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Major Stars - Black Road TW-1062 7" $3

The story from where we left off: Major Stars play their most recent tour of the USA in May of 2003, return in June to make their definitive studio record (Major Stars 4), and then head to NYC a week later to record the Live In Europa split LP with Comets On Fire. All good so far. They unexpectedly lay low for for the next eighteen months, losing longtime drummer Dave Lynch along the way and ending up with an empty bassman spot when Tom Leonard joins Kate Village and Wayne Rogers in the guitar frontline. But then Major Stars mark two starts to come together. Casey Keenan (drummer-turned-guitarist of local pop heros Carlisle Sound) is roped into resuming his place behind the drumkit. Dave Dougan, already a veteran of the band as bass understudy (he was the unfamiliar figure on stage at their Terrastock '02 performance), returns to claim the position permanently. The new sextet is completed by the arrival of lead singer Sandra Barrett, formerly of local art-punk legends LA Drugs. By the time Major Stars 4 finally appears to universal acclaim in April 2005, the new band is awake and pummeling the locals with renewed fervor. A new LP is ready to be released in early 2006, but why wait in silence? Here's a two-track taster of heavy things to come.

Wayne Rogers - Blues-Ul Alb TW-1061 LP $10

His seventh solo LP. "...one of his most blazing inventions in a while. Unconstrained by anyone else's opinion, Wayne lays down a mix of fully-blown guitar-psych-vom-spew, delicately Angloid songs, his own skewed sorta rock-maxism." -Byron Coley, Arthur

Heathen Shame - Speed The Parting Guest TW-1060 CD $10

The trio of Greg Kelley, Wayne Rogers, and Kate Village formed under the banner Heathen Shame in the fall of 1999. After a handful of one-off shows they recorded their self-titled debut LP in May of 2002, which caught them just as their sound was starting to gel. They then embarked on a three week tour of America's heartland with Double Leopards (including at least one outdoor show that could be termed a "gathering") in an attempt to share their unique brand of high decibel improvisation. Although they drove away as many people as they converted (OK, maybe a lot more than they converted), the steady gigging continued upon their return and soon the Heathen Shame were playing as one mind rather than three. Speed The Parting Guest is a carefully paced but blazing affair that shows how seamless a unit they've become. In contrast to the abstract feel of their debut, Speed The Parting Guest finds them swinging large blocks of sound around their heads for hours before launching them at you. Their wall of sound is now a sonic universe that they can manipulate with slow malice or lightning precision. Heathen Shame are destined to be THE most talked about two-guitar-and-trumpet combo of 2005 and beyond.

Major Stars - 4 TW-1059 CD $10

And here they are, spiralling thru the eternal but now sending one last missive back down to earth. This one was recorded summer '03, after an intense period of touring (which also resulted in the Major Stars/Comets On Fire live split LP) and just before an intense period of reflection (read: they broke up). Somewhere during the latter they remembered a record had been made, and finally we bring it to you. Calls for increased fidelity have not fallen on deaf ears: "4" brings them to the world of 24-track recording for the first time, finally getting their studio sound close to their live onslaught. Musically they continue to hit all points a little harder each time, with open-stringed folk melodies getting pummeled on the Who/Cream/Hendrix anvil 'til you think modal and heavy have always coexisted. Their best ever? You bet. Should they go deaf, it was all for you.

Life Partners - s/t TW-1057 CD $10

There are some stories where every girl has a movie star face and a dirty book body. There are some stories where every guy can be God if he has the balls to stand there with 30 friends and strut around. The lives of the Life Partners are as lurid and unwitting as their music is gaudy and crude. Two boys, one blond and one brunette, went on a road trip to Texas with 250 dollars all in ones. They listened to the same Marty Robbins record over and over all the way across the state. They saw a pig get shot. They visited a hall covered in mirrors and commemorating the fame of Oral Roberts. By the time they came home they knew their American experience had made them partners for life, so they called themselves the Life Partners. The first thing they decided to do was start a fake band that would pass its recordings off as improvisations by 1970s Jamaican teen punks whose dads all worked at an army base. They recruited a girl who was obsessed with classical pianist Glenn Gould and wanted the brunette to marry her. Then they met a fantastic Canadian metal guitarist who was also the champ of his roller-hockey team, even though his dream was to play ice-hockey. The boys asked him to play drums, and the band was complete. An instant hi among the happening music scenesters around town, they play in the basements, the record stores, the abandoned warehouses, and the dive bars all over Boston. Their fans include dope-fiends who sell stolen. VCRs out of the backs of cars, record collectors with restraining orders against then, art-school dropouts with misgivings about hygiene, and more. The Life Partners now have a record which conjures the ghosts of James Chance, the Collins Kids, and the Electric Eels, but ultimately sounds not quite like anyone else.

