Dear People,

So I was snooping around in the online world of Debbie Carlos while listening to the new Cut Chemist jam The Garden and I got very excited. You may have been to Relative this month to see her photography as it will be on display until the end of June. She has an incredible portfolio and has started an incredible art magazine with her bother called Revol. Plus on top of all that she has a food blog called Bunny Pie that has a year of recipes and knowledge. She is stupendous! In regards to Relative news we are getting ready to expose the Relative Society which will be associated with the Relative Card except it will just be more. You will get a certificate, a keychain version of the Relative Card, a monthly newsletter with a mix cd, and coupons in the mail. Yay! Also in the works is a weekly class that will be held once a week during the summer in which we discuss music and its roots. Each class will focus on a 10 track mix cd that can be downloaded or picked up at the store. Summer Sessions sounds like a good name for this but we have to wait and see. We already have the first couple of classes outlined and it is nothing too serious but still enjoyable for those who like to talk about music. Also the first edition of the Relative Love podcast is available.

relative links
www.hellogirlfriend.com (debbie carlos)
www.revolmag.com
tart.hellogirlfriend.com/
www.relativetheoryrecords.com/blog/podcast

Acid Mother's Temple
Have You Seen the Other Side of the Sky?

Release Date: 06/13/06
Label: Ace Fu
CD: $14.98

You know Acid Mother's Temple & the Melting Paraiso UFO as the dynastic rulers of Japanoise. They freak out improvisationally, entwining pyschedelia with prog, hard rock, kraut, avant-rock in the spirit of diverse greats as Karlheinz, Stockhausen, Amon Duul, Deep Purple, or Genesis. AMT makes their music epic, frenzied, expertly lunatic, meticulousy composed, and astonishingly affecting in it's sprawing, vigorous unrelenting splendor.

'The most important musician of the last fifty years,' according to Brian Eno -- and this is Tony Allen's best album. An Afro-funk masterclass, stone classic dance music in six-minute chunks: strictly no neo-dub or lounge-house fakery. Recorded in Lagos last year under the auspices of Honest Jons by a nineteen-piece including local newcomers alongside Fela veterans and fifties legend Rolling Dollar -- and brilliantly mixed in Berlin by Moritz von Oswald.

We haven't got the chance to listen to this yet, but one of our friends totally backs this band. And this should tell you how great this record is.

"In listening to Apollo Up!, Chariots of Fire, I have taken to drinking whiskey, no ice, and embracing my new lifestyle that whips like lightning and gets me in car chases across Midwest interstates. Everything is a whirlwind of vice when I listen to these three dudes, and the spazzy, gutsy guitars colliding with the quick-witted beats play as a perfect soundtrack behind aviators and a ’73 Camaro. And with the singer’s supremely masculine growl and spurts, it’s no surprise that, as a chick, I swoon over his artic glare and Marlboro Red teetering from his lips. In a way, Apollo Up! is almost too cool for me. Loud, abrasive, but subtlety genius alternative rock/post-hardcore just doesn’t come this easy and dangerous nowadays, and the parents should be worried." Upbeetmusic.com

RELATIVE HSD & GUAVA APPROVED! Plus it's Owen from Arcade Fire. OMG!!! On his second album, "He Poos Clouds," Owen Pallet presents a clearly enhanced concept of his solo project Final Fantasy. The core sound of his 2005 debut, "Final Fantasy Has A Good Home," was mainly based on Pallet's violin and his virtuoso handling of the loop pedal. He now proves his skills as an arranger, working with a large chamber music ensemble, featuring a string quartet, piano, harpsichord and percussion (among others). Still, Owen shows an impressive ingenuity for melodic lines and surprising turnarounds.

Regardless of the more extended scope for this album, "He Poos Clouds" was produced to maintain a certain intimacy. The overall atmosphere carries the ease of an afternoon dress rehearsal, as if the ensemble members played for themselves one last time before the crowd rushs in. Owen's mostly introverted vocals also express this mood of privacy.

