Dear Friends,

Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band are pleased to announce the sixth installment of the E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. planetary series, EARTH, featuring performance and production by Heidi Alexander, Eric Bauer, Lisa Boldyreva, Emilee Booher, Bradley Caulkins, Bjorn Copeland, Bart Davenport, John Dwyer, Tahlia Harbour, James Finch Jr., Graeme Gibson, Emmett Kelly, Enrique Tena Padilla, and Mikey Young. EARTH arrives on a charged planet with reflections on the greediness of life.  

Available from Empty Cellar Records on limited edition 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape January 2021, all proceeds benefit organizations committed to the preservation of biodiversity and to reduction of socioeconomic greed on EARTH.

Peace,
Empty Cellar Records/E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.

Earth Girl Helen Brown - Fountain Of Life

Earth Girl Helen Brown - Pay To Play

Earth Girl Helen Brown - Feed Me

Earth Girl Helen Brown - The Color Green

Heidi Alexander (The Sandwitches, The Fresh And Only's) releases the hauntingly beautiful Cassette EP, Amigos, under her nom de plume Pruno Truman. 

Empty Cellar releases Pruno Truman's "Amigos" on limited cassette EP. "Amigos" is the second (or third depending on how you count) solo release from Heidi Alexander. Amigo's sister cassette EP, Pruno Truman "Drunk With Friends", out now on Southpaw Records. 

"Amigos" was recorded by Mike Donnovan (Sic Alps), and Doug "the knife" Hilsinger in May/June 2013. 50 limited cassette EPs printed, dubbed, and assembled by Heidi herself, available by mail order from EMPTY CELLAR and at shows. Collect all 50!

Pruno Truman (Heidi Alexander of The Sandwitches) - I Want More Of You

This is the debut full-length by Joseph Childress.  The ten songs on this record, dubbed "The Rebirths" by fans, were penned on the road during nearly two years of “hard traveling” – hopping freight trains, hitchhiking, and eventually living out of a car.  All this came to a halt shortly after finding trouble in New Orleans, prompting Joseph to find his way back to his childhood home in the Colorado Rockies. Once there, he locked himself in the bathroom with his road-worn guitar – its neck cracked while jumping from a train – and recorded this album.  Filled with young wisdom, heartbreak, and spirited jubilee, this self-recording of Joseph Childress is a stirring introduction to a young songwriter with a soul-piercing voice and an undeniable gift of song.

A low-fi snapshot of his experiences, The Rebirths captures a moment of euphoria as Joseph’s personal stories unfold into timeless songs.  Peppered with thumps, creaks, improvised percussion, the weather outside the bathroom window… these recordings serve as a raw document of the time and space in which these tracks were laid.  Joseph’s emotionally charged voice is powerful as it tackles tragedy and triumph over guitar that ranges from intricate finger-style to furious strumming.  Fans of haunted troubadours Jason Molina, Jackson C. Frank, Townes Van Zandt and early lo-fi pioneers will find many similarities in Joseph's music, but even more striking will be Joseph's refreshingly original command of song.

In print due to relentless demand, this presentation of The Rebirths - available worldwide on bright white vinyl and digital - is newly mixed by The American Opry and mastered for the first time by Paul Oldham.

Joseph Childress - Dance With Me

River of Souls is the third enchantment from the hat of Tim Cohen (The Fresh and Onlys) and his band, Magic Trick. Picking up from where he left us with Ruler of the Night (Hardly Art), Cohen brings us ten new intimate tracks, polished as yet unseen. Recorded in The Tree House, his attic studio, River of Souls whirls with parables of change amidst emotional flotsam and jetsam. Insecurities, sarcasm, escapism, optimism, vanity, honesty, and bona fide love... it is all there, but in comforting form. Tim's well-skewed pop songs remind us that things can always be better, but also that what we have is pretty amazing. 

River of Souls signals a new approach for Magic Trick. As in The Fresh and Onlys, Tim has begun to distinguish his muses from those of the foggy San Francisco lo-fi movement that he helped to shape. Mixed at Lucky Cat Studios with Phil Manley and mastered by Paul Oldham, this album exudes presence and confidence. Now, more than ever, the vocals break through the clouds, and the mix champions the artistry in each player's performance. Tim's baritone spars with angelic female chants (Noelle Cahill and Alicia Vanden Heuvel) over the crisp unmistakable pulse of James Kim's drums, and the melodic drive of Alicia's bass throughout. San Francisco's gifted guitar workhorse, Tom Heyman, channels Mark Knopfler; one-man metal mystery, Steve Peacock, brings the right kind of shred; and Marc Cappelle's horns retort the melodies, as Tim jettisons his woes upriver. It is clear with each downbeat the band has honed its language and perfected its chemistry. 

Change permeates this record, but Tim Cohen diehards need not fear. The songs on this album are classic Tim Cohen jams through and through. Still present are the first-thought-best-thought off-the-cuff style and the genre-spanning I-can't-quite-pinpoint-who-this-reminds-me-of assimilation of influences. Still here are the heartbreaking nonsense and the litany of brilliant guest appearances. River of Souls begins with an invitation to "Come Inside". The songs stick with you from that point forward, and what's more... the record ends before you are ready to leave the party. Altogether, this album makes it clear that there is not a man more worthy of thee Muses than Tim Cohen. 

