Above: Daisies - - - Is it any wonder?
With three weeks left in 2023, K has released our final recording for the year, Feeling Figures, Migration Magic [PRNL052/KLP294] (- - - what a way to go out!) We are so happy with the music that has been made available through K and Perennial. Today we will take a trip though this wonderful bounty of soundz.
To celebrate this fantabulous year, The K Mail Order Dept. is offering 20% off any K release from now through Sunday, December 10. To receive your 20% discount off any K release, enter SexPistols at check-out when ordering from The K Mail Order Dept.
Below is a retrospective of K releases in 2023 - - -
Treepeople, Guilt, Regret and Embarrassment [KLP284] LP
The Treepeople sound is a jagged buzz crossing boundaries between the punk, hardcore, garage and grunge artists interwoven in the NW music scene. Guilt, Regret and Embarrassment is a Northwest classic originally released in 1991. It has been remastered and presented not only as an important document, also a collection of fab, adrenaline inducing songs. An additional 10 such songs have been added to this expanded collection, now presented as a DOUBLE LP.
Morgan & the Organ Donors, M.O.D.s [PRNL046 /KLP285] LP
Olympia's downtown ambassadors (and master garage foragers) Morgan & the Organ Donors present their debut album, a rollicking rumble-worthy rock'n'roll escapade that has them dancing in the aisles at Jr. High auditoriums coast-to-coast. Join this jangle town stroll down Primrose Lane!
Calvin Johnson, Gallows Wine [KLP287] LP
Calvin serves up an experiment in tuff sounds from under the radar: Gallows Wine, scrambled power pop with a side order of electric banana. What that means is, a triumph of gut bucket crash pop and guitar-laden music sustaining life on other planets; an otherworldly collection of soundz and fragments of toe-tapping goodness. you dig?
Smoke M2D6, Quarantine Heart Throb [KLP290] LP
The new Smoke M2D6 album showcases the supple production skillz and raw rappin' expialidociousness that has earned him a rep as the purveyor of Northwest hip hop supreme. It's a wordcore freak scene. A beat on beat down. A tongue twisting dance elexicon. Everybody's doin' it - - - Quarantine Heart Throb!
Hartle Road, Maxx II [PRNL049/KLP288] LP
Weird-outs across the globe are turning on and tuning in to the Pompeii sound of Hartle Road - - - a driving nails in your coffin collection of jigs that pushes all the wrong buttons in just the right way. Yes, the psychedelics are shimmering; the sour Kraut Rock is subtly benign. Maxx II makes your head gently explode with tonic aerobics, sonic somersaults, delightful tongue twists. This album is sweet and propulsive: a driving clusterbomb encasing twists of post-punk scar tissue to CYA all over the dance floor.
Daisies, Great Big Open Sky [PRNL048/KLP289] LP
As purveyors of the electronic paisley underground, Daisies feel they are under no obligation to do anything other than prance. Daises been mixing up the dance floor medicine in downtown Olympia since the end of the last decade. The beats are strong. The melodies fluid. The prancing pronounced. The circle is widening.
Included on this album: "Is It any Wonder", a sleepy, sad winter HIT. A strummy guitar, flat foot Americana hustle in the gentlest of ways. Indulge yourself.
The Smashing Times, This Sporting Life [PRNL051/KLP293] LP
Glorious days and crash pad nights. The Smashing Times pedal pop music scarred by Rickenbacker; This Sporting Life represents a mod lang syne to the old world and welcome to a new year of teapot and scone rock. It's the wildest collection of fables unearthed from the garden since Aleister Crowley fragmented the looking glass.
Feeling Figures, Migration Magic [PRNL052/KLP294] LP
A set of intimately contemplative songs that shift mountains of emotions with the flutter of a butterfly's wings. Migration Magic's resilient guitar bass drum wafer gorges you on a bountiful diet of sturm-a-songs.
Feeling Figures concentrate on creating guitar explorations of everyday life's most remarkable moments, overlaying it all with vocal charms and talismans. The end result: emotive pop music from under the kitchen sink that makes one yearn for an endless summertime.
Above: The Smashing Times "Monday, in a Small Dull Town" video log excerpt.
In 2023 The Smashing Times released a volume in our International Pop Underground series of 7" 45rpm phonograph records, "Monday, in a Small Dull Town' / "Girl of Many Names" [IPU151]. As a traditional single record it has an A-Side, "Girl of Many Names" and a B-Side, "Monday, in a Small Dull Town." Two songs of strummy guitar magic, summery snare drum crack. "Girl of Many Names" presents a question mark in an hourglass. Does she or doesn't she or wha. Flip it over to hear "Monday, in a Small Dull town" which encapsulates everything you love about guitars blurring off into the distance while the wings of a dove chase your dreams. It's perfect in every way!
See for yourself by viewing the video log acompanying "Monday, in a Small Dull Town." One may order the 45rpm "Girl of Many Names" / "Monday, in a Small Dull town" [IPU151] directly from The K Mail Order Dept.