Lloyd Arthur 3 - Spheres Of Nothing TW-1056 LP $10

Mystically tinged, high-energy alto sax/drums blowout (plus some added cello scrapings on Side A) for those who like their jazz a little bit primitive and a whole lot free. It's uncertain as to whether or not the 3 in 'Lloyd Arthur 3' refers to a trio of unspecified members or just 3 times Lloyd Arthur. What *is* certain is that Spheres of Nothing is an unrelenting tribute to the spirit of purification through fire, occupying the spaces between classic ESP free jazz, Japanese live-fast-die-young iconoclast Kaoru Abe and a touch of [Lloyd's pick] Swedish scuzz rockers Brainbombs.

Wayne Rogers - At Home TW-1053 LP $10

Mr. Rogers turns his back on 8-track & pulls out the cassette 4 in an attempt to find new anti-structures in which to frame electric guitar music. 4 long monotone no-chord instrumentals and a postscript. Inspired by/dedicated to Kaoru Abe and cough syrup.

Kate Village & Wayne Rogers - Quits TW-1052 LP $10

Wayne & Kate have been dueling with their electric guitars for most of their adult lives, usually in the context of Crystalized Movements, Magic Hour, Major Stars, or one of the many imaginary ensembles they've been a part of over the past 15 years. Here they cut out the rhythm section and go head-to-head. One side studio, one side live, both sides loud and free.

Tono Bungay - Kluge TW-1051 12" EP $7

New 24-minute 12" from one of America's longest-running free rock outfits. Tono Bungay features ace guitar picker Bob Bannister, who was weaned on Finnish prog (in Finland, no less!) and has lent his guitar talents to projects as diverse as Cat Power and Glenn Branca's recent 100-guitar orchestra as well as releasing two excellent solo LP's. Drummer Tony Cenicola is content to lay down a solid backbeat for a few seconds before erupting into pure freedom, then throwing drumsticks at the kit (and audience), then whipping his drums with chains and whatever else is handy. Dada master Robert Dennis manipulates his masterfully planned Auto-Destruct labyrinth of bass, tape machines, and electronics, which is so beautifully planned by it's creator that it often self-destructs long before Robert pushes that big red button. "Kluge" is sonically closer to the two-track squall of their 1993 debut LP "Rough Music" than the careful ambiance of "Wunderkammer," but with their focus sharpened by nearly a decade of dedicated work on their sound.

Bob Bannister - Dives And Lazarus TW-1050 CD $10

Dives And Lazarus is Bob's long--awaited second solo album (the first, an LP of beautifully abstract guitar instrumentals titled Eight Day Clock, appeared on this label in 1991). This time out he's applied his craft to a set of British and American folk songs, each of which he carefully dissects and then reassembles. Every song gets a unique treatment, from the violin drone of 'The Murder Of Maria Marten' to the fuzz organ & guitar stomp of 'I Am A Pilgrim' to the two versions of 'In Christ There Is No East Or West' (one forwards, one backwards!). In most cases, the versions here are the first radical departures for these standards since 'folkrock' first reared it's quickly--severed head in the '60's. As we've always known but so seldom get proof of: For those willing to dive deep into the muddy waters of the folk songs of the 20th century, these songs continue to offer an infinite realm of possibility.

Nmperign - 2nd TW-1049 CD $10

Twisted Village is proud as a hog farmer with 14 newborn wriggling sqealers to bring to you nmperign's second CD, perhaps titled by said flanneled hog farmer --2nd. Nmperign's first audacious CD, 44'38"/5 (TW-1046) delighted listeners with their non-jazz that blooms in the dark caverns of avant improvisation. After the release of their first CD, they embarked on an an ambitious (read: nuts) six week U.S. tour that earned rave reviews and turned many folks onto nmperign's unique sounds. The current tour from September through October 1999 rocks over 30 U.S. cities, culminating in Boston's Autumn Uprising festival of new and improvised music, where surely they will implode the house. Their music explores the multitude of available sounds on the trumpet and soprano saxophone, i.e. multiphonics, mutes and preparations, breath sounds, etc., as well as the unique microtonal language Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley have developed. What's this means to you is a duo with new ideas about sounds and improvisation. Here's what the press say: "Greg Kelley and Bhob Rainey play with incredible intentionality and very, very quietly, but totally lacking in stiffness and pretension. Seems like they could do anything, anytime,' - Ian Nagoski, Halana. '...demonstrates once again Rainey's utterly distinct approach to playing the soprano saxophone, an intensely physical determination to take the instrument beyond all obvious limits. He works outside of idiom, pummelling a column of breath, eliciting refracted tones, overblowing ferociously. Closer to Antonin Artaud than Sidney Bechet.' - Julian Cowley, The Wire Hear thee tomorrow sounds of nmperign.