The musical language of The Final Fantasy is eclectic without letting its influences act as bare quotations for themselves. Traces were smeared with care and everything is consolidated and processed in such a peculiar way that we cannot designate the culprits any longer. He even integrates an amazing variety of stylistic spheres within the individual songs.

On this outing, the group offers up its trademark euphoric four-part vocal harmonies, while tempering fierce guitar lines and hard-hitting rhythms with more expansive and melodic arrangements. The wonderfully catchy single "Skip to the End" reinforces the Futureheads' link to revered New Wave post-punk acts, particularly, in this case, XTC. Those who favor the Futureheads' more aggressive side will be pleased by the furious "Return of the Berserker," but, overall, the disc goes for a thoughtful, multi-layered approach, as evinced on the melodic track, "Back to the Sea."

Last Days of Wonder, the new CD by The Handsome Family, is a collection of love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru windows and shark-infested waters. The CD celebrates the little miraculous moments of beauty found in everyday life: a golf course shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons singing from billboards, trees blooming in squares of dirt. The songs linger on those moments when we’re pulled from the ordinary to feel awed by mystery, bewildered by beauty, terrified by the vast unknowable around us (whether we wander through shady groves or crowded parking lots).

The second album from Hot Chip, The Warning sees these inspired pop alchemists pull off some truly devious musical juxtapositions. Scholars of music from Timbaland to Stevie Wonder to the Aphex Twin, this South London quartet make quirky, ideas-packed vocal electronica perpetually veering between moments of bliss, humour, and sheer sonic mentalism - take the opening "Careful", vocalists Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard sweetly harmonising "Every year, exactly this time of year/They float a balloon up into the air", as the tune leapfrogs along on the sort of demented breakbeat rave seldom seen outside a Squarepusher record. Luckily, Hot Chip know enough not to sabotage all their elegant pop moments. "Boy From School" cribs deliciously from Stardust’s robo-Balearic anthem "Music Sounds Better With You", while "Over And Over" ("Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/The joy of repetition really is in you") is bouncy testament to the joy of dumb, fun dance music. Further in, too, there’s sweet moments like "Look After Me", an R&B-tinged plea to an ex-lover, that sees these clever-clever white boys succeed in getting sentimental without resorting to irony. A dream synthesis of warmth and intelligence. --Louis Pattison

Some artists make albums because they can. The great ones make albums because they have to. With that said, the first thing you need to know about Boston-bred MC Mr. Lif’s new album, Mo’ Mega, is that this is the album he had to make. Hot off of last year’s smash success with the Perceptionists (his collaboration with fellow MC Akrobatik and one of Relative Theory's Albums of 2005), Lif is back with an arsenal of new rhymes that showcase his massive talents as an MC, poet, and true life reporter

While their music could easily be classified as heavy metal, Montreal, Canada's Priestess is more closely aligned with hard rock of a particular vintage, one that recalls the melody-heavy thunder of 1980s acts like Def Leppard and the Cult. Whatever name it goes by, the music on the band's debut, HELLO MASTER, rocks like no one's business. Wall-to-wall crunch, air-guitar-worthy riffs, thumping rhythms, and anthemic choruses that will induce listeners to hold the devil-horn sign high and proud abound on every song. This is a head-banging disc of the finest sort, and a serious soundtrack for cruising the strip on a Saturday night.

Erupted like lava from what we'd previously thought was a mountain, The Sun Awakens flowers red and hot from the earth, destroying in a completely organic fashion.

The most mind altering Six Organ's record to date.

