Landlocked Music - 202 N. Walnut St. - Bloomington, IN - 47404
info @ landlockedmusic . com
(812) 339 - 2574
Hours of operation:
Monday - Saturday : 11:30 - 7:30pm
Sunday : 12pm - 5pm
Every week (or so...), the proud employees of Landlocked Music attempt to help guide you along the path of auditory redemption. We take time away from our busy schedules and craft, in our own words, a tiny little review of a great piece found in our bin that is for sale. We are happy as a clam when a customer purchases our picks, we gotta feed our egos somehow, right? But don't just take our word for it... or rather, DO take our word for it!
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The music of Kevin Coyne has consumed much of my free time lately. His discography is dauntingly large and usually challenging in one way or another, but I've yet to come across what I'd call a bad album. This one stands out as one of the best I've heard so far. His lead guitarist here is a post-Tomorrow / pre-Police Andy Summers, but it's Coyne's voice and the songs themselves that blow me away. Coyne sings like a deranged Roger Daltry or a creepier Joe Cocker, and his story-songs are often both humorous and heartbreaking. Many of them are based upon people he met as a social worker for the mentally handicapped. But much like Randy Newman at his best, he really sells it, never sounding overly affected. There's also a real affinity with the cracked, loony Brit tradition of Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, Big Boy Pete, Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock, TV Personalities etc. - Jason
I loved this record before I ever heard a note. The cover alone speaks volumes me: a sticky orange pleather chair with a half full ashtray and a half empty bottle of whiskey, some random junk strewn about. It's mysterious and confusing like the best Jandek cover images. Allen was a visual artist as well as a musician. David Byrne is a big fan (Allen is also briefly in Byrne's movie, True Stories). He grew up in Lubbock and palled around with Joe Ely and that scene. The music is a Texas sampler: blues, ballads, cajun, tex-mex rock. Doug Sahm is probably a fan. His characters are post-holers, ex-jocks, waitresses, dropouts, renagade art dealers, and so on. Each song tells a story, but the sum is much bigger than the parts. Recommended for fans of arty, weird roots music. - Jason
As the resident shoegaze expert, it is part of my duty to educate the masses that dreampop did not just come from the shores of Britain. While their UK predecessors were perhaps louder and shaggier, the US had its own thing. Boston's Swirlies combined their own city's indie pop, a la the Pixies, with a love for the guitar heroics of Sonic Youth and the thick wash of My Bloody Valentine. The end result is a gorgeous document of lo-fi psychedelia with boy/girl vocals, noise interludes, strange samples and overdriven guitars that make for some of the finest early 90s American noisepop alongside Lilys, Medicine, Mercury Rev and Drop Nineteens. - Heath
This, the first LP from UK psychedelic underground legends the Soft Machine was recorded sporadically whenever they had time off during a US tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with whom they shared manager/producer Chas Chandler. Despite the erratic recording schedule, Volume 1 flows seemlessly (except for side break) and effortlessly from one classic track to another. Waves of Mike Ratledge's gorgeous fuzz-organ and pummeling bass/guitar from Kevin Ayers provide the perfect foundation for Robert Wyatt's jaw-droppingly great "lead" drumming and ethereal, otherworldly vocals. Absolutely essential. - Cyrus
Though he never gained the recognition and fame of his uncle Ravi, Ananda Shankar made some amazing music of his own. After a pilgrimage to Los Angeles in the late 60s that resulted in jamming with acid-rockers (including Hendrix) and releasing a poorly selling album for Reprise, he returned to India to continue honing his craft. Determined to fuse Indian classical music with the psychedelic rock & recording techniques of the west, Ananda hoped to create a completely new & groundbreaking musical experience. Though it never really caught on, the result is a total sucess, an enchanting and refreshingly unique listen all the way through. Arranged and conducted by Ananda who also plays sitar, this album perfectly meshes trashy western garage sounds with the sophisticated beauty of an Indian classical ensemble, topped off by ocassional washes of bizarre, sitar-esque moog sounds. A magical little record that lives in a time all it's own. - Cyrus
This newly released split 7" features my favorite new group from Columbus (Indiana!), Rope. This guitar-bass-trombone (!) trio deal in lurching, near-ambient doom that goes nowhere fast, just leaving you with a vague creepy sonic residue in your brain. A seven inch record is perhaps not the best format to experience their extended dronescapes, but it's nice to have something on vinyl from these guys (they do have a number of CD-Rs available from us). Fans of Boris, SunnO))), or even a band like Main will dig this, plus it will harmonize well with your fridge. - Jason
Remastered and expanded reissue of the only full length album by Manchester UK's criminally overlooked Stockholm Monsters. This early 80s band has the region's fingerprints all over them and the production from New Order bassist Peter Hook just makes it all the more so. Some say they are the middle ground between A Certain Ratio and Happy Mondays, some say they tread the same water as The Wake, Joy Division and early New Order, some say they are an evil Smiths. Any way you slice it, you win. Also available: All At Once, a collection of their singles and b-sides which shows an earlier and darker side of their sound. - Heath
Perhaps you've wondered about that iconic round metal LP box in our store. Second Edition (as its known in the USA), was the 2nd album from Johnny "Rotten" Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band. It is far removed from the punk sound, but perhaps moreso a part of the ethos in its blatant middle-finger giving. Studio experiments mixing heavy dub influence with krautrock rhythms, Beefheartian vocal nonsense and splattered shards of guitar shrapnel across 6 sides of wax. Equally important and a piss take, this drugged-out record sounded like nothing else at the time. Check out their legendary American Bandstand performance on youtube. RIYL Turn Pale, Pere Ubu, Swell Maps, Gang of Four, Pop Group. - Heath
A strong contender for my favorite album of the year thus far, this British oddball is connected to a host of Ninja Tune bands and is sometimes a touring member of Ladytron. His own thing, however, is over-the-top, high-on-a-kilo-of-pixie-stix brand of hyper-pop, like a really hopped up T. Rex. I detect some Sparks influence too, and XTC. Even the slow songs pack a disturbing amount of nervous energy. What I like about it is that it doesn't sound too retro and keeps its eye to the future, but still sounds like timeless pop. A future classic. - Jason