Keeping with tradition, the LP version is presented in a classic tip-on sleeve featuring artwork by Kevin Earl Taylor. The first 500 copies come in half-red and half-blue vinyl. 

Magic Trick - Come Inside

Introducing one quarter of San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Pat Thomas! He’s the tall dude who plays the bass.  He also writes one third of the Ghouls' songs.  Coasters Riding in the Air is a collection of songs written, performed and recorded by Pat Thomas.
 
The Cool Ghouls have made a name for themselves. Their soulful tunes and energetic live set have earned the band back-to-back slots with toast of the coast acts like Sonny and the Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh and Onlys, Mikal Cronin, Fuzz, Magic Trick and Shannon and the Clams etc., and they have no plans to slow their role.  It has been less than a year since Cool Ghouls released their self-titled debut with Empty Cellar and Burger Records, and a new full-length album (recorded by Sonny Smith) is already in the can.  The above in mind, one might guess that the Ghouls have their hands full; but like label-mate and fellow San Franciscan, Tim Cohen… Pat has more songs than any one band is prepared to handle.
 
So as the Ghouls keep on truckin’, Thomas is offering this batch of solo material, Coasters Riding in the Air.  He wants to keep the songs flowing; to convey another corner of the musical realm that he and Cool Ghouls inhabit; but mostly, because he recorded ‘em and he’d like to share ‘em.  Pat laid these tracks at a leisurely pace, coming back to them whenever he could.  He plays everything on the album, except for some saxophone and trombone lines played by Ryan Wong and Richard Harkins.  The result is an ear-pleasing contemporary take on classic west coast rock ‘n’ roll. These songs were seen through for their own sake and good thing, because they are great.  They are infectious all-around-rad tunes; and now that they are here in the world with us, they’re free to go and do what they please.
 
Coasters Riding in the Air will see a limited label-only release on November 26 (with a December 3rd wide-release) via digital download on Empty Cellar and on cassette from Burger Records.

Pat Thomas (Cool Ghouls) - Not Right Now

Bonnie “Prince” Billy and The Cairo Gang - “We Love Our Hole” b/w “I’ll be Alright”

Empty Cellar is proud to announce the latest single by Bonnie “Prince” Billy and The Cairo Gang, “We Love Our Hole” b/w “I’ll be Alright”. This latest product of their fruitful collaboration finds Will Oldham and Emmett Kelly sitting barefoot on a sand dune, plucking the last rays of an Australian sunset from the sky. These two songs were recorded for “SPIRIT OF AKASHA”, a film/soundtrack celebrating 40 years of the classic 1971 Australian surf film “Morning of the Earth.”
 
“We Love Our Hole”, a warm and fuzzular take on the notorious Aussie localism, recalls the carefree back to earth acoustic jams on the original “Morning of the Earth” soundtrack.  Twangy leads punctuate the bongo-driven tune (music by Kelly / lyrics by Oldham) exalting their hole… the kind of place you discover by following your bliss, “a cove where love is free”.  Unbridled, the duo’s dueling voices find rare, compelling, moments of unison amidst rich harmonizing. The B-side, “I’ll be Alright”, is a stripped-down take of the Terry Hannagan song from the original soundtrack. Equally melancholy and reassuring, Hannagan’s meditation on the drag of modern life is dispensed thoughtfully by Oldham in his fearless, self-assured, voice. The recording as a whole finds Oldham and Kelly stepping confidently across the beach, fully trusting each other in these songs as only seasoned brothers can.
 
This 7” vinyl record comes packaged in a high-gloss photographic jacket featuring a golden still by "SPIRIT OF AKASHA" filmmaker Andrew Kidman.  Limited to a single pressing of 1000 copies, this release is a perfect assurance that summer is coming through the clouds, and its music positively sparkles like a sun-lit sea. Bonus points: Each 7” comes with a special fart-cloud sticker drawn by the great Nathaniel Russell that you can place in the wind of your favorite Surfer pic!

Bonnie "Prince" Billy & The Cairo Gang - We Love Our Hole

“San Francisco’s Doomed” ...or so they say. There are, however, four Cool Ghouls who will have none of that. Born and raised in Fog Nation’s stripmall suburbs, these boys dreamed of the day when they would move to Shaky City.  San Francisco - the town so many of their electric heroes (Creedence, Thee Oh Sees, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Flamin’ Groovies etc.) call(ed) home - was their destiny.  So they moved to SF, formed a band, packed themselves into crowded apartments, found lousy jobs serving beer and coffee to Bay Area glassholes (alongside counter culture legends), and they have no plans of leaving. Thank the gods their dreams came true! Cool Ghouls are the perfect antidote for San Francisco’s current mess.  They are providing the real-life soundtrack to a new generation of young, loud and gritty San Franciscans that wake up everyday with a beautiful feeling just knowing that these guys won’t let this city’s culture burn to the ground. Their loud guitars, acid riffs, party screams, and stacked-as-f*ck three-part vocal harmonies are echoing down the alleys and shaking foundations. A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye is their sophomore full-length album, and it rules.  Recorded live to tape by San Francisco’s Sonny Smith (Sonny and the Sunsets) and mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring), this record elevates Cool Ghouls psychedelic garage jams to a whole new level.  So it is, that Empty Cellar Records is very stoked to present to you ten new delectable Cool Ghouls songs brimming with infectious creative energy. With the vocals on top (did we mention the great harmonies), the drum fills tight, and guitar tones dialed in, this record is an excellent complement to the neverending nights of a neverending summer.  If you don’t believe us, then attend one of their local shows and watch San Francisco’s colorful underbelly dance its cares away. Cool Ghouls definitely knows what’s going on. The band is not oblivious. Just listen to tracks like “The Mile” or “Reelin’” to know that they too are trying to wrap their mind around the swirling fire burning through their town. San Francisco is still doomed... it always has been and always will be.  At least these Cool Ghouls are here to help it go down with just a little bit of true class.  Available this fall - featuring photography of one of their wild house shows by Michael Lucero - on Vinyl and CD from Empty Cellar Records and cassette from Burger Records.  300 limited edition lps will be available in deluxe swirling fire colored vinyl.