Major Stars - Space/Time TW-1048 CD $10

Space/Time is the Major Stars second full length attempt to explode the boundries of Rock-with-a-capital-R. Side one features two songs with pickin' and singin': "Apples To Grapes" is a moody folk rock number that gets blown apart in a hurry & subjected to several deconstructions in the course of it's 14+ minutes, and "Runout" is done up short 'n' pretty to set you up for the all-instrumental Side Two. "Getting Air From A Stone" is a riff crunching number, while "Dream Of The Accidental Bird" follows it's brief opening revolving door with a massive & exhilarating one chord jam that'll twist your insides just right. Major Stars aim to take higher-key improvisational wizardry and clobber you on the head with it while simultaneously caressing your mind. Space/Time does just that.

Wayne Rogers - Constant Displacement TW-1047 LP $10

The album in the words of it's creator: "It's rather like minimalism, except within one tone there is a thousand, and then several layers of a thousand, piled high like blankets of snow on a volcano. Actually, I didn't mean to say minimalist, I meant to say obnoxious. It's rather like obnoxiousism." Constant Displacement began as a series of experiments in song form, mainly to satisfy the whims of the artist himself, who never intended it to be issued. How else to explain the wispy balladry, the balls-to-the-wall rock 'n' roll, or the six-minute version of a fucking Thunderclap Newman song? Constant Displacement is his fifth solo album, a tribute to Rock formalism based on traditions no loftier than Danish and South Asian renditions of "Stepping Stone," though he is apparently hearing something in them that no one else is. Limited LP edition in hand-printed sleeves, CD currently available on Drag City.

Marvelous Sound Forms: Twisted Village Archives Vol. 1 (TW-1045) LP $12/CD $10 Featuring previously unreleased material from the Crystalized Movements, Wayne Rogers, B.O.R.B, and Magic Hour.

Major Stars - The Rock Revival (TW-1044) CD $10

An aural strap-on with which you may force yourself into submission. Just make sure the door is locked.

Tono Bungay - Wunderkammer (TW-1043) CD $10

New CD from New York City's finest improvising rock trio. Features Bob Bannister on guitar, Robert Dennis on guitar and electronics, and Tony Cenicola handling the skins. Not a noodle outfit, these guys rock.

Wayne Rogers - Infraction (TW-1041) CD/LP $10

Wayne's fourth solo record. No singing, one song. More commercial selling out.

Wormdoom - Live At The Unitarian Meetinghouse (TW-1040)7" $3

Sounds so good, you might think you would have wanted to be there. Heavy holiness.

Magic Hour - Secession 96 (TW-1039) CD $10

Wayne, Kate, Damon, & Naomi let their instrumental instincts shine forth on their last CD U.S. only release. (No import whinyl) This disc documents the band's ascension to another level, and they hope to take the listener along by any means necessary. Clocks in at 46 minutes with two electric and two mostly acoustic songs. "Rosebud" clocks in at 20:45, recorded the day after finishing the Ghost tour. It's an object of precision, being very carefully worked out in rehearsals and on the road. In contrast, the 13:47 "Sunrise" is a very, very early take captured on cassette 4-track. All of what's happening after the first three minutes is improvised. Bon Appetit!

Wayne Rogers - All Good Works (TW-1038) CD $10

Since Magic Hour was busy exploring a few 20 minute plateaus at the time, Wayne spent the other half of his life in the basement putting down his more tightly constructed, song oriented output. The title track features Wayne trading wooly guitar solos with himself. It finally puts the order back into obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Wormdoom - Last Days Boogie (TW-1037) CD $10

That the Xian exploitation LP to end all Xian exploitation LP's never really got made in the prime of the original movement (approximately 1968-1972) is a shame, but we have stepped forward to fill the void. Seven long, loud instrumental rock excursions that will take you back to the time when "At least they're not on drugs" was the rallying cry of America's concerned parents. With the usual stable of luminaries, Kate, Wayne, Joe, Josh, Tom, Dave, etc.

