Maybe!: Then a heady wakeful hum. A dancing lurch with a reedy ostinato and a yearning voice. A final harmonic convergence that seems to leave tracer notes arcing back to us and gently fading while we finish listening. 

How much fun to execute these compositions and improvisations! How much care and deftly hidden preparation to start the listener at 40000+ feet for a controlled free fall, romp, and recovery! At the beginning and end of it all are three people making brilliant noises sometimes knowingly, it seems, and sometimes maybe acting the vessel, but probably trembling and smiling all the while. 

For this release, the band commissioned NYC-based visual artist Pali Kashi for the cover art. The arresting Upstate, evokes SOY’s sonics -- their ability to pull in the harmolodic for a hug with the gothic in a muddy dance stomp, where the psychedelic spectrum encompasses true tonal weirdness as well as compelling housebroken sounds. This work of haunting beauty will be available September 18th in a limited run of 50 archival quality prints, each of which will come with a free download code. Buy it here.

-- MK.

AN EVENING WITH CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS

It's been far too long, but Closely Watched Trains returns to the stage this Thursday, May 10th at BAR in New Haven. They've been working hard all year on their new LP due out this fall, so this is their first show of 2012 and they're not messing around...they're playing two full sets! There's no opener for this one, so be sure to get there by 8:30. The band's got lots of new tunes they'd like you to hear, and it's Kiefer's birthday. So come out. It's FREE!


ELECTRIC JELLYFISH HEADED EAST...JOIN FEEDTIME, MYTY KONKEROR

Electric Jellyfish continue to blaze a path across the States on their 2012 US tour and are headed to the Northeast for some killer shows. Highlights include two shows with Aussie legends feedtime--one at Cake Shop in lower Manhattan on 3/31, and the other at Maxwell's in Hoboken the following night. They'll also be playing two back-to-back shows with labelmates MYTY KONKEROR--3/28 at BAR in New Haven with psych-jammers Spectre Folk, and 3/29 at the Ding Dong Lounge in NYC with Bob Crusoe and Sugarm. Their final show also features a killer lineup with Noveller and Tall Firs joining them at Death By Audio on 4/3.

Trouble Coming Down limited edition tour cassettes keep getting plucked from the merch table, but we should still have some left by the time they get out here. In the meantime, watch the band play a blistering version of their new single last week at SXSW at the WFMU showcase. Then listen to the entire show from the WFMU archives.

 

ELECTRIC JELLYFISH KICK OFF US TOUR!

Electric Jellyfish recently kicked off their 2012 US tour by performing an in-store at Oakland's 1234 Go Records this past Wednesday and will continue to wind their way around the country till early April. This is their first US tour in two years, and this time around it will include SXSW appearances and shows with Aussie legends feedtime, The Wedding Present, Spectre Folk, Tall Firs, Noveller, Hank IV, Golden Boys, The Men, Carlton Melton, and label mates MYTY KONKEROR.

The SXSW details are as follows:

Electric Jellyfish are playing two showcases. One is at Headhunters Patio on Wednesday March 14th in the 11:00 time slot, and the other is one we're really not supposed to say much about as it's not an official SXSW showcase. Let's just say it's happening at the end of the week and was curated by the best independent radio station on the planet, so you know the line-up will be amazing.

EJ frontman Michael Beach is also playing a solo set at SXSW on March 15th at The Hideout with MYTY KONKEROR's Michael Kiefer on drums in the 11:00 time slot.

A full list of dates for the entire tour can be found here. And don't forget to check out the limited edition tour cassette for their new single/EP "Trouble Coming Down". These are sure to sell out on the road, but we'll be sure to hold on to a few copies at our online store for those who can't make it out to a show. Order soon before they're gone.