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Few copies in stock with minor wear on sleeves, pictures can be sent upon request.
2LP is yellow vinyl cut 45 RPM in gatefold jacket + download. CD Digi.
Maybe you are just like John Darnielle: In the depths of the pandemic end of 2020, the Mountain Goats frontman passed the time trapped at home watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. But you are not really like John Darnielle, unless the action movies you found comfort in included French thrillers like 2008’s Mesrine, vintage Italian poliziotteschi, or the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle The Freakmaker.
Or unless watching them brought you back to your formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked your songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings and in turn inspired your 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure and futility of vengeance. But there’s no shame in not being like John Darnielle; few people are. “On earlier tapes you’ll find these sound samples,” Darnielle says. “‘Oh, where’s this sample from?’ It’s from whatever movie I was watching while I was sitting around on the couch with a guitar. I watch a movie, somebody’d say something that I like the sound of and I’ll write that phrase down. And then I would pause the VHS, write the song, record the song on a boombox, and go back to watching my movie. I got into doing that again; I just kept watching action movies and taking notes on what they’re about and on what the governing plots and tropes and styles are. It was very much like an immersion method acting technique.”
The resulting performance is Bleed Out, a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances. “We often make a record and then bring in some guests who flesh out the textures,” Darnielle says. “And for this one, it was very much like a pack mentality. That sort of seemed to proceed from the songs.”
One new face was that of Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, recommended to Darnielle by his manager as a producer who could help nurture the rougher edged sound these songs requested. “We met up and hit it off. She’s a great guitarist. It was kind of just a lark, to see what would happen, and it was totally great.” Running narrative themes are not new to Mountain Goats projects, especially in recent years, be it the pro wrestlers of 2015’s Beat the Champ or the goths of 2017’s Goths. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed.
Bleed Out could be all one movie, from the opening training montage to the demise in the elegiac closing title track. Songs like “Make You Suffer,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages” do what they say on the tin, telling typically vivid, deliberately recognizable vignettes of desperate characters in no-win situations who plan on taking as many people down with them as they have to. But Darnielle sees these as unconnected stories that feel universal in their desire for justice, if not in their wanton bloodshed.
Anthems don’t get more straightforward or anthem-y than “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” tapping into an anger that’s easy to reach in 2022, even if the solutions aren’t. Few people think as much, or as well, about violence and its portrayal as John Darnielle. His recent bestselling novel Devil House (his third) is all about the relationship between tragedy and entertainment, though he is careful to downplay any parallels to Bleed Out beyond a natural attraction to terrible things as a coping mechanism. “That’s what catharsis is,” he says. “When you are able to experience something that is frightening to you but you don’t have to be harmed by it that experience is really valuable. I think we’re reflecting on the nature of what we consume and of what it says about us.”
Tracklisting:
Side A
1 Training Montage
2 Mark on You
3 Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome
4 Extraction Point
Side B
5 Bones Don’t Rust
6 First Blood
7 Make You Suffer
8 Guys on Every Corner
Side C
9. Hostages
10. Need More Bandages
Side D
11. Incandescent Ruins
12. Bleed Out
Release Date: 28/02/2025
Initial LP pressing on black and white coloured vinyl.
Nothing is ever easy for Black Spiders, never straightforward, there’s always a plethora of circumstances, bad luck and karma. Their last album, released in 2023, was titled ‘Can’t Die, Won’t Die’ and here we are at the dawn of 2025 and they’re still not fucking dead. Back with a brand-new album of high-voltage smashers, the Sheffield righteous rockers are set to release new album ‘Cvrses’ this coming February 28th on Dark Riders via Cargo Distribution.
Featuring twelve new tracks of exactly the kind of soaring rock ‘n roll action we’ve all come to expect, love and demand from Black Spiders, their intentions are the same now as they were from the very the moment they started back in 2008 – be true to yourself, no compromise.
“Stick to that formula and everything will be alright is what we hope and then with a little bit of luck life might surprise you,” says guitarist Pete Spiby. “It’s our fifth album, from the point of view of myself and Irwin. It’s our best. Our statement of intent has not changed from day one.”
Recorded once again at Axis Studios in Doncaster with producer Matt Ellis behind the wheel, ‘Cvrses’ is, and of course all bands say this, very possibly their best album yet. It successfully distils everything that is thrilling and life-affirming about Black Spiders unique brand of thumping heaviness. Massive riffs, massive hooks, massive beats. It’s all massive.
Opening song ‘Never Enough’ is as good a statement of intent as you’re ever going to get, crashing in with three cracks on the snare from drummer Wyatt Wendels, before a strutting garage rock riff pumps the album into immediate action.
“Never Enough is where the initial idea for the album title ‘Cvrses’ came from,” explains Pete. “It‘s the reality of how you can be relentless in the pursuit of something, but once you get over the crest of that hill, there’s another hill in the distance. More obstacles in life. So, everything is always just out of reach, but the positive side of that is you’re still striving, living.”
And from that moment on, ‘Cvrses’ steams through a rollercoaster ride of rock emotions, from the hand-clapping ramalama of ‘Cool Reaper’, to the soaring balladry of ‘Dia De Muertos’, it’s all there, fully intact and in your face, right where proper rock should be.
And why is the album called ‘Cvrses’? Well, ‘Cvrses’ has double meanings, on one hand it’s a supernatural punishment, invoked to do harm, and it’s also a very old English swear word. Both of these meanings ring true in every sense of the word in relation to Black Spiders.
“As long as that drive is in the tank, we will keep going, because that’s what we need to do,” summarises Pete and Cvrses to anyone that tries to stop them.
Black Spiders will tour the UK in April 2025.
Black Spiders are:
Adam Irwin - bass
James Evans - guitar
Nate Digby - guitar
Wyatt Wendels - drums
Pete Spiby - vocals + guitar
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Never Enough
2. Cool Reaper
3. Sorry Not Sorry
4. Idol Hands
5. Tom Petty’s Lips
6. Castile De La Roja (skit)
7. Dia De Muertos
Side B
1. No Superman
2. Go!
3. Up All Night
4. Curses (skit)
5. Obey
6. The Mofo Sauce
7. Rotten To The Core
Lil Death (hidden track)
2LP is yellow vinyl cut 45 RPM in gatefold jacket + download. CD Digi.
Maybe you are just like John Darnielle: In the depths of the pandemic end of 2020, the Mountain Goats frontman passed the time trapped at home watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. But you are not really like John Darnielle, unless the action movies you found comfort in included French thrillers like 2008’s Mesrine, vintage Italian poliziotteschi, or the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle The Freakmaker.
Or unless watching them brought you back to your formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked your songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings and in turn inspired your 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure and futility of vengeance. But there’s no shame in not being like John Darnielle; few people are. “On earlier tapes you’ll find these sound samples,” Darnielle says. “‘Oh, where’s this sample from?’ It’s from whatever movie I was watching while I was sitting around on the couch with a guitar. I watch a movie, somebody’d say something that I like the sound of and I’ll write that phrase down. And then I would pause the VHS, write the song, record the song on a boombox, and go back to watching my movie. I got into doing that again; I just kept watching action movies and taking notes on what they’re about and on what the governing plots and tropes and styles are. It was very much like an immersion method acting technique.”
The resulting performance is Bleed Out, a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances. “We often make a record and then bring in some guests who flesh out the textures,” Darnielle says. “And for this one, it was very much like a pack mentality. That sort of seemed to proceed from the songs.”
One new face was that of Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, recommended to Darnielle by his manager as a producer who could help nurture the rougher edged sound these songs requested. “We met up and hit it off. She’s a great guitarist. It was kind of just a lark, to see what would happen, and it was totally great.” Running narrative themes are not new to Mountain Goats projects, especially in recent years, be it the pro wrestlers of 2015’s Beat the Champ or the goths of 2017’s Goths. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed.
Bleed Out could be all one movie, from the opening training montage to the demise in the elegiac closing title track. Songs like “Make You Suffer,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages” do what they say on the tin, telling typically vivid, deliberately recognizable vignettes of desperate characters in no-win situations who plan on taking as many people down with them as they have to. But Darnielle sees these as unconnected stories that feel universal in their desire for justice, if not in their wanton bloodshed.
Anthems don’t get more straightforward or anthem-y than “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” tapping into an anger that’s easy to reach in 2022, even if the solutions aren’t. Few people think as much, or as well, about violence and its portrayal as John Darnielle. His recent bestselling novel Devil House (his third) is all about the relationship between tragedy and entertainment, though he is careful to downplay any parallels to Bleed Out beyond a natural attraction to terrible things as a coping mechanism. “That’s what catharsis is,” he says. “When you are able to experience something that is frightening to you but you don’t have to be harmed by it that experience is really valuable. I think we’re reflecting on the nature of what we consume and of what it says about us.”
Tracklisting:
Side A
1 Training Montage
2 Mark on You
3 Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome
4 Extraction Point
Side B
5 Bones Don’t Rust
6 First Blood
7 Make You Suffer
8 Guys on Every Corner
Side C
9. Hostages
10. Need More Bandages
Side D
11. Incandescent Ruins
12. Bleed Out
Few copies in stock with minor wear on sleeves, pictures can be sent upon request.
First time available on vinyl. Limited Edition of 1500 Burnt Orange Opaque wax. New artwork by Antonio Jesus Moreno.
Alex Chilton and Big Star fans will welcome this rare recording. 1993's Cliches is an all acoustic affair from Alex Chilton.
The former member of Big Star and the Box Tops channels Chet Baker’s vocal approach while visiting the great American songbook.
Originally released on New Rose Records in France and later picked up by Memphis’ Ardent Records, Clichés is Alex Chilton’s 4th solo record.
Tracklisting:
Side One
1. My Baby Just Cares For Me
2. Time After Time
3. All Of You
4. Gavotte First suite for orchestra C major
5. Save Your Love For Me
6. Let's Get Lost
Side Two
7. Funny (But I Still Love You)
8. Frame for the Blues
9. The Christmas Song
10. There Will Never Be Another You
11. Somewhere Along The Way
12. What Was