Dear People,

So I haven't been able to get the stream of the store's playlist up and running with Nicecast yet. Having server issues and we have been debating on whether we should get an online radio subscription service - like with Live365 or something. I don't know which things are the most important for us to work on sometimes and adding a radio station to our list capabilities is not that appealing since we already feel as if there is not enough people to just run the store. Moustache May is off to a great start and we at Relative Theory have tied our silly expressions to local non-profit group ForKids. We have set up a first giving site of our own in hopes to try and raise these fellow do-gooders some bread. The page will be up for a month and you can visit it anytime to make donations via credit card. ForKids will be holding their annual art auction this spring downtown at the Granby Theater on May 19th. You can buy tickets at Relative Theory in advance for $35. Also it is notable that we have added a second screening of Earthlings this Friday which will start at 8 pm. We highly encourage you to come out and view this film for educational purposes. This film is not about turning the world into vegetarians but more about reconnecting you with the creatures who inhabit this earth. It is not about caring more for animals than humans rather eliminating elements to our barbaric nature so that all forms of violence can decline. Factory farming has belittled the food chain turning animals into fuel. We must learn compassion. We must share it with our future. It would be sad to know that it doesn't work out and this is the beginning of our digression. It's gonna take all hands on the wheel to turn this bitch around.

associated links
www.moustachemay.com
www.firstgiving.com/moustachesforkids
www.homesforkids.org (ForKids)
www.isawearthlings.com
www.helpinganimals.org (SNiP)
www.eatwellguide.org learn how to eat food which was produced within 100 miles

Moustache May is here and now you will learn.

Be sure to check out firstgiving.com to see how moustache
fun helps homeless children in Hampton Roads.

Art Brut
Bang Bang Rock & Roll

Release Date: 05/09/06
Label: Downtown Records
CD: $13.98

Domestic release with bonus tracks! A little shitty, kind of snotty, totally juvenile and completely awesome. Bratty Brit / art punk for the ass shakers and the cookie bakers.

Genre/Style: Rock / Punk

RELATIVE RECOMMENDS! While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beiruts first album, Gulag Orkestar, is actually the work of 19-year-old Albuquerque native Zach Condon, with an assist from Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw). There are no guitars on this album; instead, horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiel, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions all build and break around Condon’s deep-voiced crooner vocals, swaying to the Eastern european beats like a drunken twelve-member carnival band.

Genre/Style: Folk / World / Eastern European

This EP finds Brighton Englands band at a perfect mid point between the guitar pop rush of their first album and the studied symphonic arrangements of their second. These seven tracks plus a US bonus track are ESPs best work to date. Most notably Cold World skips along like a Paul McCartney penned Strokes track and Everybody Wants is a sweeping epic of a song that punctuates the bands enduring ambition.

Genre/Style: Rock / Brit Pop

Summer love.

Happened so fast.

Does anyone have an electric powered jeep? If so I will personally install a cd player in that mamma jamma so we can go ride the dunes and listen to this electric African groove rock. Dudes jamming Paul Simon/Ry Cooder style. This is my summer lovely. Extra Golden is a collaboration between Alex Minoff of Weird War, Ian Eagleson of Golden, and Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari of Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, from Kenya.

Genre/Style: Rock / World / Benga

Last night someone asked me what I thought the world would be like in a hundred thousand years. I rolled in my baby blanket and pondered. Maybe the oceans will be neon golden or the highways will turn into lush tunnels of folliage for my grandchildren (to the tenth power) to enjoy. My brain grew weary and my thoughts could only extend to what I would enjoy in the upcoming week: The debut Gnarls Barkley album and my chalice of rice wine waiting for me in the fridge. What? Where I am leading you? ONLY to the greatest summer release of the year! Raw and roudy Cee-Lo Green and DJ Danger Mouse team up to bring you St. Elsewhere--a mix of funk, soul, and crazyness. GNARLS BARKLEY IS CRAZY!

Genre/Style: Hip Hop / Soul / Awesome

Spacey atmospherics, equal parts guitar and synth, and perfect pop songs seamlessly congeal into a potent distillation of the Grandaddy sound. Wonderfully ambitious, endlessly melodic, and surprisingly all encompassing, it's like a "Greatest Hits" made up entirely of brand new songs.

Mick Barr from Octis / Orthrelm and Zach Hill from Hella / Team Sleep teamed up on this record. The result Mike Patton is jealous. And we're way pumped.

RELATIVE RECOMMENDS! The songs on their sophomore release weave disparate musical elements into intensely familiar yet uncategorizable wholes?modern mixes with archaic, the know with the unknown.

13 songs, 36 minutes. Not much when you think about it. On the other hand, a lot can happen in that short amount of time, whether you want it to or not. Just ask Amanda and Joe Ziemba. They’re the two people with a lot on their minds.