B.O.R.B. - B.O.R.B. In Orbit (TW-1036) CD $10

The all improv trio of Wayne, Kate, and Tom gets lost in space with only their electronic gadgets to help pass the time. One track features Venusian blood-curdling vocalizations, but the rest of the disc will guide you on a gentle late night trip.

Magic Hour - Will They Turn You On Or Will They Turn On You (TW-1035) CD $10

The second effort from our most popular quartet. One-half locked in the studio downer pop song serenity, one half the high decibel improvisation that has delighted concertgoers across the globe (well, the ones who don't walk out when they realize that the song might really have no end).

Luxurious Bags - Frayed Knots (TW-1034) CD $10

Mr. Luxurious D. Bags Jr. pulled together three years worth of whatnot from this on-again off-again final project and Now It Can Be Heard. Pure craft applied to low oxide: the results are monumental. Phenomenal bedroom rock.

Wayne Rogers - Absent Sounds (TW-1033) CD $10

Both of his long deleted solo LP's on one disc. Perfect mood music when you've had too much of human kind.

Tono Bungay - Rough Music (TW-1029) LP $7.50

Debut vinyl of Bob Bannister's progish, handsome trio. An all instrumental LP with plenty to please the rock fan and the freak in you. Get it now before having to buy your copy at the WFMU record fair for the price of the bus ticket to New Jersey.

Luxurious Bags - Quarantine Heaven (TW-1026) CD $10

A 74 plus minute compact disc with the LP's From Heaven To My Head and Voluntary Lifelong Quarantine in their entirety. Genuine rock classics from the one man band of the century.

Available? Not So Much

Donna Parker - Debutante TW-1064 LP SOLD OUT

Donna Parker's presence on the noise scene couldn't be more terrifying or mesmerizing if she were a 400lb bunny rabbit. Boston native Mary Staubitz created this majestic persona at the turn of the century to showcase her consummate talents manipulating amplifier feedback and guitar pedals. Hot knobs blaze and speakers speak rapture when she performs in bars, clubs, and homes both publicized and clandestine. She often plays with co-conspirator Jessica Rylan as the surlier half of Secret Diary, an amplified noise duo that cracks your teeth but also makes you giggle. She can sneak her Traynor BLOC 100 onto a floor of unsuspecting patrons and rattle their glasses in between sets, but won't blush at the spotlight either. This kitten has claws. “Debutante” is her debut LP, produced by Jessica Rylan.

Major Stars - Syntoptikon TW-1063 LP SOLD OUT

Back? Indeed. Technically speaking this is the Major Stars fifth album in their nine year career, but it's also the debut full length by the new expanded lineup. Kate Village and Wayne Rogers still hold down double guitar duty, but now are joined in the frontline guitar assault by ex-bassist Tom Leonard. Casey Keenan and Dave Dougan are the scrappy new rhythm section and Sandra Barrett, their bat-head biting lead singer. Heavier in number and in sound, the 6-strong Stars have already made waves with last year's debut single Black Road and a handful of piledriving shows. This LP and the forthcoming US tour seal the deal. Get under or stay clear.

LA Drugs - s/t TW-1058 one-sided LP SOLD OUT

They've been working up to this their whole lives. Getting kicked out of Uni High, working at Stop n Shop, crashing limos, flirting with movie stars, eating pennies and catching STDs at the roller rink... It was all leading up to the fateful afternoon when Ryan accidentally threw his frisbee into the backyard of Sandra's parents house. The two quickly struck up a friendship. Eventually, Ryan was able to exhume the mysterious young recluse from the musty childhood bedroom where she had been lingering in self-imposed isolation since a bad experience with PCP at the age of 13. It wasn't long before this pair of miscreants were lying about their age and getting stoned in hotel bathrooms. Then one night at a Fugazi concert they ran into an older boy named Paul. Having noticed that the two teens' rock n roll attitudes were mature beyond their years, he suggested they start a band. Sandra and Ryan, who had never picked up a musical instrument before, didn't ask any questions. Using diary entries Sandra had written during her tumultuous adolescent years as inspiration, they completed their first 5 songs in about 2 and a half hours. They sounded great. Now all they needed was a name. Ryan didn't have to look far -- he just dropped trou to reveal a hidden tattoo he woke up with after one of their crazy nights in South Central and they had it: LA Drugs. The Drugs made their first appearance at a midnight noise show that took place on Sunday, May 10, 2002 (Mother's Day). Within two weeks they were ready to record their first album. When they showed up at the studio, the place had just been ransacked by a bunch of the producer's friends who had come to reclaim all their borrowed equipment. They recorded the thing anyway, and it's out now on Twisted Village.

