The new video for 'Slow Machines' by The Gold Medalists (dir: Bernard Bidion) is now up on YouTube. Check it!
* "Actually, Records." on YouTube
We recently started up our own official YouTube channel
In a stroke of serendipity, we were blessed enough for reclusive Chicago filmmaker Reginald Buckson to piece together two more in his continuing series of Nam June Paik-inspired video collages. Having studied under the wing of both Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger, Buckson produced such legendary video shorts as ‘Under the Dome’ (1968), ‘My Conception’ (1972) and the infamous ‘Phake Director’ (1983) (aka Crispin Glover’s film debut!) So, with great pleasure, we present his two most recent video pieces:
1. THE GOLD MEDALISTS – ‘WHITELEY SCREAMS, DENVER SLEEPS’
It’s only been uploaded for a week and already it’s had over 600 hits (no joke!) and an endorsement from angryasianman.com! Needless to say, we’re really hyped about this and hope you enjoy it as much as we do! And yes, it is indeed killer dance-fest!
2. JOEL WALTER – ‘WILLIAM CLAY’
Compiled from 1930’s footage, ‘William Clay’ is a grim and emotional portrayal of a boxer’s struggle to survive in the ring.
Soon enough, we'll be posting up archival videos from XYZR_KX, Hope in Ghosts and more!
Also, there will be another special video premiering on-line this Friday which we’ll be posting the link for in a few days!
* THE GOLD MEDALISTS - 'THE CITY LIGHTS US ON FIRE' - Out Now!
“Peter Nguyen is one of the finest drummers I know and now a fine songwriter. His first collections of songs only whisper at the enormous potential to come.”
- Yoshi Nakamoto, The Aislers Set
“Peter Nguyen is the best thing happening in the Bay Area right now.”
- Sooyoung Park, Seam
PART ANIMAL PART MACHINE. Those are the words scrawled across professional skateboarder Jason Jessee's back and a phrase well suited to describe San Francisco’s Peter Nguyen AKA The Gold Medalists. Famed as the drummer monster behind noise/metalheads Total Shutdown and indie-rockers eE, Nguyen (pronounced Win) is now releasing his debut album, The City Lights Us on Fire, to the world, and woe to those who turn a deaf ear.
The City Lights Us on Fire draws heavily on Nguyen’s vast array of cultural influences (Public Enemy, Minor Threat, Elliot Smith, Metallica, Skankin' Pickle, ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Thundercats’) and King Kong Balls musical chops to create a tour de force debut. These are the sounds of a musician unafraid to contrast songs you want to hear on a sunny day when you wish it were raining next to high energy, throat ripping, noise-laden dance-funk riots. Beginning with the haunting ‘Forgotten’, the album quickly launches into the one-two punch of ‘Where We Land’ and ‘Whitely Screams, Denver Sleeps’, the former a model of glistening electro-pop and the latter a fractured noise revolt. The album then travels from the bittersweet (‘Drift’, ‘Quiet Town’, and ‘Flight’), the reflective (‘Tennessee’), the splintered (‘The Bay’), to the cathartic yet yearning (‘Slow Machines’).
Before the album’s conclusion, the listener’s heart breaks with the appearance of an intimate and evocative quartet of songs (‘In This Room’, ‘We Can Try’, ‘Summer After’, and ‘A Little Knife’). Connected via the shared traits of delicate singing, autumnal lyrics, and enigmatic field recordings, Nguyen creates an aural tableau so private and precious that it almost feels intrusive to listen to them. Culminating with the heartbreaking and regretful ‘Blue Skies’, The City Lights Us on Fire leaves the listener marked by a sonic experience rich in its emotional honesty and fiery determination.
Guest appearances on The City Lights Us on Fire are as vast as the sounds on the record itself and include stellar contributions from Nate Denver (Total Shutdown, Nate Denver's Neck), Che Chou (eE), Paul Allan (Sounds of the Barbary Coast, NAM, Houndstooth and the Wolfhounds), George Chen (Boxleitner, K.I.T., 7 Year Rabbit Cycle) and one giraffe-face breaking scream from Mark Whiteley (editor of Slap Skateboarding Magazine).