Cool Ghouls - The Mile

Cool Ghouls - What A Dream I Had

Cool Ghouls - And It Grows

The Sandwitches - Our Toast

"The Sandwitches are a band straight out of a David Lynch film. Wide eyed beauties, hardened against the cold San Francisco air, voices bellowing like the capricious winds, sometimes low and meandering, sometimes high and haunting. Roxanne Young's drums ramble through song after song with a strange, unpredictable and perfect lightness, while near-moans and sky-high melodies collide in a soundtrack to the end of the world. Songs on this record deal with the most playful moments in a new love, the most charming parts of decay, the heart wrenching feeling of impending doom at the dawning of something new. This record is a seamless follow up to their previous release, Mrs. Jones' Cookies, a record teeming with, for the most part, a spirit possessed by possibility; pure and potent potential. Our Toast is a causal record, the beautiful, raw come down. The spell has been broken and this new batch of songs lingers in the space between. The Sandwitches took songs born of universal anguish to create a record blooming with whimsical notes on a life that’s changing chapters." - Emily Rose (Ty Segall Band)

Recorded by Kelley Stoltz and mastered by Mikey Young, Our toast, by The Sandwitches, is available on LP/CD/Digital via Empty Cellar Records and Revolver USA. The LP edition is packaged in a deluxe gold-foil stamped jacket featuring artwork by Deirdre White and The Sandwitches. The first pressing will include a limited edition run of 200 LPs in decadent "oxblood" vinyl.

Track Listing:
1. Sunny Side
2. Play It Again Dick
3. Sleeping Practice
4. Dead Prudence
5. Miggy
6. Island Jam
7. Personal Hell
8. Wickerman Mambo
9. Nothing But Love

Release date: June 9th 2015

Credits:

Engineered by Kelley Stoltz
Mastered by Mikey Young

All songs by The Sandwitches, with James Finch Jr on bass, Nicolas Russo
on piano (Dead Prudence), and Rusty Miller on piano (Sleeping Pracitce) 

Cover painting by Deirdre White

The Sandwitches are Grace Cooper, Heidi Alexander, and Roxanne Young
Distributed by Revolver USA.

The Sandwitches - Wickerman Mambo

Introducing a new split 45 via Empty Cellar Records featuring harmony-heavy San Francisco legacies The She's and The Dry Spells. Tight vocal harmonies, ambitious musical arrangements, and diverse influences meet on both sides of this record in a pairing that won't disappoint. A song for the party and one for the comedown.

The She's light things up with their ever expanding range: the group that got its start while in middle school have brought their steadily amassed stylistic and dynamic breadth to the track, “Cherry Red,” produced by Patrick Brown at Different Fur. It bursts open with with a driving surf beat cut with the laser-guided vocal counterpoint The She's are known for. Aggressive Go-Go's, The Breeders at the beach, Shonen Knife in the Golden State. Call it what you want; It's irresistible. After winding through a dizzying set of changes, the She's pull the rug out from under, dropping you (along with the beat) into a half-time dream that would make the Shangri-La's smile, but also calls to mind english guitar bands of the 90's, a reference reinforced by singer Hannah Valente musing about painting her lips the classic color that gives this track its name. Then it's back to the beat!

You're gonna feel pumped after Side A, putting you in the perfect place to enter the restorative trance of the Dry Spells' "Heliotrope" (members of Sonny & The Sunsets, Jonas Reinhardt, Citay), produced by Tim Cohen (The Fresh and Onlys / Magic Trick) and mixed by Mikey Young (Total Control / Eddy Current Suppression Ring). The track opens with delicate guitar lines reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane's best slow-psych (think “Today”) spilling from a wash of cymbals. Aquarian? Yes. Wishy-washy? No way dude: A Fleetwood-McVie rhythm tightens this track, clean, warm and hypnotic under vocal harmonies that rise and rise and rise some more. Enter the guitar solo - nuanced, spacious and moody - it slides across a Fairport violin, risen from the mix to dabble in the sun-worshiping harmonies. This song is not, however, without its grittier influences. The bass line is biting as it is melodic.  Sinewy and driving like a fretless Television, it coalesces with guitar and vocals into one final pitch-perfect exaltation before everything collapses into the fragile sustain of a tremolo'd guitar.

