Graveface Records

Music:

Member Since: 2/19/2005
Band Website: graveface.com
Band Members: The Appleseed Cast
Art in Manila
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Daturah
Dreamend
Experimental Aircraft
Hospital Ships
Jakob
Kid Dakota
Laura Gibson
The Lava Children
The Loose Salute
Monster Movie
The Octopus Project
Power Pill Fist
Spires that in the Sunset Rise
Toman
Tiny Little Hammers
William Schaff

Influences: COMING SOON:

Black Moth Super Rainbow
Drippers (grave040) cd/10 inch
11.04.08
BMSR rarities comp.
Both the vinyl and cd come with a scratch n sniff cover!!

Tracklisting:
Zodiac Girls (Pony Version of 7" Single)
I Saw Brown (Pre-BMSR from 1999)
Black Yogurt (with Mike Watt)
Milk Skates
Happy Melted City
One Day I Had An Extra Toe (Esopus Magazine Compilation)
We Are The Pagans (Dandelion Gum Outtake)
Changing You All
Just For The Night (by Laura Burhenn, BMSR Remix)

Vinyl comes with a bonus track!! Pre-orders soon.

Dreamend is the main musical output of Ryan Graveface, Graveface Records' owner/sole employee and part time guitarist for psychedelic oddballs Black Moth Super Rainbow. Since its’ inception in 2002, Graveface has released albums by Monster Movie (ex-Slowdive), The Loose Salute (Mojave 3 side project), Kid Dakota, Appleseed Cast, Art in Manila (ex-Azure Ray), Octopus Project, BMSR and many more.
The Long Forgotten Friend's 14 songs (10 songs on the cd version) are loosely based on stories and memories of a relative from the far past, whose tragic life has metamorphosed into legend over the course of time. This is music to listen to while driving through abandoned cities and ghost towns, imagining their disintegration. Rather than drums making the melody as on their previous efforts, banjo and vocals are at the foreground of the landscape. The drumming is minimalist, almost spastic and, as always, the guitars are the ghosts. Dreamend has taken a darker, folky, more nightmarish road than before. Some evidence of this can be found on the tracks Your Kiss, Scratch and Deathwatch Carnival 1965. Conversely, they have found themselves with more poppy, almost sing-alongs than ever before (see Are you Waking and The Tulip Staircase).

Appearances by Toto of the Octopus Project and Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota add some outside sounds, while Darren and John Congleton's (see Explosion in the Sky, Modest Mouse, etc) mixing bring them all together.

Listeners are encouraged to buy the vinyl version as it includes the cd version for free, contains 4 extra songs-16 minutes worth of music, a handmade pop-up gatefold by William Schaff (GYBE!, Okkervil River etc), and an extra cd of demos and alternate versions. The cd version comes packaged in a 15pt chipboard gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet of photos by Christy Romanick. In stores on Oct 28th. PRE-ORDERS SOON!

Jordan Geiger, songwriter of Minus Story, trumpet player for Shearwater and resident of Lawrence, Kansas, brings you his bedroom-pop solo album, Oh, Ramona.
Influenced by the sounds of The Flaming Lips song from which the name Hospital Ships is drawn, Geiger's debut exudes a seasoning of classic influences including John Lennon, The Zombies, and ELO to produce a bedroom pop symphony.

Exploring relationships both failed and ongoing with friends, lovers, and pets, Geiger delicately teases the listener with his boyish tenor of a voice. In the background, muted horns swell, pianos twinkle, and percussion marches in step.

Mixed mostly by John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Modest Mouse,The Mountain Goats, The Polyphonic Spree), Oh, Ramona is the culmination of over two and half years of writing and recording. Highlights include the upbeat opener "Bitter Radio Single," the symphonic majesty of "I Want It To Get Out," the tender "Girls," and the truly pet sounds-influenced title track.

This record comes packaged in an 18pt chipboard gatefold sleeve and is lovingly hand assembled by your friends at Graveface Records.

PRE-ORDERS SOON!!

CATALOGUE (check the site for more!):

Daturah
Reverie cd / 2xlp (grave025) 4.18.08
Take the vaporous fumes from the heavy lilting post rock from the likes of Isis, Pelican, and Explosions in the Sky, splash in a little bit of the eerie and goose bump inducing cinematic vibes of Entroducing era DJ Shadow, a chic albeit druggy post modern foray into the psyche ala the Blade Runner soundtrack and you’re still only touching the surface of Daturah’s creative impetus. Daturah cannot be merely explained or pigeonholed but instead, felt, by the listener. Hailing from Frankfurt, Germany, this instrumental combo stretch their riffs through audible taffy pulls and seep in crisp and thinly layered synths along with half buried samples to create a listening experience that jolts the senses. While staying true to the Krautrock glide of Can and Tangerine Dream, Reverie is intricately woven headphone music for those who like their loudness plunging to the depths of ocean trench droning while treading upon a moody middle ground of pure resonance and dulcet friction. They may rock their instrumental guile a bit heavy at times but it’s all weaved into a trance-inducing and ambient sojourn into a vivid panorama of love, fear and anger exhibiting how sometimes that music sans words can offer all the explaining there is to offer.
The cd comes in a gatefold eco jacket and the double vinyl comes in a gatefold jacket with the first pressing being 500 copies(150 violet/clear/yellow combo; 350 black). The first pressing of the vinyl from me is handnumbered.