Sonic Youth's turn-of-the-century output has shown a marked focus on the more abstract aspects of the band's sound, as evidenced by, if nothing else, the prolific number of experimental releases on the band's SYR imprint, including the double-album tribute to avant-garde composers, GOODBYE 20TH CENTURY. And while to use the phrase "stylistic departure" is unbefitting of a band with such catholic tastes and influences, the straightforward pop element that marks 2006's RATHER RIPPED, the band's 14th proper studio album, is so pronounced and, to a certain extent, jarring, it's difficult not to focus in on it. From the Thin Lizzy-like twin-guitar interlude on "Incinerate" to the gentle lullaby melody of "Do You Believe in the Rapture" (arguably the loveliest song Sonic Youth has produced since "Diamond Sea") to Kim Gordon's new-found pop croon on the opener, "Reena," and "Turquoise Boy," the band hasn't made a record with this many fun, enjoyable tunes in years. Of course accessible is a relative word when discussing Sonic Youth, and by no means has the band lost its edge. Even at its most poppy, Sonic Youth still twist and gnarl any rock troupe they encounter. But on RATHER RIPPED, the band that essentially created noise rock have once again placed the rock front and center. They bust out o' the sonic barn with "Incinerate" and "Reena" then contemplate holy war mind games with "Do You Believe In Rapture?" and keep cruising strong with track after track of risk-laden rock jammers.

BEGIN TO HOPE finds anti-folk chanteuse Regina Spektor taking a small step away from piano balladry into the brave new world of the pop song. And what pop songs they are. Spektor's voice takes the foreground over sparse arrangements of guitars, strings, some electronic beats, and yes, piano. Her singing, if you can believe it, is even better than it was on SOVIET KITSCH: intimate, playful, and full of jazzy phrasings. She slips effortlessly into falsetto and scat in a manner reminiscent of Joni Mitchell. "Hotel Song" finds Spektor singing whispery and smooth over humming organs and a muted snare drum. In "On The Radio," she sings about hearing G'N'R's "November Rain" while plucked strings and synth arpeggios go noodling on behind her. This is an album full of surprises, not the least of which is how lovely the effect is overall.

Widespread Panic, the wildly popular standard bearers of rootsy American rock, are readying for the release of their audacious new album Earth To America (June 13, Sanctuary/ Widespread Records). Their 9th studio CD, Earth To America captures the band at a new creative peak in collaboration with producer Terry Manning, the first time they've worked with the famed studio master whose credits stretch back to Stax days.

The Raconteurs are a new band made up of old friends, consisting of Jack Lawrence (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), Brendan Benson (guitars, vocals, keys) and Jack White (guitars, vocals, keys). The seed was sewn in an attic in the middle of a hot summer when friends Jack White and Brendan Benson got together and wrote a song that truly inspired them. This song was "Steady, As She Goes" and the inspiration led to the creation of a full band with the addition of Lawrence and Keeler. While each of these four individuals have had successful careers with their own bands, the culmination of all of their talents is what truly makes The Raconteurs a force to be reckoned with.

PLAYING AT THE NORVA SEPT 22

Their fourth album resembles the austere folk of previous Shearwater albums only incidentally. Thorny forests of static and distortion sprout up occasionally. The band also channels previously unheard influences. "They remain, in parts, as somber still as American Music Club, but now add more than a dash of 'Spirit Of Eden' Talk Talk and a whole heap of '70s FM pop. Soft rock chamber music if you will; like Devendra Banhart or Iron & Wine, Shearwater are capable of emotional resonance through the most brittle of arrangements. Stunning" - Uncut.

To Find Me Gone is the second album by Andy Cabic's ever-evolving band Vetiver, released two years after the debut self-titled release. Andy has since toured the world, usually as a member of Devendra Banhart's band, and sometimes even with Vetiver. In those two years, Vetiver has expanded into a full-on singer-songwriter band/project, aided and abetted by some of the best players (and usually his best friends) in the extended family of which Cabic finds himself a member. Musically, there's a dreamy Topanga Canyon vibe on select songs (maybe that's the pedal steel calling on 'No One Word'), and there's also plenty of crunchy candy for those who have appreciated Cabic's recent nod toward the magic of '70s-era Fleetwood Mac.

Twenty years into the partnership, this band retains its youthful enthusiasm. The music has evolved greatly, but the spark and the drive remain the same on this, the first new record in six years. Zeroes And Ones is about the difference between gravity and floating away, reality or dream, looking for something to grasp or simply letting go. Theyve crafted the finest album of their long career. The guitar playing and song writing is elevated, the raw energy honed and undiluted by the passage of time. The band includes Janet Bean (Freakwater), Doug McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback, Pullman), and Mark Greenberg (Coctails, Archer Prewitt).

Written and performed by the collective of Davey von Bohlen, Dan Didier [both formerly of The Promise Ring] and Eric Axelson [formerly of The Dismemberment Plan], the album is a triumphant realization of the unlabored goal of Maritime and an occasional turn toward the darker, denser corners of years past. That's right: We, the Vehicles isn't all sunshine and bubbles. The band remains solidly tethered to pop perfection, but has taken space to let that pop cycle through all its permutations. Maritime may have a collective history to both cling to and run from, but with We, the Vehicles, the band steps forcefully into its own. More than a side project or an "ex-members of," it proves beyond a doubt that this is something viable and vital on its own.

Playing the Norva w/ Cursive on July 11!

Russian Circles have it. That's really what it all boils down to in the end, after all the promotion, the interviews, the advertisements, the one-sheets, the haranguing from publicists: Does this band have it -- that impossible-to-define something that you can't explain, but instantly recognize? It's what makes a band indelibly memorable and sends people scurrying to the merch table after their set.

This is a comment on their myspace - cecil taylor unit structures is playing through the overhead at a pleasant level. the hallway is a cooridor. the cooridor is long, white, windowless. there is a door at the end of the cooridor with a window. through this window, another shorter cooridor is visible. this cooridor is exactly like the previous cooridor, just slightly shorter. there is a series of slightly shorter cooridors leading all the way down to a cooridor so short it is considered a room. door in, room to stand, door out. the door out has no window. through this door a doubly large room with a pinhole in the left wall. through the pinhole there is the most exotic jungle of landscapes, hundreds of tenor saxophonists and drummers playing music to god.

PLAYING RELATIVE JULY 1

Mar
The Silence

Release Date: 04/18/06
Label: Ring Road
CD: $9.98

Mar's Debut Album, 'The Silence', Is Now Available. Featuring Jimmy LaValle Of The Album Leaf and Samuli Kosminen Of Múm!!! 'The Silence' Was Recorded In Reykjavik, Iceland And It Was Produced By Gunnar Tynes Of Múm (His First Album Production), Iceland's Axel Árnason, Jimmy LaValle, And Samuli Kosminen. Mar was my mother's name. She passed away of cancer in 1999. Even when there were no signs of hope, she dreamed ridiculous dreams. Everyone should dream ridiculous dreams. It's our only chance to do so. Mar was founded by me, Kyle Reidy in early 2004. We went through several changes in line-up before settling with the final four who pulled through and actually recorded the debut album a year later. Patrick Atkinson (electric guitar), Nate Reed (electric guitar), and Claire Long (keyboards) were a part of Mar with me until April of 2005, after a tour with The Album Leaf. All three are very intelligent and creative musicians and each of them had their share of writing 'The Silence'. After the tour everyone went their own way and I stayed with the name and will continue to make Mar albums and do live tours.

As old friends, lovers and ex-lovers, Chicago sextet The 1900s harness the resulting fury to create harmony-laden psychedelic pop music, most notably inspired by The Zombies, Fleetwood Mac, Belle & Sebastian, Donovan, Tommy James, and Velvet Underground. A problem with keeping secrets and a penchant for spreading rumors made for quite an arrival onto the Chicago pop scene, where The 1900s were immediately embraced and sought after by fans and critics, as well as the city's most cherished bands. These recordings emerged out of an idle yet remarkable studio that, it was later learned, is funded by the Department of Homeland Security... How this transpired is a closely guarded secret.