Take all this, and combine it with the fact that this split comes in a limited run of 500 copies of colored vinyl (250 cyan / 250 red) with artwork by The Fresh and Only's / Sonny and the Sunsets' Shayde Sartin rendered in anaglyphic 3D, and you can be sure that you won't find a more spangled Yin meets Yang 45 this fall.

The She's - "Cherry Red"

Sonny Smith (Sonny & the Sunsets) has written a monologue, an hour long story, called SEES ALL KNOWS ALL. A tale of LOVE, SEX, DRUGS, SPACESHIPS, ROMANCE, HALLUCINATIONS, BITTER TEARS and CHAMPAGNE. A story set in a fast-disappearing San Francisco. A bohemian quarter-life crisis (in six parts) told by a man who never had anything to gamble with, but his life. As Sonny put it "Sort of a Spalding Gray typa thing if Spalding Gray had a band and wasn’t himself but was me." 

Sonny premiered SEES ALL KNOWS ALL live with a band at The Lost Church in San Francisco. The run lasted five nights and each night featured a different musical guest: Kelley Stoltz, Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys / Magic Trick), Kyle Field (Little Wings), Alexi Glickman (Sandy's), & Sun Foot (Chris Johanson). It was very much a San Francisco thing. A nod, perhaps, to both Eggers and Ferlinghetti. Indeed, excerpts from this story have been published in San Francisco's reknown literature, arts, and culture magazine, The Believer. 

Narrated by Smith, this audio recording of SEES ALL KNOWS ALL features sounds made by a talented group of local musicians including Kelley Stoltz, Shayde Sartin, Rusty Miller, James Finch, Germán Carracosca, Jordi Llobet, and Sonny himself. The result is a Joe Frank meets Michael Hurley meets R. Crumb production: a dry, witty, autobiographical look at the meaning(s) of life from an underdog with deep nostalgia for America's lost folk culture and a kinship with the marginalized. Perhaps you saw one of the live performances; or maybe you are familiar with Sonny's stories via the tiny comic books stashed in his early vinyl releases... but you probably have never heard him try to pronounce "Panaderia". So, light a fire/joint, get comfortable and lose yourself in a man's attempt to find himself; or at least, exert a shred of control over his own destiny.

SEES ALL KNOWS ALL is limited to 300 blue powder (the stuff of the universe) splattered LPs via Empty Cellar Records. Each LP is packaged in a deluxe old-style linen jacket and features artwork by Bay Area greats: Chris Johanson, Shayde Sartin, and Shannon Shaw (Shannon & The Clams).

Sonny Smith - Sees All Knows All, Chapter 5: Ayahuaska

Empty Cellar Records is stoked to announce the third full-length release by San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls, Animal Races. Fans of their self-titled debut and 2014’s A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye will be similarly stoked to hear how this band has continued to evolve. If the first album was a celebratory debut, and the second an earnest venture into deeper waters, this third album is like the crystal born of the murky womb that was the second record, fertilized by the initial intention of the first. Not only have the ghouls reaped the crop they sowed; they’ve baked it into some new kind of bread.

For the uninitiated – Cool Ghouls play rock'n'roll. That's about all there is to it. They're California natives. They try to do a good job. They like to try to elevate and get far out. They also like to keep it real. They like to make friends and have a good time. They don't like bullshit. They want to keep growing and learning how to become more powerful musicians. This record reflects the discoveries they’ve made over the last five years about live performance, themselves, and each other.

The eleven tracks, recorded to tape by Kelley Stoltz in his backyard studio and mixed by Mikey Young (Total Control etc.), are first and foremost documents of the four-piece’s live performance of the tunes. Many of the songs were road-tested, but - unlike the prior records - a few of them were not. This opened the door for some new looks: an acoustic guitar, some synth, upright piano, a little pedal steel wizardry from Tom Heyman, etc. It’s Cool Ghouls doing what they’ve always done, but in more ways and better.

Animal Races will be available on LP/CD (8/19) in the US via Empty Cellar Records and the EU/UK via Melodic Records; and also, on cassette via Burger Records. All versions feature full-color artwork painted by Shannon Shaw (Shannon and The Clams).

Support the Band

Cool Ghouls - Days

Buy the album!

Cool Ghouls - Sundial

Empty Cellar is proud to release the newest album by Magic Trick, Other Man’s Blues. This offering from the band finds songwriter, Tim Cohen at a crossroads. It was written and recorded during a year that split his time between two lives, in two worlds. The newer of these worlds was on a horse ranch in the Arizona desert where he and his partner spent their first year with their newborn daughter. The other was the music world. The latter took place on the road, on tour with Magic Trick or with the Fresh & Onlys. And in the case of Other Man’s Blues, it took place for one week at Phil Manley’s Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco.

Tim arrived at the studio with a color-coded composition book of songs he’d been writing while bouncing to and fro. This book would have to suffice in lieu of rehearsal time with the 13 other musicians on the album. About half of the tracks feature James Kim on drums, the other half James Barone (Beach House). Alicia Van Heuvel (Aislers Set) and Paul Garcia split time on bass. Joel Robinow (Once and Future Band / Danny James) contributes on keys. Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang / The Muggers) provides a couple stunning guitar solos. There are omnipresent vocal harmonies from Alicia, Noelle Cahill and Anna Hillburg, the latter of whom also plays some trumpet. SF standbys Dylan Edrich, Tom Heyman, and Marc Capelle all contribute. It was a loose, largely improvised affair.