Heathen Shame - s/t TW-1055 LP SOLD OUT

Heathen Shame is the trio of Wayne Rogers, Kate Village, and Greg Kelley. They make a howling racket on guitar, trumpet, moog, and drums.Drunken Kagel fans on a rampage!

Nmperign/Dorner/Beins - s/t TW-1054 LP SOLD OUT

With five scorching singles plus an indigestible, side-long masterpiece, you might consider the new Nmperign Twisted Village LP to be their White Light/White Heat. No one will argue with you. Here's the breakdown: Side One: nmperign (Bhob Rainey: soprano saxophone, Greg Kelley; trumpet) + Axel Doerner (trumpet) and Burkhard Beins (percussion). Is it a waste of time to say that none of the instruments in this group sound the way they were meant to? Comparisons with electronic music? These five pieces come across a bit like self-assembling sound machines, and it's no doubt that if Marcel Duchamp had a radio show, he'd have spun this side often. Side Two: nmperign. Are you sad because you wore out your LP of Helmut Lachenmano's Gran Torso? Well, dry your eyes! nmperign is now providing you with a side-long scratch of'silence that's sure to keep your ears cocked forward. Just like a couple 'a Cosmo Vitellis, nmperign gets involved in some sticky situations without ever forgetting what's important to them. Play this side until it's smooth and shiny to find out what that is.

B.O.R.B. - Trailer Full Of Smoke TW-1011 LP SOLD OUT

Once upon a time, in a rural trailer in the mystical land of Connecticut, three musicians with time on their hands and incense to burn began a series of late, late night sessions. They would imbibe a substance well known to Connecticut's old Indian tribes, then howl and screetch until dawn. In February of 1991, Twisted Village released a document of those sessions by the trio now known as B.O.R.B. -- the infamous Trailer Full Of Smoke. Somewhat unsure of their venture, TV sent the record to the plant with the instructions to press until they ran out of labels (left over from the first Luxurious Bags LP and the Crystalized Movements' Damaged Lights). 173 copies were pressed, and the record was pronounced out-of-print by the end of the week. Though the record was numbered as a 'first edition' and the intent was to press more when new labels were printed, the LP was never given a second run. By the time the smoke had cleared, the trio had completed their second LP: the epic Blast Off With B.O.R.B. The three merry Indians were much pleased with their sophomore effort, and decided to leave Trailer Full Of Smoke to the history books. Unfortunately, many TV completists missed out on the micro-pressing of the first LP, and it's since become a hotly sought item selling for ghastly sums. We here at TVHQ are confronted daily with unfortunate souls looking for the LP and even more unfortunate souls who recently got soaked a month's supply of Morocco's finest for one. So here is the long-awaited second edition of Trailer Full Of Smoke. Hear really stoned people fumble for strings! Hear them as they add a soundtrack to the super-8 digest version of The Giant Behemoth (with Kate's touching refrain 'Bye bye, behemoth, bye bye')! It's back!

Nmperign - 44'38"/5 TW-1046 CD SOLD OUT

Bhob Rainey(soprano sax), Greg Kelley(trumpet), Tatsuya Nakatani(percussion) have each received a great deal of critical acclaim for their far-reaching work as improvisers and performers of new music. Bhob has performed with John Zorn, Joe McPhee, Mat Maneri and countless others. Wrote the Wire: "...any connection with jazz tradition is difficult to discern...his interest in microtonality seems to frame a technique which bleeds sound from the instrument, leaving a series of grazes and contusions on the listener's awareness." Greg Kelley has been equally prolific, playing with Steven Drury, Raphe Malik, Pauline Oliveros, & a zillion others. Sayeth Cadence Magazine: "Greg manages to eek sounds out of his trumpet that range from quiet, organic rumbling to buzzing, almost electronic sounding waves...." Tatsuya Nakatani hails from Kobe, Japan, where he studied under Yosuhiro Yoshigaki (Altered States, Ground Zero) before moving to the U.S. He's an innovative percussionist who has quickly become the Boston improv scene's secret weapon. The three united forces in '97 to play as Nmperign to play a series of electrifying shows, and quickly become the most talked about improv group in town. 44'38"/5, their debut album, is a powerful outcome of their work. This spare trio creates an unique, organic sound, both violent and fragile, with an emphasis on the complete spectrum of instrumental sound. It contains some of the most original and deeply bent music we've had the pleasure to hear in recent times, and we are delighted to bring it to you.