Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death

Pierre Vassiliu et Denis Van Hecke présente "Pierre Vassiliu" album expérimental de 1979 qui mêle une grosse quantité d'influences allant de la Pop au Reggae en passant par la musique traditionnel languedocienne, terre de naissance du musicien. Superb artwork accompagné de son insert d'époque

In the late-1970s Athens, Georgia was buzzing with a raw but sophisticated music scene. Traditional Southern rock had been the Georgia musical export for years before but the turn of the decade began producing new sounds from bands like the B-52’s, REM and Alt Rock luminaires Pylon. Before they were a band, Pylon were art-school students at the University of Georgia: four kids invigorated by big ideas about art and creativity and society. However, Pylon were less of a band and more of an art project, which meant they had very specific goals in mind, as well as an expiration date. While their time together as a band was short lived (1979-1983), Pylon had a lasting influence on the history of rock and roll. Throughout their brief history, they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 80s. Artists like R.E.M., Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Interpol, Deerhunter and many more claim inspiration from the band. Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone titling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time. In 1980 the band released their first record, ‘Gyrate’, and began touring across the country in support of the release. The band would soon develop a following across the country and specifically in the bustling music scene in New York City. One of their earliest gigs was opening for the Gang of Four in the Big Apple. Following the critical acclaim of their debut release, Pylon went back into the studio. They gleefully pulled their songs apart and put them back together in new shapes, revealing a band of self proclaimed nonmusicians who had transformed gradually but noticeably into real musicians. The resulting album, ‘Chomp’, was barely off the press when Pylon were booked to open a run of dates for a hot new Irish band called U2 (after previously playing two arena shows with them in the month leading to the album release). Most bands would have jumped at the opportunity but Pylon were sceptical. At a critical point in the life of Pylon, they opted to become a cult band rather than stretch their defining philosophy too far. “We fully intended Pylon to be an almost seasonal thing that we were gonna do for a minute and then get on with our lives,” says Curtis Crowe, drummer for the band. “But it just never went away. It still doesn’t go away. There’s a new subterranean class of kids that are coming into this kind of music, and they’re just now discovering Pylon. That blows my mind. We didn’t see that coming.” New West Records are proud to partner with Pylon to reissue ‘Chomp’ and ‘Gyrate’ back into the masses. Beautifully remastered from the original audio sources and pressed on vinyl (140g) for the first time in over 30 years. New West Records also present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that features the remastered studio LPs ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’ - which includes rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings - and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut. ‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound 200-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. Features an extensive essay chronicling the band’s history, with interviews with the surviving members of the band as well as members of R.E.M., B-52’s, Gang of Four, Method Actors and more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from both the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.

BEAK> were formed in January 2009 by three Bristol musicians, Billy Fuller, Matt Williams and Geoff Barrow.The band have very strict guidelines governing the recording and writing process of their work. The music was recorded live in one room with no overdubs or repair, only using edits to create arrangements. All tracks were written over a twelve-day session in SOA Studio’s, Bristol. The album is released on Invada Records in the UK and Europe & on Ipecac in the United States.Sometimes a band can be no more than the sum of it’s parts, but BEAK> are an equation in which it’s impossible to define equivalents or totals. Instead the meeting of three talent’s form a foundation from which idea’s assimilate and propagate. Those talents are:Billy Fuller. Reared in Bristol, on an aural diet of anything and everything, facilitated later by his time working in the cities top independent record shop Replay Records, and also playing with handfuls of bands – including Invada’s first signing: Fuzz Against Junk, as well as Massive Attack, Robert Plant, and Malakai. Billy is BEAK>’S thoughtful pulse; his bass a forceful origin for their superlative narrative arcs.Matt Williams. Picked up a Yamaha keyboard aged three and never looked back, as Team Brick creates dissonance that immediately elucidates free forming thought, and impacts heavily on BEAK>’S rolling landscape. He enjoys playing air drums whilst cycling, singing lines from a favourite Latin prayer and doesn’t understand the music he makes himself.Geoff Barrow. Musician and producer born near Bristol. Best known for forming and producing popular music group Portishead and part owner of the independent record label Invada Records . Commenting on working in BEAK> "its really good to create music under different conditions than your used too.”"

The fantastic “Wraithlike” opens Maxïmo Park’s third album with a burst of energy that feels like Roxy Music infused with the high-spirited pop-punk of Supergrass—the track is one of the Maxïmo Park's strongest. Quicken the Heart producer Nick Launay (whose impressive career spans the decades, from PiL and The Slits to Grinderman and Yeah Yeah Yeahs) brings just the right amount of edge to the band's sound. Where its previous release, Our Earthly Pleasures, aimed for shinier pop tones, here the band digs down for a darker, slightly grittier feel. The rubbery bass and menacing vibe of “The Penultimate Clinch” is as memorable as the best of The Stranglers, and even the single “The Kids Are Sick Again” has a certain darkness, with grating guitars and oscillating keys pumping up Smith’s lyrics about suburban boredom. From the delightfully sharp guitars on tracks like “Calm” and “In Another World” to the sentimental and romantic “Questing Not Coasting” (“I need to connect to you now!” Smith wails), Quicken the Heart is a real pleaser, harking back to the earliest sounds of this great English band.

One of our favourites here at Mr Bongo! The Anatolian psych-rock group Altin Gün have released their latest album 'Gece', a highly anticipated follow-up to their debut LP 'On'. Recommended!

Gold Dust: Live At The Royalty, featuring highlights from Sandy Denny’s final concert, is making its debut on vinyl. Recorded just months before her untimely death in 1978, this special release attempts to present the record that Sandy might have released had she lived. The concert features a career-spanning set that includes songs taken from her band Fotheringay, Sandy’s solo albums (The North Star Grassman and the Ravens, Sandy, and Rendezvous), as well as her work with Fairport Convention on the albums Unhalfbricking and Rising for the Moon. This final performance perfectly captures the folk-rock sound with a stellar group of musicians including Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson, Dave Mattacks, among others. It showcases the quality of Sandy’s songwriting throughout her career and includes her signature composition, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” – which was the first song she ever wrote – and “No More Sad Refrains” which closed her final album. Remastered from the restored tapes, this release features Sandy’s spoken introductions to each song, comprehensive sleeve notes, and brand-new artwork designed specifically for this release.