The album’s roster is less the product of grand ambition, and more the result of an open-door policy at the studio. These sessions also served as an opportunity for Tim to see friends while in town. He’d see who was around, they’d swing by. Allegedly tequila was involved. A “hit the joint and come up with a bit” approach. “Here’s a chord chart. Go.” And guest appearances are more than just a little icing on top. It’s the principle that warranted giving this project a band name 5 years ago: when Tim’s non-onlys oeuvre stopped being credited to Tim Cohen and instead was attributed to Magic Trick. Especially in the case of Other Man’s Blues, the players on the album define what shapes these songs take.

And it’s a wide variety of shapes you’ll find on this album. Take this less as a conscious display of versatility (although it does demonstrate Cohen & Co.’s ability to shape-shift) and more as a result of the freewheeling, haphazard recording environment. A ghostly choir of female voices open the album like a seance. And the spirit they conjure proceeds to flit about over the course of the ensuing ten tracks, animating various stylistic forms, from the baroque pop of “Forest of Kates” to the icy post-punk of “I Held the Ring.” There’s the air-tight R&B groove of “Startling Chimes,” the krauty “Purest Thing,” a jammy side-to-side trot that moves “First Thought” along, taking a detour into country before culminating in a glorious Grateful Dead indebted coda. But throughout, it’s Tim’s lyrics that are pushed to the front. This album is a display of solid songwriting – collectively fleshed out, but from Tim’s composition book, and with Tim’s lyrics about family and about himself. These songs are the sound of his friends helping him suss through the conflicts of his new dual existence as father and musician, between old self and new.

Magic Trick’s 2013 offering, River of Souls, opens asking, “Should we live from the mirrors other side?” Maybe, what you have here is an attempt to do just that. You can hear that his scope is widening, is being forced to widen by his circumstance. These songs are full of empathy. They reckon with notions of sacrifice and devotion, acknowledge the “winds of desire” and admit that “musings come from below” like a force of nature. Our protagonist is mid-transformation or maybe even pre-transformation. He is able to “regard his gruesome self” only because he is becoming a new man. Both sides are present. Which is the Other Man? Who is Tim Cohen? What is this magic he is trying pull off? Is it a trick? Or true sorcery?

Buy album!

Magic Trick - More

Life with dick is the new album by Grace Sings Sludge. It’s the continuation of a world Grace Cooper began illustrating as one of the lead songwriters of the San Francisco band The Sandwitches, and on her previous three collections of solo home recordings (released as limited run cassette tapes). As with the other solo albums, Grace does the artwork for Life with dick. Her delicate yet disturbing pen and watercolor creations are the perfect accompaniment for her songs, and seem as though they’ve emerged from the same troubled dreams. 

Though it is simple and quiet, there is a sense of urgency that permeates this record. Grace’s voice dances through the songs with a chameleon quality that’s sultry and commanding on “In Spite of Doom” and desperate, vulnerable and sharp on “Can’t Play” and “Everlasting Arms”.

Her lyrics contain the weariness of a woman resigned to a love requited, and the unsettling realities of maintaining love. In some places it seems she no longer knows where to direct her endless yearning. She observes on “bad timing pt.2” “two boats they don’t meet up in the night, they glide by each other and forever out of sight...  they might just be the lucky ones”.

The spookiness of Grace’s sound--a sound influential in some The Sandwitches’ best songs like ”Joe Says” and “In the Garden”--is still present here and especially on the darker B side of this record. Piercing guitars and heartbeat drums on “Everlasting arms” warn us as Grace gently sings “ something’s growing in the basement”, and of something that comes “from within”. The recording quality of Life With dick is raw but it is far from being a “garage record”. It is a recording brought down from the attic, with no date and with no intended audience, and is best listened to alone.

Grace Sings Sludge - In Spite Of Doom

With their respective tongues in their respective cheeks, Sami, Hannah, Eva, and Sinclair of The She’s proudly present to you their second LP - "all female rock and roll quartet". This time The She’s are behind the wheel, self-producing this release with counsel and encouragement from tUne-Yards’ Merrill Garbus. 

Lyrically, The She’s deliver a more mature, grounded, and self-aware album than ever before. Their storytelling is cathartic and relatable. Across twelve tracks, The She’s examine themes of guilt, heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, yearning, and acceptance. The She’s effortlessly balance lyrical sophistication and bluntness, like in “Death Dreams” when Sami plainly asserts, “hate how you treat the air like you’ll find your breath in it somewhere.” 

Tonally, "all female rock and roll quartet" strays a bit from earlier releases. Drawing inspiration from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Sleater-Kinney, and tUne-Yards, The She’s have officially leveled up in terms of sonic experimentation and eccentricity. From the blown-out wall of blistering guitars in “Ashes”, to the trance-inducing ebb and flow of the rhythm section in “Sorry”, to the spacious, angelic build up of vocal, guitars, and percussion in “Holly”, The She’s second LP offers up a plentiful spread of compelling tones and...  more
credits
releases November 17, 2017 

Band: Samantha Perez, Hannah Valente, Eva Treadway & Sinclair Riley (SHES) 
Engineer: Grace Coleman at Different Fur 
Mentor: Merrill Garbus (TuneYards) 
Mastering: Piper Payne 
Artwork: Nancy Valente, Lisa Treadway, Joanne Riley, Amelia Jane Perez, Shelby Drabman, Shannon Bodrogi, Candi Kinyobi, Megan Badilla, Karli Helm, Hannah Wednesday, Talia Khayat and Sara Gibbs

