Agathocles / Sissy Spacek
(Ultra Eczema - UE77) split 7-inch $12.00
The first in Ultra Eczema’s year-long series of monthly 7s in which anything goes: from the acid of Pierre Elitair to the mincecore of Agathocles or a prank by Frieder Butzmann. This one has ten songs by each band: Agathocles (raw, muffled, gruntly, painful, fast) drills holes in your skull and pours in a cocktail of ass-grinding diarrhea recorded during a rehearsal before a tour of Mexico; Sissy Spacek shaves off your nose and eyelashes with Gerogerigegege-style noisecore (a brutal slap of preparé right there). Fold open cover designed by Debby Tyfus, with lyrics, etc. 300 copies
California Ax
(Helicopter - H50) 4xCD $32.00
All four of Sissy Spacek’s extant proper albums could probably fit onto a single CD; flipping that notion on its head, California Ax contains four new full length albums in one trim little boat. Tinsel Dripping Ink (disc one) covers territory from grindcore, noise, electro-acoustic improv, musique concrete, noisecore, and electronics. It's primarily made up of new work, but also ruts through the cutting room floor for the best bits that didn't make it onto previous efforts, with a few tracks dating as far back as 1998. Police (disk two) is 11 tracks in 40 minutes of electro-acoustic improv with girls on drums. Abreq Ad Habra (disc three) -- named after an Arabic phrase pre-dating "Abracadabra," the preferred mistranslation of which is "hurl an even lightning bolt until death” -- contains Sissy Spacek’s rawest recordings ever: a 40-minute inferno from KXLU and a 20-minute live set in 2002 in St. Louis. 13-Tet Los Angeles (disc four) is a live document of a 13-piece lineup that performed two sets at The Smell in Los Angeles in December 2007 and is also the first live performance of a score by John Wiese. Completist alert -- the Spacek core of John Wiese and Corydon Ronnau called upon the following for contributions to California Ax: Mitchell Brown, Sarah Cake, Kevin Drumm, Gerritt, Kate Hall (Mika Miko), Joseph Hammer (Solid Eye), Aaron Hemphill (Liars, Skull Sküll), Jesse Jackson (Flaspar), Greg Kelley (Nmperign), Tim Koh (White Magic, Ariel Pink), Danny McClain (Grand Ulena), Giles Miller, Oblivia (Smegma), Andy Ortmann (Panicsville), Sam Ott (The Fucking Angels), Tom Recchion (Airway, LAFMS), Damion Romero (Speculum Fight), Jarrett Silberman (Skull Sküll, Young People), Dean Spunt (No Age), David Scott Stone (Melvins, Get Hustle), and Shannon Walter (16 Bitch Pileup).
Dash
(Gilgongo - GGGR038) LP $12.75
Scathing sound by John Wiese and Corydon Ronnau, joined by Lasse Marhaug and Will Strangeland of Tearist and Silver Daggers, cautiously partitioned into forty-one short bursts of truly obliterated hardcore. Ruptured and bleeding out, heavily.
French Record
(Dual Plover) CD $15.50 (Out-of-stock)
Using full-on blur/grindcore as a starting point, Sissy Spacek has evolved toward the extreme, intense fringes of musique concrete. On this, their fifth proper album, they explore new territory, as always, and take unforeseeable turns into electro-acoustic improv, collage, industrial, noise and heavy metal, with a line up that includes Kevin Drumm, Kate Hall (Mika Miko), Sam Ott (The Fucking Angels), Corydon Ronnau, John Wiese, and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core).
Harm
(Troniks - TRO296) CD $7.50
A lo-fi garage clash by Phil Blankenship, Jesse Jackson, Charlie Mumma, Corydon Ronnau and John Wiese, recorded during preparation for the December 2011 Sissy Spacek tour. Thudding sickness, black-souled vocal retch, and thrashing violence turn to blistering white out. Recorded direct to tape and straight to hell at F-House. Edition of 200.