Loosely connected, the songs of Last Secrets chronicle the realization, confrontation and eventual victory over the major problems within one’s life. But it’s never that easy, is it? Funneling the complicated ups and downs of everyday living through their brazen simplicity (guitars, drums, synthesizers, vocals), the Ziembas have it down. The songs get in fast, but they won’t leave you so fast. The guitars and drums unhinge the insides of your speakers. And the voices? Touching on everything from self doubt to sexism to exhilarating hope, the vocals harmonize with an inherent passion; one that can only come from two people who have nothing left to lose.

This is why Matador rules all, this was taken from their weekly email.

The latest from hyper-innovative SF-based duo MATMOS consists of 10 aural and visual portraits of famous people, viz.: Valerie Solanas (who shot Andy Warhol) Larry Levan (the great '80s NYC dance DJ) Darby Crash (singer of punk group the Germs) King Ludwig II (the mad, last ruler of Bavaria) Ludwig Wittgenstein (the philosopher) James Bidgood (the '60s gay porn director) William S. Burroughs (the beat author) Boyd McDonald (the avant-garde pianist) Patricia Highsmith (mystery writer, 'Ripley') Joe Meek (the great British producer, 'Telstar') + Yukio Mishima (Japanese author/suicide, on the vinyl version only)
WE'LL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO FIGURE OUT THE COMMON THREAD HERE.

Accompanying each musical portrait is a visual portrait, commissioned by the band, by artists ranging from Dan Clowes to Adam Ansell to Jason Mecier. The 10 portraits are printed on cardstock and arranged in a die-cut digipak with a window on the front so that the listener can view the subject to which he or she is listening. The back of each card contains detailed recording information.

Various famous accompanists are featured:  Antony of Antony & the Johnsons; the Kronos Quartet; Björk; Jay Lesser; Don Bolles of the Germs; recordings of anonymous sex at Blow Buddies in SF during the Bear Festival, etc.

Each musical portrait is constructed out of objects that are reminiscent of the subject or his or her work; for example, the Larry Levan piece is a classic hustle that would not have been out of place at the Paradise Garage. The Valerie Solanas piece manipulates the digestive tract and vulva of a cow to produce vaginal farts in tune with the beat, etc.

NY comedian, writer, and filmmaker Mirman releases his second full-length solo comedy album with DVD supplement and his first for Sub Pop. It follows 2004s The Absurd Nightclub Comedy Of Eugene Mirman on Suicide Squeeze (voted one of the Best Albums Of 2004 by both The Onion and Time Out NY). Eugene blends things he notices in the world with talking about them in a funny way. Sometimes, without meaning to, he blows peoples minds. Hes sorry, but who else will tell you the truth about math teachers, religion, and bears?

Genre/Style: Comedy

Never before released, this legendary lost album from this towering figure in reggae makes its international debut. It joins the producer with the vocal and guitar styling of African musicians Seke Molenga and Kalo Kawaongolo.

Genre/Style: Reggae / Dub

We stole this from wikipedia.com - Again working with producer Rick Rubin, they completed their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium, in 2005. Although 38 songs were created, it will be a 28-track double album, originally intended to be released as 3 mini-albums spaced six months apart. The record contains some of the heaviest material the band has ever made as well as having the harmonious and textured sounds similar to the ones featured on their previous two albums. As for the rest of 10 songs not featured on the double album, the band is thinking of releasing several different versions of Stadium Arcadium; each album version would contain one or more tracks that did not make the 28. However, there has been no evidence since of such plans, and multiple retailers have been found offering the album with a uniform tracklisting.

Genre/Style: Rock

"There are swaggering bands, bands who are in your face. And then there are bands who get hold of you somewhere else. I think it’s a heart thing, an intimacy thing. Like you know them and they know you. I think we are one of those bands." So says Snow Patrol singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody.
And all the proof you’ll need is Snow Patrol’s new album Eyes Open, a collection of songs which more than makes good on the promise of it’s predecessor, 2004’s two million selling Final Straw.
Values: beautiful powerful songs underscored by some of the most poignant and telling lyrics in rock. Eyes Open is Snow Patrol’s post card from the cliff edge. It’s going to be hard to ignore these songs in 2006.

Genre/Style: Rock / Brit Pop

On their second release, Montreal's The Stills are back with a refreshed outlook and bold new take on their unique sound. Songwriter and drummer Dave Hamelin dropped his drumsticks to share vocal and guitar duties with Tim Fletcher. Also, touring keyboardist Liam O Neil is now a permanent member, adding classic Hammond organ and lush piano to the new sound. Re-invigorated, the band invited friends and fellow Canadians to plug in and contribute. The resulting album is fearless, filled with brutally honest songwriting and a big, organic rock sound. Neil Young might have called this the ragged glory of a pop-rock band. Gone are the boys. This album has stubble.