"all female rock and roll quartet"

The She's - Ashes

Lead track from Gord's Horse - a tour-only cassette album - by Cool Ghouls

COOL GHOULS on TOUR (May 2017)

Apr. 28 — San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout
May 2 — Los Angeles, CA @ Cafe Nela
May 3 — Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
May 5 — El Paso, TX @ Monarch
May 6 — Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
May 7 — San Antonio, TX @ Limelight
May 9 — New Orleans, LA @ Poor Boys
May 11 — Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre
May 12 — Nashville, TN @ The East Room *
May 13 — Asheville, NC @ TBA *
May 14 — Raleigh, NC @ Neptune’s *
May 16 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Barbary
May 17 — New York, NY @ Our Wicked Lady
May 18 — New York, NY @ Brooklyn Bazaar
May 19 — Boston, MA @ Black Lodge
May 20 — Montreal, QC @ TBA
May 21 — Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha
May 22 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Stone Horse Studios
May 23 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
May 24 — Omaha, NE @ Brother's Lounge
May 25 —  Denver, CO @ Hi Dive $
May 26 —  Salt Lake City, UT @ Vague Space $
May 27 — Sun Valley, ID @ Hot Water Inn $
May 28 — Boise, ID @ Neurolux $
May 29 — Moscow, IN @ Humble Burger $
Jun. 1 — Portland, OR @ The Know $
Jun. 2 — Chico, CA @ Duffy's $
Jun. 3 — San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel $

* w/ Thelma and the Sleaze
$ w/ Wooden Indian Burial Ground.

Read More: Stomp to Cool Ghouls' Time Machine Banger 'Gord's Horse' | http://clrvynt.com/cool-ghouls-gords-horse/

Cool Ghouls - Gord's Horse

Dear Friends,

Empty Cellar Records and the Earth Girl Helen Brown Center for Planetary Intelligence Band (E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B.) are pleased to announce the fourth and final installment of the first E.G.H.B.C.P.F.I.B. seasonal series. The season is Winter, the planet is VENUS, the topic is Love. Featuring Heidi Alexander, Tahlia Harbour, Graeme Gibson, James Finch Jr., Jamin Barton, Rusty Miller, Kelley Stoltz, Doug Hilsinger, Ryan Browne, Brigid Dawson, Grace Cooper, Anna Hillburg, Meryl Press, Alicia Vanden Heuvel, Lida Vanden Heuvel, Kearin Harlow and Wilder Harlow. VENUS aspires toward a softer more lustrous operation with hearts and minds in the fold of that ever human emotion.

Available from Empty Cellar Records on limited edition 100% post-consumer recycled cassette tape 2/14, all proceeds benefit organizations committed to the expansion of love and empathy as an antidote the absurd and vacuous practice of enmity.

Peace,
Empty Cellar Records/E.G.H.B.C.F.P.I.B.

Venus

Earth Girl Helen Brown - Chains of Love

Opening track off of Dylan Shearer's new LP, Porchpuddles (out June 19th)

Dylan Shearer - Afterwhile

Pat Thomas has been known as a driving singing/writing/bass-playing force behind San Francisco band Cool Ghouls for years and, over those years, in tandem with the band's group effort, has cultivated an interesting voice as a solo act. "Solo" isn't really the correct word though because the tracks on I Ain't Buyin' It showcase recordings complete with fully fleshed out arrangements, not unlike other ambitious California classics like The Beach Boys or Love. These comparisons seem lazy, given the obvious associations of the west coast with this sort of sonic imagery, which bands from San Francisco or LA - but SF especially - are seldom able to shake off. But at the entry point of this record, you welcome it as you would a lover of this style.

As this album's initial feeling moves forward, you get better acquainted with Thomas’s idiosyncratic song-writing and production style, which are playful and groovy and light-hearted. But these songs also convey a deeper inner dialogue which reflects the inherent paradox of life in a city such as San Francisco, or many other American cities. The feeling of general displacement and falling victim to commerce is real. A feeling that includes everything from the seduction of empty suburban idealism, to the city being robbed of its creative force by pointless commerce, to the entire USA being literally robbed from Native Americans. It's hard to maintain a positive outlook when one reflects on the depth of this situation, but Thomas has succeeded in presenting a way to embrace these circumstances: through this music. From The Beach Boys Friends-era wellness sing-along style on "Are You Okay", to the almost Curtis Mayfield-style mantra of "Give The Land To The People", you see that our situation somehow calls for celebration, a spirit that music has forever represented.

Music has always been a way to raise one's spirit to a higher place, despite life’s hardships. Music is material proof that all is not lost! In fact the opposite. And the emotion expressed in music proves that hardship is real, regardless of who you are or where you live. There is always something which cannot be lost and, with music like this, you can conjure a spirit that suggests a world of better possiblities. I Ain't Buyin' It is sung mainly by Thomas in his characteristic projectile voice, a thing of confidence and delivery, except the song "Reflection Chamber" which features C. Claire Doyle on lead vocals - a welcome beautiful melodic respite à la Judy Dyble circa Giles, Giles & Fripp. It culminates with a big group vocal by Thomas and other ghouls. For someone who has seen the amazing growth of the Cool Ghouls, you will similarly be impressed by this new piece by Pat Thomas.

