Chapter Music » Releases

Master LP

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:40:59 +0000

OUT SEPTEMBER 27, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!

Second album by Auckland’s incredible garage punk girl group noise DIY monsters Coolies. A collection of the ﬁrst four years since they were joined on drums by Stevan Neville, of lo-fi scuzz pop one man band Pumice. Raw, lo-ﬁ, annoying, brilliant, monumental, totally necessary, nothing to do with anything, what u always hoped would never happen, what u never hoped could always happen, the end of music, the begining of the future, set in the past, god sent, Richard Dawkins, birthday party, inhouse joke, our life in your hands, our hands on our hearts…An accumulation of recordings, recorded andmixed etc by Stefan Neville reel to reel at random places around Auckland and loved by all…

Master CD

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:39:52 +0000

OUT SEPTEMBER 27, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!

Second album by Auckland’s incredible garage punk girl group noise DIY monsters Coolies. A collection of the ﬁrst four years since they were joined on drums by Stevan Neville, of lo-fi scuzz pop one man band Pumice. Raw, lo-ﬁ, annoying, brilliant, monumental, totally necessary, nothing to do with anything, what u always hoped would never happen, what u never hoped could always happen, the end of music, the begining of the future, set in the past, god sent, Richard Dawkins, birthday party, inhouse joke, our life in your hands, our hands on our hearts…An accumulation of recordings, recorded and mixed etc by Stefan Neville reel to reel at random places around Auckland and loved by all…

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding LP – OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:37:58 +0000

SOLD OUT!

Melbourne grunge pop heroes Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are the brain child of artist/musician/furniture removalist Craig Dermody, andParavista Social Club is an amazing collection of bittersweet slacker anthems. Made in a limited edition of 200 LPs, with op-shop covers individually painted over by Craig, the album was first sold at an art exhibition and then Scott & Charlene’s final gig before Craig moved to New York. These copies on the Chapter webstore are now the last remaining LPs available for sale, anywhere!

Each copy has a unique handpainted cover.

AVAILABLE ON ITUNES SOON

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding LP – AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMERS

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:34:07 +0000

SOLD OUT!

Melbourne grunge pop heroes Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are the brain child of artist/musician/furniture removalist Craig Dermody, and Paravista Social Club is an amazing collection of bittersweet slacker anthems. Made in a limited edition of 200 LPs, with op-shop covers individually painted over by Craig, the album was first sold at an art exhibition and then Scott & Charlene’s final gig before Craig moved to New York. These copies on the Chapter webstore are now the last remaining LPs available for sale, anywhere!

Each copy has a unique handpainted cover.

AVAILABLE ON ITUNES SOON

Live At Sydney Town Hall CD

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:10:16 +0000

Chapter Music presents two rare live recordings from quintessential Sydney prog group Tully, including their 1970 performance of Australia’s first ever rock opera. These recordings capture the band in their first incarnation, before they joined forces with members of revered folk-psych band Extradition to explore more contemplative territory.

Sights & Sounds Of 69, from a May show of the same name, is the only live Tully recording to have survived the intervening four decades, and documents a typically far-ranging, mind-expanding performance.

Perhaps Australia’s greatest living composer, Peter Sculthorpe wrote Love 200 specifically with Tully and vocalist Jeannie Lewis in mind. The work, commemorating Captain Cook’s expedition to map the Transit of Venus in 1769, was dismissed by the stuffy classcial establishment at the time, but Sculthorpe now calls it simply “one of my best works.” Heard here for the first time since the early 70s, Love 200 is an astounding piece, both elegant and jarring, serene and chaotic.

Sadly, all three of Tully’s studio albums are still to be officially reissued. Until then, Live at Sydney Town Hall, 1969-70 is a fascinating insight into the early work of one of Australia’s most heralded, but least heard bands.

Danny & the Parkins Sisters CD

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:05:37 +0000

Chapter Music is proud to resurrect from undeserved obscurity the scratchy beatnik art-punk stylings of early 80s San Francisco trio Danny & the Parkins Sisters. Surrounded by the classic SF punk sounds of the Dead Kennedys, Pink Section, Flipper and the like, Danny & the Parkins Sisters opted instead to head in a very different direction.

Brash Arizona transplant Danny Vinik and chic, alluring sisters Debra and Beverly Parkins strummed on detuned guitars, banged on whatever was close at hand, and declaimed hilarious, incisive lyrics dissecting the scenes and tribes around them in visceral early 80s San Francisco. Their high-performance shows played out in legendary venues such as the Sound Of Music and Club Generic, with guests including Dead Kennedys drummer DH Peligro.

In 1982, the band released a 8 song mini album on the Modern Masters label, run by Richard Kelly of the cabaret collective Club Foot Orchestra. It included the all-time shoulda-beena classic, War Is On Your Doorstep, a pounding tribal punk chant that sums up all the paranoia and posturing of the post-punk era. By 1983 the band were over, with Danny heading to South America and the Parkins sisters to New York, but their brief SF moment shone with a peculiar, musically naive but still knowing charm.

The CD comes filled with bonus demo, live and rehearsal recordings.

Fabulous Diamonds II CD

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:22:45 +0000

Drummer/vocalist Nisa Venerosa and keyboardist Jarrod Zlatic make overtly hypnotic music, full of lulling, sensual repetition, but with an edge of irritation, an undercurrent of friction that cuts through the drone and propels the songs forward.