Genre/Style: Rock / Pop

RELATIVE RECOMMENDS! Initially conceived by Ed Droste, who, in 2002, began a 15-month 'hibernation period' in his Greenpoint apartment, the seven nuggets that make up this release are the creative genesis of the Grizzly Bear oeuvre. Raised in Boston by an elementary school music teacher, Edward Droste grew up surrounded by music, prompting him to take up various instruments and write his own songs at an early age. After years of singing in circles, he discovered the joys of home recording and proceeded to use whatever he could get his hands on to make new sounds, capturing it all on a small hand-held tape recorder. The intimacy felt on their debut, Horn of Plenty, traces back to the songs here on 'Sorry for the Delay' -- they're elegiac, emotional, endearing, and earnest. Contains a haunting cover of Yes hit, 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'.

Genre/Style: Pop / Psyche / Ambient

Restocked! 2nd edition now available. A unique 'soundbox' from China, which is causing senstation worldwide. A totally dazzling item which causes jaw-dropping delight everywhere -- Alan Bishop bought twenty-four of these on sight, Brian Eno bought eight (how's that for apocalyptical math?). FM3 are a duo of Christiaan Virant and Chinese keyboardist and computer musician Zhang Jian -- based in Beijing. The Buddha Machine is a hardware loop player, built kind of like a little AM radio (available in 6 different colors, shipped randomly), but without all the nonsense -- total genius from out of nowhere! The Buddha Machine is a small soundbox made in China which comes with an integrated speaker, a volume control, mini jack-out and a switch to choose between nine different loops which are stored on a small chip and can be directly played by this mini soundsystem.

Alejandro Agonistes may yet have a happy ending, but you wouldn't guess it from this torrent of surrealism and gothic textures. Escovedo's first album since nearly succumbing to hepatitis C and crushing debt in 2003 is the darkest, most mysterious album of his career--a harrowing, poetic soundscape partly the result of producer John Cale's industrial-noir sensibilities, but also Escovedo's own avant-garde punk roots. The difficult trilogy which opens the album moves from arid Arizona (a wasteland where the soul finds nary a drop to drink) to a conversation with a "dear head on the wall" that becomes a negative Zen poem ("The sadness will come / When there is no one") to a cryptic vision of a buck trampling a wandering doe. Writing with his wife, poet Kim Christoff, as well as Chris Stamey and guitarist Jon Dee Graham, Escovedo isn't just confronting his own mortality and the mistakes which plunged him into a nightmare. He's courting a danse macabre for the sounds and poetry he finds there. On "Sacramento and Polk" he surveys a bohemian hell through a "Thorazine haze," while the Princely groove of "Take Your Place" only seems like a discordant funk party until the lyrics sink in: "I'm going down, down, down / There's nothing here." Escovedo's voice has weathered the physical ravages, caressing all the Mexican nuances out of the synth- and cello-sweetened "Evita's Lullaby" and breaking beautifully on the country ballad "Died a Little Today," which, like each of these emotionally concentrated tracks, is as literal as it is elusive. --Roy Kasten

Genre/Style: Rock / Pop / Singer-songwriter

OUT OF THE BOX RECORD OF THE WEEK! There’s nothing subtle about Pearl Jam. For example: the new cd, the self titled “Pearl Jam” is their ninetieth (90th!) album (they’ve released a few live albums recently.)  This is also their first album for a new label, the first such change in their fifteen year recording career. It’s not surprising then, to find them with the proverbial chip on the shoulder and they come out of the gate rockin’ hard. The first five tracks have them doing what they’re best at, global commentary through the howl of Eddie Vedder’s lyrics and the high velocity double barrel guitar attack over a thunderous rhythm.
 
They say this is a more band oriented effort (there’s even a song with words by someone besides Vedder) but it’s not a great departure from their approach on their last studio album, 2002’s “Riot Act.” So what make this album seem more relevant? Maybe it’s the fact that there aren’t as many PJ wannabes on the radio anymore making Pearl Jam’s furrowed brow, serious rock and roll seem that much fresher. Maybe their plan to become the anti-rock star band is finally kicking in. “Worldwide Suicide” is one of the most powerful singles released so far this year and they are able to inject that same socially conscious  
self-examination into “Life Wasted”, “Severed Hand” and “Army Reserve.”
 
Pearl Jam has always tempered their hard edges with more melodic, acoustic oriented songs.  They’ve got that covered on “Pearl Jam” with songs like “Parachutes”, “Come Back” and the intensely building grand finale “Inside Job.” I’m not sure what the significance of the avocado on the cover is but whatever they’ve been putting in their guacamole, it’s been good for them. -Paul Shugrue

Genre/Style: Rock / Post-Grunge

Among the most popular artists and greatests songwriters of our time, Paul Simon returns with his first album in six years-and the album titled Surprise is exactly that. First, three songs were co-written with electronic music guru Brian Eno; second, the other songs are straightforward, wonderful American pop that Paul Simon has come to perfect in his own quirkly way. Not to mention Paul Simon used to wear a killer stache! Surprise is a pleasant surprise for Simon fans.