Buy LP

Pat Thomas - Give The Land To The People

Pat Thomas - The Money Guys

Taken from Mrs. Jones' Cookies LP [EMP010]

The Sandwitches - Lightfoot

Grace Sings Sludge
Christ Mocked and the End of a Relationship

After 4 home-recording albums, Grace Cooper enters the studio for her new Grace Sings Sludge album, Christ Mocked and the end of a relationship.

Recorded at El Studio by Phil Manley (Life Coach / Trans Am), mixed and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control) and released by Empty Cellar Records - home to Coopers' old band The Sandwitches - the album will be accompanied by a 32-page book of Coopers' illustrations and lyrics.

There has always been a dreamy American gothic sensibility to Coopers' sound, and on Christ Mocked she continues to lean into this mood and presents us with a collection of deeply felt ballads and stories that have as much in common with Shirley Jackson as they do Karen Dalton or anything we’ve heard from her before.

Taking the album to the studio has added some polish to Grace Sings Sludge but as these songs and stories intertwine, it’s clear that Cooper is evolving her sound forward in strange and unexpected ways - even putting her own spin on audio drama with The Hackers and Borderlands. This is very much the sound of an artist experimenting and pushing expectations. Beneath the surface of these songs is a lovely mystery; a whelm in the gloom; a hope and a resilience that glow and thrive in the bottomless sea.

Grace Cooper plays all instruments on Christ Mocked, except drums and piano on "Horror for People That Don't Like Horror" played by Nic Russo/Dick Stusso.

- Glenn McQuaid (Tales From Beyond the Pale)

Grace Sings Sludge - Falling In Love With Him Again Was The Most Exciting Time Of My Life

No Longer is a suite of six absorbing, patient reveries on conflicted concupiscence and encroaching darkness by Berkeley songwriter Frank Ene, who composed the material in a period of solitude following the demise of his noise-pop group Pure Bliss. Ene abstained from socializing to write the songs, venturing outside mostly to work in the basement of a frame-shop or observe students on the nearby UC Berkeley campus, vintage self-help paperbacks stuffed in his pockets. When it came time to record, he opted to play nearly every instrument himself. “Some songs are affirmations,” he said. “The saddest ones I can’t remember writing, as if someone entered my mind and body in a really brutal way.”

Suffused with an atmosphere of slow-simmering tension, No Longer traffics in understated grooves reminiscent of latter-era Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, with Ene’s rich voice somehow sounding at once wispy and full-bodied. “Flesh in the Womb,” one of the songs to feature songwriter and Fresh & Onlys guitarist Wymond Miles, channels the lasciviousness of Serge Gainsbourg as well as the beguiling sparseness of Dean Blunt. The lyrics to “Housing Alcove,” a crushing meditation on childhood trauma, reveal competing, interconnected feelings of vulnerability and ambition (a duality captured by the evocative album art). A dynamic, repeat listen, No Longer stands among the most musically arresting and emotionally contoured Bay Area solo debuts in recent memory.

All songs written by Frank Ene 
Produced by: Jacob Winik & Frank Ene 
Additional Production: Wymond Miles
Engineered & Mixed by Jacob Winik 
Additional Mixing: Johnny Goss 
Mastered by Bijan Sharifi 
Recorded at Tiny Telephone

Frank Ene: Vocals, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Baritone Guitar, Drum Machine, Percussion, Piano 
Wymond Miles: Guitar
Adrianne deLanda: Vocals
Ivar Diehl: Saxophone

Album Photography by James Cromwell Holden
Design by Andrew Connors

No Longer

Frank Ene - Flesh in a Womb

All songs by Gravité
Gravité is Matthew Riley and Aaron Diko

Equipment used: Juno 60, Prodigy, Mono/Poly, Minimoog, SH-01A, MS20, Minilogue, Volcakeys, TR-08

Recorded by Matthew Riley, mixed and mastered by Mikey Young, album design by Billy Werch

Gravité - Window Paine

From their DEBUT LP on Empty Cellar Records. 

Cool Ghouls - Grace

Taken from their forthcoming DEBUT LP on Empty Cellar Records. Available for presale here: www.endlessnest.com/store/index.php#coolghoulsst

Cool Ghouls - Natural Life

The Cairo Gang - Tiny Rebels (Out 7/23/2013 on the Disneyland Reform Party and Empty Cellar) 

Tiny Rebels is a new collection of songs by The Cairo Gang. they are about awareness. They show a new economy in the work of The Cairo Gang's leader Emmett Kelly, conjuring up quick and defined songs un-housed in the shimmering of two burning electric 12-string guitars. the sound of them a swirling desert night sky under which songs call to arms multiple voices that long to be freed from the contraints of song. to be re-blooded in a frenzy of hard hitting drums and bass. all the while set against a wild array of compressed overtones that jangle by the hand of Kelly's inversly delicate touch. 