THE GOLD MEDALISTS – ‘THE CITY LIGHTS US ON FIRE’
Tracklisting:
1. Forgotten
2. Where We Land
3. Whiteley Screams, Denver Sleeps
4. Tennessee
5. Drift
6. The Bay
7. Quiet Town
8. Slow Machines (mp3)
9. Flight
10. In This Room
11. We Can Try
12. Summer After
13. A Little Knife
14. Blue Skies
* Free OISHI 7" w/ every THE GOLD MEDALISTS Ctdltd order!
As a special bonus with your CD purchase from our distributor Carrot Top Distribution using their Sakistore, you’ll get a free bonus Oishi 7”! Who are Oishi, you ask? None other than the collaboration between Jon Monteverde AKA XYZR_KX and singer/songwriter Carly Oishi. This 7” previews four songs from their forthcoming album, due sometime in 2008! Free Swag = awesome!
Armed mainly with a guitar and harmonica, Central Ohio-based singer-songwriter Joel Walter examines the core of blue-collar life via portraits of broken souls worn down by hard living and the lost dreams that are often buried within them. His debut full-length album, Heart of Branches, portrays these lost souls unsparingly, illuminating their fractured desperation and frustration yet always celebrating their fiery will to get by and survive.
‘Heart of Branches’ comprises a collection of wearily reflective songs written and recorded over the past two years. Bleak, bitter, yet hopeful; Walter's songs have an austerity that you discover via his honest vocal delivery even before you experience it in the songwriting itself. Walter’s singing is raspy and unbridled, and the intricate yet uncluttered arrangements on his debut provide the perfect aural setting for them to shine.
Weaving together sounds both classic and modern, the tapestries of voice, guitar, and harmonica, sometimes augmented by mandolin, piano, and Magnus, add luminous musical textures to the power of the songwriting, itself revealed to be sometimes lyrical, sometimes ominous, but always haunting.
"Walter's grizzled, syrupy vocals pour out in an
unhurried manner, filling the gaps in time between the
acoustic guitar plucking and occasional harmonica.
The effect isn't as bombastic as Cash or out of
control like The Pogues, but it fits into the category
of traditional but badass sounds. Everything comes
together in songs like "William Clay," where he talks
about being pushed around, being put in a cage, and
always being on the run." - Giant Robot
JOEL WALTER - 'HEART OF BRANCHES'
Tracklisting:
1. Bleeding Hands
2. Photo Album
3. William Clay
4. Magnus I
5. Went Home
6. Swimming
7. Snake
8. Leaves
9. Magnus II
10. Heart of Branches
The debut full-length, 'All Your Departures', arrives from
guitar anti-hero Ted Flynn's Hope in Ghosts project. Predominantly
instrumental, Flynn uses differing guitar tones, layers and
arrangements to sonically represent the cycle of emotions
involved when losing someone, leaving, or being left.
HOPE IN GHOSTS - 'ALL YOUR DEPARTURES'
Tracklisting:
1. Los Feliz, 1997
2. Snowfall fell
3. Something is going to land here any minute
4. You will be gone
5. Pris
6. Glint
7. I have to get up now
8. Your mistake
* WHAT NOW MY LOVE NOW on sale in the "Actually, Shop"
As a special treat, we are now selling the highly limited edition of the legendary now-defunct Evanston, IL based What Now My Love's 7" Ep titled 'Does This Tail Have a Happy Ending? or A Story There's No Point in Telling? in Three Songs'. Who were What Now My Love, you ask? Well, they were only the best band that never was... Featuring AR's very own Jon Monteverde (AKA XYZR_KX) on drum machine, this
posthumous seven inch contains three of the group's tunes, featuring a mix of guitar, drum machine, and cello. Recorded just before everyone blew town, the group really plays their arses off.
"I was in this band with kids at college. We played a lot of shows and recorded some songs, then broke up. The music was at least three years ahead of its time." - Jon