Genre/Style: Rock / Pop

Relative Josh and Guava definitely back this. HARD. Atlanta’s Deerhunter unleash upon the world their debut full length.  “turn it up faggot” features nine tracks of Deerhunter’s catchy and infectious punk rock noise which features a total dance edge which is not cliché.  Utilizing such influences as early 80’s Sonic Youth, chrome, pylon, the fall and others, Deerhunter creates a sound which is not derivative, and is in fact unique to Deerhunter.  Shake that booty if that is what you want to do.

Though Bobby Burg has plenty to keep him occupied between playing in Make Believe and Joan of Arc and managing his own label, "Record Label", he still finds ample time for his longest standing band to date, Love of Everything. Superior Mold and Die marks either the 3rd or 4th album since LOE's formation in 2000 depending on if you count the numerous splits, home recordings and EOs released over the past 4 years. Burg's latest effort is a seamless mix of original acoustic folk songs and his signature looped and layered pop soundscapes.

Genre/Style: Pop / Acoustic

Prozak Turner
Bang a Thon

Release Date: 04/18/06
Label: Pocketslinted
CD: $13.98 Sale $9.98

Front man of critically acclaimed California hip hop group Foreign Legion steps to the plate in his first solo album on independent label Hungerstrike Records. Originally signed to Dreamworks records in 2002, Turner has recorded with Pete Rock, Madlib, Organized Noize, The Alchemist and Jay Dilla among others to create a soulful journey, entitled "Death, Taxes and Prozack", which has been bootlegged though never released due to the labels demise shortly after completion.

Turner created his own label, Hungerstrike, named from the inspiration of "Staying hungry" in the music biz. "I grabbed an old suitcase I had with a broken handle and no wheels, filled it with clothes, my notebook, a two pack of Sharpies (felt tipped pens preferred by the best) and some beat cds from producers I knew, and I was off to Ireland to create my follow up album" Turner says. Five weeks later, "Bangathon!" was born. "Bangathon!" is Rocky 2, where Rocky wins!" says Dick Valentine, Turner's longtime barber and former bodyguard to James Garner. The energy on "Bangathon!" is fierce and infectious. Producing two of the musical compositions himself, and working with producers such as Jake One (De La Soul, G-Unit, MF DOOM), OH NO (Stones Throw Records), and Paul Nice (Beastie Boys, Biz Markie, Masta Ace), Prozack laces the tracks with lyrics of pain, passion and humor, story telling and songwriting skills like a man who is in a deadly hip hop video game, with only one man left, he has to win, and win he does. From classic soul, to classic rock samples, this album achieves what many attempt; hot shit!

Genre/Style: Hip-Hop / Rap

FRI MAY 12, 2006

change .

SAT MAY 13, 2006

The Oaks | site & sound
Seamonster | site & sound
David Shultz | site & sound
Ilad | site & sound

Time: 8pm
Tickets: $5 adv | $7 day of show
Relative Card: 50 points

show me some love .

MON MAY 15, 2006

thank you racist bible .

TUES MAY 16, 2006

you never even knew .

UPCOMING SHOWS

Scribble these pronto!

05/17 - Elevado w/9volt Penpal
05/19 - Silent Years and Headlights
05/20 - Ghostfinger
05/21 - Ghostfinger @ Taphouse!
05/22 - Tel Aviv and Luxury Flats
05/23 - Epic At Best
05/26 - The Assault

FMI: www.relativetheoryrecords.com

MAY 5 thru MAY 12 | 2006

MAY 14 thru MAY 30 | 2006

Relative Brews

Remember Relative Cardholders:

Cafe Specials

3 Cups! 3 types! Horray!

In praise of the warmer weather, the all-mighty Relative Cafe is granting Newman's Organic chocolate cups for a mere $.75 with any cold beverage purchase. Three kinds: Dark/Milk Chocolate Caramel, Chocalate Mint, Dark/Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter! Yum ba da bum!

New Organic Products:

New Shapes!

New To The Menu

Now Available

PomWonderful the dopest Pomegranate Juice. Loaded with more antioxidants than found in green tea, chocolate, and blueberries, PomWonderful helps our bodies fight against free radicals. Drinking one glass of this delicious juice, exercising and eating healthy every day will improve your cardiovascular health, prevent cancer, and fight the aging process. So, what are you waiting for? Stop by and help save your life! Enjoy a bottle today and every day. Choose one, two, three, four or five of the five flavors! 100 % Pomegranate, POM Blueberry, POM Cherry, POM Mango, POM Tangerine.

Come On Out

What is DuBBuddies?

SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY