Releases
Scrimshaw
So Wonderful
ACT-011 CD
|
|
Wanda |
The most recent full-length album to date from hardcore weird dreamers Scrimshaw. Are they men or Salvia-addicted ewoks? Whimsical and funky; includes a song designed to simulate nausousness, songs about animals' friendship, geriatric Mickey Rooney, singing manitou all night, eating shrimp with a living meatball and a cover of the disco classic "Mighty Real". Eminently enjoyable.
Crappy Dracula
Almost
ACT-010 LP
02.05.10 Crappy Dracula, already masters of the single and the EP mediums, dusts off the cassette machines for their first full-length, Almost (ACT-010 LP). The fat is trimmed and what remains is 13 tracks of tape bleed and subtle wit. Their humor is most evident on songs like "Reverse Puberty," "Work Punk," and "Art Explained," with the lines "I want books like TV / Beckett plays in hot rod cars." The trio doesn't entirely avoid the punk guillotine, but they mock it from a distance. Win a free copy in their review contest.
Email dugjimmy@yahoo.com for PayPal or mail order info.
$13 post paid in US
V/A
Compilation 2
ACT-009 CD
09.09.09 Compilation II - the next Activities CD release of home recording enthusiasts from around the country. New & Unreleased tracks from Activities bands Farms in Trouble, Trash Crack, The Trusty Knife, & Scrimshaw - contributing artists also include Holy Mary Motor Club, Arrington De Dionyso (Old Time Relijun), Shep & Me, and more.
The Candeliers
The Candeliers
ACT-008 CD/LP
|
|
St. Joan Antida |
Crappy Dracula / Farms in Trouble
White Women EP / Employment History
ACT-007 7"
|
|
|
|
FARMS IN TROUBLE |
CRAPPY DRACULA Hospital Waste Management Facility Party Tonight Applications A Good Flying Bird (GbV) |
Seven inch w/ seven songs. Crappy Dracula (also known as "Thee Krappy Drakula" in Europe) spins things off with "Hospital Waste..." then bring the sticky punk shout-out with "Applications," and sneak the classic pop dunk of "A Good Flying Bird." Flip it and get into Farms in Trouble's psych-pop frenetics with the previously unreleased "Employment History," an ode to everything. The B-side is filled out by more disjointed R&B smack-fuzz clips in "Stickman Bugs Out" and "Big Fan." Also available on EEEFIN Records; limited run and running out.
Farms in Trouble / Trash Crack
Guzzler EP / Joyseeker EP
ACT-006 CD/CAS
 |
 |
| FARMS IN TROUBLE GUZZLER EP Horseman Floors It Guzzler raincloud deluxxxe I.am.not.I the iron shirts Weird + coils.s.s.s |
TRASH CRACK JOY SEEKER EP (Galactic Canyon) Loose Arms Man's World pt 1 Kettle Call / Kettle Black Nails [nails] Man's World pt 2 |
Hot on the trail of the full-length, The Gas Station Soundtrack, Farms in Trouble
have come to the sound-wave world again with a 7-song EP. Guzzler EP changes masks regularly,
donning the guru tassels and electric eyeglass frames simultaneously. The first five tracks
alternate between straightforward pop amulets and slo-mo oil spills. It closes with "Weird,"
channelling the spirit of the Pixies, frequency modulated for alien decoding purposes only,
and "Coils," which cribs Hank Williams like a blind man transcription for the Machinists' Orchestra.
Guzzler EP is coupled with the burgeoning psych herd, Trash Crack, who's flip-outs and flutters
feed from the same trough as the Who and Wire. Joy Seeker EP dabbles in balladry amid blow-outs
of its current feedback and/or dissonance.
Available together as split cassette or on CD.
The Trusty Knife
The Trusty Knife
ACT-005 CD
 |
A Flash in the Pan The One & Only World Famous Clean-Up Crew Now You See Me Now You Don't It's All Built In Ditch the Chops Long Distance Song The Jack In The Box Now This Is Love Always All the Time Goliath & Son Stealin' Natural Habitat Like Eye Colors |
The Trusty Knife's self-titled full-length pines for the pleasures of pontification and self-actualization. Guitars chime and clang from the nooks and crannies of a neuroscience laboratory as the bass/bassoon combo shake loose debris from the overhead floorboards. Its A-side distills the band's direction from the pissed-off slop-rock of "Ditch the Chops" to the brightly-colored funk of "Now You See Me Now You Don't." The second half kicks into motion a barrage of unlikely rhymes and rhythms starting with "Aw, maybe they found you hanging up some silly circus poster on a bulletin board / So we could read about how they plucked you out with this slick surgeons instrument I could never afford." The frontiering of "Goliath & Son" makes no apologies to the pillaged natives while "Natural Habitat" rides a narcotic wave through karaoke machine databases. The disc closes with the disturbing snapshot of instability, "Like Eye Colors." The Trusty Knife is the third and most cohesive collection of Trusty Knife songs -- their
first on Activities.
$12 post paid in US
Scrimshaw
Donkey Venom
ACT-004 CD
|
|
Scrimshaw pushes the fuzz and the tape speed knob flickers with secrets. This elusive band bestows another album of blurred beauty with daring reservedness. The spontaneity and humor of pre-WWII American Jug-band music meets an inspired sense of lunacy and childlike sonic mayhem. The songs' intricate percussion and splattered electronics add an aural flourish to their classic melodie.
motorbed
$6 post paid in US |
Farms in Trouble
The Gas Station Sound Track
ACT-003 CD
|
|
my beautiful baby born inside out go get golden |
|
Farms in Trouble's The Gas Station Sound Track is a kaleidoscopic patchwork ofsong-scraps and fidelities from shimmering pop-folk psychedelia to clattering basement-caveman-rock. Milwaukee's Farms in Trouble ratchet out 27 songs in 42 minutes, while chasing blunt shapes and foreign objects through ______ fields. From Beefheart to the White Album to early GbV, The Gas Station Sound Track never settles without a quick escape. Fanciful a capellas are indiscreetly swapped for stammering knick-knacks; overly unprocessed sound bites flank 60-second molehills; horseshoes and cowbells dematerialize; as proof of another civilization waits under the rubble. |
|
V/A
Compilation 1
ACT-002 CD
A 25 track CD with 10 tracks by Activities bands-- a diverse palette of audible ambiguity from
Nothing In That Drawer's sonic sonnet in Area Man to Farms in Trouble's disaster-averting Empty
Arrows & Exit Signs. Trash Crack's punk-perfect Kettle Call Kettle Black touches high heavens.
The compilation highlights other Milwaukee bands John the Savage, Pigs On Ice, Crappy Dracula,
Dear Astronaut, Elusive Parallelograms, and more.
The Trusty Knife / The Candliers
"Natural Habitat" / "Brighton Beach"
ACT-001 7"
 |
| |
© activities, MMIX