Posts By 75orLess
I am Tom Cummins ‘Resolve to Start Again’ video
I am Tom Cummins ‘Squirrel Song’ video
Jackson Jillson ‘Room 175’ video
I Am Tom Cummins – Holiday 3-Pak
75OL-196 I Am Tom Cummins – Holiday 3-Pak CD
$6.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Squirrel Song (video)
2. Downy Woodpecker
3. Resolve To Start Again (video)
The first release by I Am Tom Cummins features the musical ideas of Tom Cummins and Kraig Jordan (Lloyd’s Llamas, The Masons, Junior Varsity Arson.) Playful lyrics and simple beats set the scene for escape. Animals skate and speak. A man muses about the rush of America’s holiday season leaving him cold. And another New Year begins. Influences include Beck, Morrissey, Burl Ives, and Burt Bacharach.
Boston’s The Noise reviews Matt Fraza, Junior Varsity Arson, Sick Pills, and Deadlands in the December 2014 Issue
Deadlands – Faceless Angels
Deadlands play dangerously close to a line that would put them into the schmaltzy bar-band blues category. What saves them from that awful fate is a skill for invoking the ghost of early ZZ Top in order to bring some character to their tracks. As often as the generic “Before You Were Born” and the “Mustang Sally”-baiting “Discotex” make me want to scream, tracks like “Bottom Feeders,” “Libby Prison Blues,” and “Fink” prove that there’s much more at hand with Deadlands than Thursday-night-dive-bar status. There are glimpses of real blues-rock genius on Faceless Angels. If you queue up those stellar moments and skip past the cheese you are certain to find something to enjoy on this record.
Junior Varsity Arson – Self Titled EP
Junior Varsity Arson is the musical project of four long-time New England rock stalwarts, Guy Benoit (Thee Hydrogen Terrors), Kraig Jordan (The Masons), Dave Narcizo (Throwing Muses), and Don Sanders (Medicine Ball, The Masons). What do you get when you throw these four guys in a room together? Not exactly what you would expect. Instead of heavy art punk, you’ll find something more akin to Devo or They Might Be Giants, as spoken/ sung by an odd combination of the guy from Cake and William S. Burroughs. If you have any taste at all you will agree that this is an oddly appealing recipe. The five songs that comprise JVA’s self-titled, debut EP roll by like some strange beat poet’s LSD-induced hallucination. “Her Parents Love Me” starts off quirkily with, “Her parents love me/ I’m such a big improvement/ over the white supremacist. Her parents hated him/ He ruined every holiday,” and continues on with a strange, American gothic love story. “Brown Jacket and Purple Keds” is a song about… actually, I have no idea what this song is about. There are references to shopping at Target, a museum, a Volvo, and shit-stains on the floor. I have to admit that I lost the story line pretty quickly. And so it goes for another three tracks of stream-of-consciousness lyrics spoken and sung over kitschy keyboards, guitars, and drums. Junior Varsity Arson’s debut sounds spontaneous—like a gang of accomplished musicians getting together on a Saturday night, simply enjoying playing together, all wondering what will come out on the other side. Thankfully, what came out the other side is utterly entertaining.
Matt Fraza – Let Trouble Go
As I’m driving down Storrow Drive one fall morning, I slide Matt Fraza’s new album into my player. The opening track is mellow folk melody that puts me in mind of a quiet house concert with a cup of coffee in hand, resting on a couch and surrounded by friends. It’s familiar, relaxing, like a stroll down the quiet roads I grew up on. Much of the lyrics lack a regular format, and have a more stream of consciousness feel to them, reinforcing the casual feeling I get when listening to songs like “Forever.” At first I was a little put off by this, but on the second third runs through the album, I think I get it—Matt, Kraig Jordan (bass, lead guitar), and Tom Chace (drums, keyboards, vocals, bass) have some stories they want to share, and it’s about the telling of the tale, not making sure it fits into a certain mold.
Sick Pills – Sickening
Classic-era punk, particularly of the UK variety, presented us with a lively alternative to bloated arena rock, and the best of its purveyors, particularly the Buzzcocks and The Jam, also offered up some pretty snappy tunes to go with the attitude. This propensity carried forth into the so-called college rock of the ’80s (aka indie rock), and we find plenty of that attitude and tunefulness here, particularly on the opening track, “Wormfood.” But the same opening gambit tropes which seemed so refreshing and new a generation ago have now become cliches: telepathic guitar lines; anti-love songs; stop and start dynamics; brawly Pistols-like chaos; sludgy intros; machine-gun staccato; cinematic whangdoodle; abrasive textures; pounding clamor; grudging grindoramas; feedback-laden echoplex tunings, and so forth. No bad, all in all—just lacking in anything genuinely novel.
Till the Dirt, Plant the Home, Watch it Grow
75OL-198 Various – Till the Dirt, Plant the Home, Watch it Grow CD
[sold out]
Limited to two copies per customer. Compilations are printed on a white or brown colored jacket with various ink colors. There will NOT be a digital release for this compilation. All tracks are exclusive to this release.
Track Listing
1. Allysen Callery – Tuesday Morning
2. Gravenhurst – There are No Claims on You
3. Haunt the House – Jesus Christ
4. Joe Fletcher – Say What You Will (acoustic demo)
5. What Cheer? Brigade – Iahabibi
6. Alec K. Redfearn & the Eyesores – Tramadoliday
7. The Kitchen Cynics – Make of Me Your Mask
8. Kid Dakota – Phantom pain (alternate acoustic version)
9. JOHN 3:16 – The Fountain of Life
10. Brown Bird – Winter
11. Dreamend – If Only for a Day (piano demo)
12. Dan Baker – Crazy Broad
13. Dan Blakeslee – Begone Sadness
14. I Love You & I Miss You with Sharron Kraus – Hope
15. Will Sheff – A Girl in Port (alternate version)
16. Swearing at Motorists – Time and Distance (alternate acoustic version)
17. The Iditarod – Sparrow
18. Six Star General – Christopher Walken (Dinner Dog Mix)
19. The Sentimental Favorites – Gravestones
20. Noel the Coward – Darwinian
“Originally created as part of the “Hold Down the Fort“ campaign, this album collects tracks unique to this release by artists I have worked with over the years. Made available exclusively through 75orLess Records, who also inhabit space in Fort Foreclosure.” – William Schaff
Campaign supporters will receive copies featuring unique hand-painted stencils, while the versions purchased through the label website are limited to a one color print on either white or brown jackets. See below for some examples of one vs. two color prints.
Thrift Store Ransom – Self Titled
75OL-202 Thrift Store Ransom – Self Titled CD
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Bottles 2:08
2. Cold Blue 3:59
3. Shafts 1:06
4. Please 1:03
5. Moonshine 5:12
6. Mill Song #1 (Cornet Band) 2:43
7. Mill Song #2 (The Strike) 3:37
8. How Can You Love a Dying Man 4:30
9. Middlebrook Road 3:00
10. Crescent Palms 2:45
What began as an RPM (Write and Record an album in the month of February) project, turned into a collaborative effort by Eric Ott, Sean Yadisernia, Lindsay Walls-Ott and a bunch of friends. We’ll list out some of the sound influences and inspirations on this record rather than what it sounds like: Granddaddy, ELO, The Shins, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac (TUSK-era), etc. This is a strange little record that was a labor of love. We hope you enjoy it.
Bill Keough’s ‘The Slow Get Up’ review in Motif Magazine
Longtime local music scene fixture Bill Keough has finally recorded his solo debut album, The Slow Get Up, and it proves to be worth the wait. I can’t even put my figure on why I enjoy it more than his work with Galvanize (which I enjoy as well,) but it’s like Keough just nailed it here. The general vibe of the record is late ’80s – early ’90s underground rock, which is not to be mistaken as saying ‘grunge’. Tunes “Self Doubt” is closer to Nada Surf than Nirvana. “I Know Where You’ve Been” reminds me of early Silkworm. “Tough Physics” reminds me of early Queens of The Stone Age. Throw in a great cover of PJ Harvey’s “Victory,” and The Slow Get Up makes for a hell of a kick ass record.
Bill Keough – The Slow Get Up
75OL-195 Bill Keough – The Slow Get Up CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. I Know Where You’ve Been (video)
2. Self Doubt
3. 3:32 AM
4. Back to the Punk Rock
5. Deliver the Goods
6. Lean
7. Tough Physics
8. This Concerns me
9. Hit and Run Machine
10. Victory
11. Continuous Reasons to Continue
a bastard child of PJ Harvey and Bob Mould…a darker, sketchier Frank Black…inside your head vocals and cross-hatched riffs…angst riddled, heartfelt, a bed of nails sprinkled with flowers…life related via blindfolded kisses and aimless hugs…burrow down deep to the center of the songs and stay awhile…
Credits
Bill Keough – Guitars, Vocals, Keyboards
Dave McCaffrey – Bass
Daniel Ulmschneider – Drums
featuring
Mark Cuter – lead guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
Kate Conroy – violin, backing vocals
Tom Buckland – backing vocals
Kraig Jordan – guitar, keyboards
Produced, engineered, and mastered by Kraig Jordan.
All songs written by Bill Keough except ‘Victory’ by PJ Harvey.
Boston’s The Noise reviews Lloyd’s Llamas ‘Cool the Burn’
“The Barker” is a synth-laden quasi-country instrumental pleasantly reminiscent of both the Meat Puppets and Wendy Carlos, among others, with a friendly vibe. “Worn Out Welcome” is more anodyne; snotty power pop with a good-time psychedelic guitar line. “Whiskey” is a snazzy (and bluesy) shuffle with elements of prog rock. “Midnight Clover” is generic thrash metal; “Dabbler” the best of show, is an epic drum and synth confection with a strangely resonant guitar line and cab-mike distorted vocals. Bueno. (Bonus: There are six more tracks–which sound like backwards renditions of the original six songs.)