In The Cairo Gang's previous efforts The Corner Man and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy collaberation The Wondershow of the World, Kelly displayed a heaviness in subtlety. The songs laboured over and performed so that the fire and rage were things to play in tandem with, as a pranaic exercise even. the result is audience for a certain type of in-tuneness, that although powerful and realized, nurture both the playing and the fire and the rage... this can be a dangerous place. this leads to Tiny Rebels. Recorded in a week, it is an epiphany of sorts. it is the boiling point that which Kelly surrendered to in one sense, but obliterated in another. the songs are empowering leaps of faith: 

"Say what you want, babe. dont just sit and listen to what you are told. you've got what it takes. 
Lord knows the only way that can suit you well." 

And from that leap they fall at a speed.. 

The sound of this record is what distinguishes it the most from previous works. Each song has the same instrumentation. two electric 12-string guitars, bass, and drums, with many voices often double tracked exciting a gorgeous spring reverberation and cut fiercely onto quarter inch tape. always in the red and fighting for space, the layers are deeply compressed and pulsating, creating an un-ease that fluctuates as if the listener is in a vacuum, pushing and pulling. or a wave pool. when cranked, it sounds as if there is music happening beyond the music. in the abstraction of the guitar sound. in the spacial irrecognition of the tape and reverb. the non-presence of the drums.. the jagged tremoloes.. The Cairo Gang has armed itself well on this record. turn it up loud and let it wash over you like an ocean.

The Cairo Gang - Tiny rebels

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm Taaka in suburban Benicia years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly - but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

At George's Zoo

Cool Ghouls - Helpless Circumstance

Cool Ghouls - a band fledged in San Francisco on house shows, minimum wage jobs, BBQ's in Golden Gate Park and the romance of a city’s psychedelic history turns 10 this year. What better a decennial celebration than the release of their fourth album, At George's Zoo!

How did San Francisco's fab four arrive at George's Zoo? The teenage friendship of complimentary spirits Pat McDonald (Guitar/Vox) and Pat Thomas (Bass/Vox) serves as square one. The Patricks were munching on Eggo-waffle-sandwiches and downing warm Taaka in suburban Benicia years before McDonald would hear George Clinton address his fans as "Cool Ghouls". The boys played their debut gig as Cool Ghouls at San Francisco's legendary The Stud in 2011, but there's no doubt the musical moment cementing the band's trajectory was much earlier at the 18th birthday party for boy-wonder Ryan Wong (Guitar/Vox) - at the Wong household.

You might remember the Ghouls' earliest days... McDonald’s hair hung luxuriously past his waist, Thomas dreamt of no longer having to crash on friends' couches to call SF home and Wong looked forward to turning 21. Cool Ghouls' Pete Best, Cody Voorhees, thrashed wildly - but briefly - on the drums and Alex Fleshman (Drums), who still claims he's not really "a drummer", turned out to be a really good drummer. Thomas would sleep pee on tour. Those were golden days!

Flash forward to today and everything is up in flames. No shows, parties or bars. Cool people are streaming out of SF. It's been 2 years since the last time Cool Ghouls have even played. The STUD is gone, The Eagle Tavern is for sale and The Hemlock has been demolished for condos. Your boss is an app. Fascism is no-knocking down the door. There's a pandemic.

Fortunately for us, the ghouls got an album in before it all went to shit, and they made it count. At George's Zoo includes 15 of the 27 tunes they managed to eke out while simultaneously working through major life moves. It was a 5-month, all out, final sprint down the homestretch (to Ryan's moving day) with affable engineer Robby Joseph, at his makeshift garage studio in the Outer Sunset (pictured on the cover). Instead of recording the entire album over a few consecutive days - like they'd done with Tim Cohen, Sonny Smith and Kelley Stoltz for the first three LPs - the band took it slow by working through a few songs each weekend after rehearsing them the week before. Robby would cue up the tape, McDonald would throw some steaks on the grill and they'd get to work - much to the neighbor, George's, chagrin.

These guys have a real commitment to elevating as songwriters, musicians and ensemble players. It's always been for the music with Cool Ghouls and this long-awaited self-produced outing is a track by track display of the ground they've covered and heights they can achieve. Their vocals and trademark harmonies are front and center and out-of-control-good. Ryan's guitar solos are incredible. The horns by Danny Brown (sax) and Andrew Stephens (trumpet) hit in all the right places. Maestro, Henry Baker (Pat Thomas Band / Tino Drima), plays keys throughout. There's even a mesmerizing string section ("Land Song") by sonic polyglot, Dylan Edrich.

None of this growth is to the detriment of the fun, natural, feeling that fans have come to expect from the band. This is a fully realized Cool Ghouls album. It paints a remarkable portrait of SF's homegrown heroes and the many corners they've explored over the last decade. The songwriting, harmony and playing are nothing if not solid. The lyrics are keen. Robby's recording and mixing sound great start to finish and even better after mastering by Mikey Young. It's a triumphant addition to their catalogue. Recommended for Stooges and Beach Boys fans alike. Listen and see!

Cool Ghouls - The Way I Made You Cry

Albums from Cool Ghouls, The She's, The Cairo Gang, Grace Sings Sludge, Earth Girl Helen Brown, Tim Cohen / Magic Trick, The Sandwitches, Frank Ene, Joseph Childress, Sonny Smith, Dylan Shearer, Ryan Wong, Pat Thomas, Pillars & Tongues, Charles Sharp 6, Sword + Sandals, and more... Distributed by Revolver/Midheaven.

Empty Cellar Records

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