King Cat Buttons
King-Cat logo in black on a white 1" diameter pin. Impress your New Wave friends! $1.00
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE T-SHIRTS?
CLASSIC KING-CAT LOGO T-shirts have been "sold out" for a year or two and I've been too busy/lazy to find a place here in SF to reprint them at. I DO have plans to have them remade "soon" (ie within a year or so), so be on the lookout! And when I finally reprint them I'll be making the original classic logo design again, in more sizes including small, women's, and kid's sizes, and hopefully on organic cotton... again, soon...
That said I do have a few of the THINKING MAN'S BLUES Tees still in stock. These are XL only (really BIG XL), all cotton shirts, image of a guy with an umbrella dropping rain on him (sorry the picture here is so crappy) in navy ink on powder blue shirts. If you want one of these, they're $10 each. Please email first to check on availability, they're first come first served.
Thanks!
SPIT AND A HALF MUSIC
"A Revolution in Softness"
From 1985-1996, Spit and a Half Records released understated, honest music by such diverse bands as the Felt Pilotes, Circus Maximus, Flywheel, the Cannanes and the Virgo Snakes. Styles ranged from folk to pop to punk rock, but it all had the "Spit and a Half Sound." The following records are still available. Please give them a listen!
Seven-Inch Vinyl Singles:
Felt Pilotes Never Satisfied ep: Melancholy singing over sparse, folky arrangements make this the perfect record for rainy days and broken hearts. Includes "Never Satisfied", "Hey Jane" and "Walk On By." Slow, sad, pretty pop. 3 song 7" - $3.00
Felt Pilotes Moving Day ep: Spacier and more crooked than the first single, on their follow-up the Felt Pilotes sing more lonely songs in a shaky voice: simple-hearted folk-pop for a new age of Indecision and Desire. Includes "Moving Day," "Another Day" and "Kathy's House." 3 song 7" - $3.00
John P. and Bob S. Porky's Revenge / American Baby ep (Big Yucky/Spit and a Half co-release): 4 song split single by John of the Felt Pilotes and Bob of the Virgo Snakes. John's side gives us his quietest, saddest (and prettiest) yet, while Bob reflects on life and loneliness over ultra-distorted skronk. True blue inner sanctum rock. 4 song 7" - $3.00
Jon Pinnow Sweet Kansas (Newshole Radio/Spit and a Half co-release) Pure and tender, barely-in-tune acoustic love songs and lullabies. Like a freight train whistling through the midnight prairie, this record is lonesome and joyous at the same time! With special musical guests John P. and Robert Schneider (of Apples in Stereo). 3 song one-sided 7" - $2.50
AUSTRALIAN POP SERIES This was a series of split 7" singles by a bunch of great and underappreciated Australian groups.
Vol. One: CANNANES / SMALL WORLD EXPERIENCE: This one features Sydney shamble-rock masters the Cannanes, giving us two minimalist songs (just Stephen's thrashing guitar and Fran's bittersweet singing) and the flip is a great rocker by S.W.E. (their US debut) that sways between a noisier Teenage Fanclub and a sweeter Sonic Youth. Wow, first orders get white vinyl! 3 song 7" - $3.00
Vol. Two: BLAIRMAILER / FLYWHEEL #2 features one tune each from the shambolic brother-duo of Michael and David Nichols (Blairmailer) and the catchy noisy guitar-rock quartet of Flywheel. Blairmailer is like an edgier Cannanes and their song "Phenomenal Trousers" skews all over the place, from wah-wah to bouncing bass, to a great fuzz guitar solo. Then Flywheel comes at you with "Been A While", dropping a power-pop bomb with a worried, full-ahead guitar attack. Rockin'. 2 song 7" - $3.00
Vol. Three: ASHTRAY BOY / CLAG This 45 RPM hoedown features Ashtray Boy's "Golden Fingers", a rollicking Pogues-esque shanty that'll stick in your head all day. On the flip, pop-rockers Clag destroy your sensibilities with "Bike" -- a down home country ode to a new blue, bike -- and then follow it up with "Running Amok," a blast of super-charged punk sludge that's closer to Flipper than anything that's been on Spit and a Half since Bryce Hammer. Personal biases aside, this is a great single! 3 song 7" - $3.00
Vol. Four: CAT'S MIAOW / STINKY FIRE ENGINE The final APS single is the poppiest of the bunch! Cat's Miaow gives us two tunes done in their buoyant acoustic style: the lovely "Smitten" and an ace cover version of Maxine Nightingale's 1970's smash "Right Back here We Started From." On the flip, Toytown wonders Stinky Fire Engine drop one of their addictive casio classics in "Flebus." This is a fun one: file under "Disco Music." 3 song 7" - $3.00
Compact Discs:
Felt Pilotes Wonderful Summer Features seven songs recorded by Robert Schneider at Elephant 6, including slow, sad classics like "Long Night", "Say Goodbye", and "Like a Storm" plus a few loud ones and even a happy song! The CD is rounded out with the previously unreleased "June My Dear" ep featuring the epic title track and two other favorites. Taking its cue from where the singles left off, this is minimalist, mainly quiet and mainly sad, folk-based rock and roll. Comparisons to bands like Galaxie 500, Velvet Underground, Neil Young and Nick Drake usually surface, and fans of introspective, slightly dysfunctional rock should check it out. 10 song CD, $10.00
Felt Pilotes Digital Tenderness This 2007 release is a homemade CD-R that compiles the two vinyl Felt Pilotes 7"s (Never Satisfied and Moving Day -- see above). It's a straight transcription from the actual vinyl, so expect a little surface noise! 6 song CD, $5.00
Flywheel Dirty On The Shovel Flywheel's tremendous debut album. Noisy, garagey rock n roll numbers like "My Worst Fear", "Super Roadie", and "It's Been A While" (also available on 7" vinyl, see above) that vie for time with the haunting pop balladry of "Rod Stewart" (one of my favorite songs ever) and "Fridge" are just a portion of what this record's all about. From the chunky Power-Pop opener, "After All", to the loping regret of "It's Over", Dirty on the Shovel is a classic of Australian Pop. Seriously, there are few bands I believe in more than Flywheel-- it will be worth your while to give this one a chance! 13 song CD, cover art by David Nichols, $10.00
Virgo Snakes s/t (Big Yucky/Spit and a Half co-release) My friend Bob Schaefer was a money man-- he even worked on the Chicago Board of Trade for awhile-- but it didn't take too long for the greed of that world to sour in his stomach. One day he quit his job and started a punk band-- the Festering Rinyanyons. The Festers wrought their unique brand of mayhem across the Midwest for several years, fast becoming one of the finest purveyors of punk-noise-thrash throughout the land.
After the Festers imploded, Bob started the Virgo Snakes-- which is him on guitar and singing and Bob Lindell (ex-HEHS Marching Band) smashing the shit out of whatever junk he's added to his stripped down drum kit at the time. The noise they make as a duo is just as intense and out of control as the Festers, but something else has creeped in too-- a kind of melancholy pop weariness.
This is their self-titled debut album, collecting most of their early recordings, and it swings bi-polar between these two extremes of utter end of the line rage and broken-hearted pop introspection-- ragged but gentle too.
So, the paint by the numbers pop kids think the noise and anger are unsettling and the stay inside the line punk kids think the bare emotions and openess are wimpy, so where does that leave the Virgo Snakes? 13 song CD, $10.00