Kid Dakota
A Winners Shadow cd/lp (grave038) 3.25.08
Inspired by the raw beauty of songwriter Darren Jackson's native Black Hills, Kid Dakota has always managed to musically conjure a sacred space where beauty and tragedy overlap.
With their 2008 release, A Winner's Shadow, Jackson and drummer Ian Prince leave behind that dusty, windswept panorama and trade it for an urban landscape that crackles and pulses with electric life. Against this backdrop, we experience the awe and terror of the songs' narrators as they navigate loneliness, loss and love. Shadow takes the edge off these weighty themes with the gorgeous melodies, pop sensibilities and dynamic percussion that characterize the band's acclaimed live performances. Even more readily than their 2001 release So Pretty or 2004's The West is the Future, the songs of Shadow retain their warmth amidst their darkest moments.

It's this unique balance of complexity and accessibility, light and dark, that makes Shadow an equally appropriate soundtrack for either the lost soul wandering the streets of NYC or the free spirit cruising the open prairie.

When Ken Fec isn’t collaborating with his other outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow where he’s helping to create some of the glossiest and narcotic induced drizzling sunshine pop kookiness, he’s serving as the brainchild of Power Pill Fist, an entity at the helm of some chunky ass, psychotropic, skewed bliss.
Rest assured Fec isn’t just some fly-by-night knob twiddler but instead a visionary with a true penchant for manipulating the Atari 2600 tossed into the mix with a mind-boggling night where Ennio Morricone, Kraftwerk, and Black Dice paint the town red. Still going strong as the resident DJ for Graveface Records where he puts on sets sans spinning the records between the live sets of the artists from the labels roster, Fec’s second release, Kongmanivong, under the Power Pill Fist moniker perches him atop the summit of modern day experimental music.

Kongmanivong is a hearty collage of hazy dub resonance and sticky funk with the abrasiveness of early industrial paladins such as Nitzer Ebb and Frontline Assembly. Even though the most seasoned of noise rock fans will dig it, Kongmanivong keeps the squalls of fuzz abundant but simmers them down into a disturbing procession of skronky techno and globs upon globs of post-modern meets neo-Krautrock all underlined with a seedy pop underbelly that is enigmatically and simultaneously jarring and soothing. Never have the terms “bi-polar” “haywire” and “ambient” been able to be tossed around freely in a single summation of music as they are when mentioning Kongmanivong.

Cd comes in a 18pt chipboard gatefold package.

Experimental Aircraft
Third Transmission cd (grave023)
2.26.08
Experimental Aircraft could be 2008’s version of The Pixies if they were slowed down to a crawling halt and layered in atmospheric dust. Or, at times, they sound like a more pummeling version of The Cure (how can this be?). If the band’s upcoming album “Third Transmission” were released in 1991, there is no question it would be among the most popular releases of its time. A forward thinking album for shoegaze fans everywhere, “Third Transmission” brings us back to some of the greatest bands making music in the nineties ie The Jesus and Mary Chain, All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors, Antarctica, or Stereolab (which is to say, “Third Transmission” could have legendary status). Although their sound reminds us of an era since gone by, there is no question that their music is still more than relevant today (what’s that? My Bloody Valentine has reunited? Yes!).
Hailing from Austin, TX, Experimental Aircraft are among the latest signings to the Graveface Records imprint, that fine Chicago-based label who recently brought you new hits from Black Moth Super Rainbow, Appleseed Cast, The Octopus Project, and more, so you know this is legit, and if you really know this label, odds are you know it’s probably going to blow your mind. Already being heralded by URB’s Next 100, Experimental Aircraft can be described with words such as “lush,” “ethereal,” “soothing” and “beautiful,” thanks to front-woman / guitarist Rachel Staggs’ gorgeous, breathy-yet-apocalyptic vocals and heavily distorted instrument. When TJ O’Leary takes over front-man duties, his sound is desperate and tortured, recalling Robert Smith’s shout-cry that made his band so timeless and important. O’Leary’s duties also lie in distorted guitar which adds to the heavily layered sound currently blowing out your speakers.

Innovative and impressive, Experimental Aircraft prove they can stand the test of time and reign supreme in a genre that desperately needed a new face to the name.

Black Moth Super Rainbow come from the woods of western Pennsylvania. An actual, five-member band without the expected laptops and sequencers, BMSR is a psych-pop group in early-’70s electronic clothing. Sometimes the songs feel like pagan rituals in a sugarcoated fairyland, while at other times they’re like sad thoughts on the happiest days. All are lovingly played by real people with real hands.
Members prefer to go by aliases and stay away from normal press photos, in an attempt to keep the focus on their music. Led by Tobacco (Vox), who does most of the writing and production, the band also consists of Power Pill Fist (bass and atari), Father Hummingbird (rhodes and monosynth), The Seven Fields Of Aphelion (monosynth) and Iffernaut (drums). By developing their ideas in near-seclusion and without any local influence in Pittsburgh, they come across as feral and unique. Imagine being able to wipe the slate clean and hearing a pop song without ever hearing a pop song before and replacing the types of melodies you’re accustomed to hearing with something different. It’s kind of like that.

Most people associate sounds like a vocoded vocal with techno and novelty and analog synths with electro, but BMSR is coming from a different place and are trying to recontextualize these sounds. They’re categorized in the electronic genre, but their heads are somewhere else.