Fabulous Diamonds II begins with Nisa yelling at Jarrod as he counts in the first track, but they still start together in perfect unison. It’s this combination of tension and intuitive understanding that makes Fabulous Diamonds so special.

They’ve been playing and arguing together for more than five years now, and their musical bond has grown deeper and more expansive since their 2008 debut Fabulous Diamonds. That album made it into revered UK mag The Wire’s top albums of the year, and got glowing reviews from the likes of Pitchfork and The Fader.

But this new record is still a remarkable development. Of its five untitled tracks, two extend well past the ten minute mark, sustaining a kind of grumpy intensity that never lags.

The album was recorded with budding producer Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and was mastered by Qua’s Cornel Wilczek. Like their first album, it will be released on vinyl by venerable US label Siltbreeze.

Stem CD

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:38:39 +0000

Stem is the second album by Evelyn Morris, aka Melbourne folk-psych wunderkind Pikelet, whose recent tours with the likes of Dirty Projectors, Devendra Banhart, Sufjan Stevens and Goldfrapp have won her scads of fans around the nation. It builds on the heady, swirling loops of her 2007 self-titled debut, sailing in the pop stratosphere with the addition of a full backing band. Recorded with Chicago expat producer Casey Rice (Tortoise, Sea & Cake, Liz Phair, Ben Lee), Stem is an incredible expansion of vision!

Many Hand Band CD

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:22:08 +0000

Chris Robison and his Many Hand Band, released privately in 1973 and reissued now on CD for the first time, was one of the world’s first records by an openly gay songwriter. Coming just a few years after the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Many Hand Band is a dazzling feat of musical daring. But Chris Robison is not just a pioneering gay musician, he is an all-pervasive presence in New York rock from the late 60s onwards, having played with everyone fron Elephant’s Memory and Steam to Kiss, the New York Dolls, John Phillips and Bob Dylan.

Not only that, Many Hand Band is a totally freewheeling and unique album, coalescing all the

sensory overload of downtown New York City life in the early 70s. It touches on folk, psychedelia, rock, Latin funk and more, all filtered through Robison’s sly and cheeky personality. There is no “woe is me” self-pity here, just an uplifting sense of fun and natural self-expression. Recorded almost totally by Chris himself late at night in a cut rate studio, Many Hand Band is one of the few remaining undiscovered classics from the period, gay or otherwise. As friend Angie Bowie says, “Many Hand Band is a musical history of alternative sexualities…

Chris’ bisexual stance and pretty pout invigorated rock’n’roll.”

It’s difficult to appreciate now, more than thirty-five years later, how daring and how ground-

breaking songs like Looking For A Boy Tonight and Italian Boy were on their release. In the album’s comprehensive liner notes, filled with rare photos and a frank interview with Chris, he talks of RCA records turning him down because they didn’t want another “faggot” on their roster (aside from Lou Reed and David Bowie). Meanwhile he became a poster boy for the burgeoning gay lib movement, playing Washington Square Park with Bette Midler in front of thousands in 1973.

After Many Hand Band and its followup Manchild (to be released by Chapter Music in 2010)

Chris would go on to play with pre-Kiss group Wicked Lester, as well as join the New York Dolls for their Japanese tour of 1975. His later band Stumblebunny toured Europe supporting the Hollies and wrote their later hit Stormy Waters. In the 1980s Chris turned his life around, settling down to get married and raise two children, who claimed none other than Peter Allen as their godfather.

Bonus tracks come from a rare single, released in 1974 on Buddah Records, featuring the all-

time-shoulda-beena classic I’m Gonna Stay With My Baby Tonight, subsequently covered by Ronnie Spector and George McCrae, and a European hit for soul singer Tony Sherman.

It’s a wild and fascinating story, but Many Hand Band contains the seeds of it all – all the hedonism, passion and beauty of Chris Robison’s life condensed into one incredible record.

Dick Diver Arks Up single+CDEP

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:33:09 +0000

Melbourne fourpiece Dick Diver have only been at it for less than a year, but already have the hallmarks of a modern classic. There’s something in their combination of widescreen Australian sweep, 70s New York punk edge and scratchy 90s indie rock that transcends influences to become truly rare and exciting.

Maybe it’s the dual songwriting of guitarists Alastair McKay and Rupert Edwards, which lobs Dick Diver up alongside Go-Betweens heroes Forster & McLennan. Or perhaps it’s the epic but non-ridiculous guitar solos they trade off, with faint echoes of Television or Yo La Tengo. It could be the punk credentials of bassist Al Montfort (UV Race, Straightjacket Nation) that give the band some extra heft, or even the laconic drumming and casual harmonies of Steph Hughes (ex-Children Collide).

Whatever it is, Dick Diver are definitely making an big impression. Their debut release is the Arks Up EP, part of a new Chapter Music series that pairs a vinyl single and a CD with bonus tracks. It kicks of with instant classic Walk For Room, one minute and 57 seconds of pure lazy pop magic, followed by the eerie Keys and the genius songwriting of Tender Years. The CD adds three extra tracks for a perfect introduction to one of Australia’s most instantly engaging young bands.

The release takes the form of a three song vinyl single, plus a CD with three bonus tracks.