This is snowden’s debut cdep. Snowden formed in the summer of 2003 here in Atlanta and have been steadily captivating local audiences. Creatively utilizing such influences as my bloody valentine, radiohead and the cure, snowden give the listener an excellent debut cdep featuring six tracks. Lead by Jordan Jeffares on vocals and guitar, snowden are a five piece which does a very good job of blending reverb saturated guitars and keyboards for a lush sound which is anchored by catchy bass hooks and complex rhythmic patterns.

With your support we can stay on the map.

TUES JUNE 13, 2006

silent shout .

Holy shit, why hadn't I never heard of The Holy Fire Band until last week? Did you know about them and didn't tell me about them? That cruel, just sit in your tower. HFB are a more angular Elliott or a Motor City Fugazi (great band name btw). These guys just blow my mind. Expect good things from those guys and The Felix Culpa, a band sharing the stage Tuesday and have a great driving post punk sound. Also on the bill, local Coldplaysters, Tokyo, will be jamming their piano driven tunes into you're hungry little ears. One more thing about this show you must know. One of the guys from Tick Tock Boom (my favorite band, if they didn't make music), came into the record store the other day with a shirt on that said, "Luh You, Boo". Isn't that cool, as shit?

TUES JUNE 13 , 2006

Jack Grace Band | site & sound
@ The Ghent Taphouse

Time: 10pm
Tickets: $5
21 and up

mon oncle .

I wish my uncle made music that was like Jack Grace's sophisticated-honky-tonk-country-blues fun. I really don't wish that, my uncle rules. But so does Jack Grace. I like to imagine that the "Martini Cowboy" stands on stage and belting away his blues and drowning his sorrows with Vodka and Vermouth. This show will be at Taphouse, so come out with your gal, buy her a Mint Julep and enjoy the show.

WED JUNE 14, 2006

he bears the mark .

Has anyone ever heard of the octopus project? It still exists but everyone who is associated with it are the type of people who know how to drop mini smoke bombs and switch out the microphone in your hand for a chicken bone. Quien es BOOM! playing this Friday [6/9] was part of the Octopus Project and he’s deadly. Bring Back The Guns has roots there as well. This however brings the age old question of which came first Bring Back The Guns or Octopus Project? Octopus Project I think is more of a myth. I have friends who say they have seen them but they always describe is the most vague scenarios as if you have to be actually invited to a Octopus Project show. So I think they are more like the Stone Cutters and you need the birthmark to either be in or see Octopuses. Bring Back The Guns are much more real. No birthmark required - you just show up.Not to mention our local talent on this show would be a crime. Jake Clemmons is in a band called I’m Burning and we are told it will be full of lust and desire. I am kidding but you won’t want to miss this fusion he is whipping up. Last year he wanted to play the record store in front of an all white sheet, wearing all white, and playing a white guitar while films were projected over him in slow motion. It never happened but is was a sick idea. Plus we have Closer on the bill and I am still having trouble on which early 90s manchester band I should compare them too but even without comparison they stand on their own and it shall be a Tidewater Treat. oooo that’s a good band name for a couple derby girls from the area. Coming to you live at Wild Wings Cantina, The Tidewater Treats. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

FRI JUNE 16 , 2006

bring back ECW .

We have a treat for all you local headbangers in the area. Luncay Driven will be heading South and stopping by Relative to rock our dump with thunderous riffs and devil signs. Also, bringing the mosh is Bellator, making a name for themselves with galloping guitars and a hard hitting rhythm section. Battle Royale is also no stranger to the heavy and will be playing Relative for the first time. Come get crazy, I said come get CRAZY!

SAT JUNE 17, 2006

the world's tiniest violin player .

Ahhh. Stock Market Crash, how you seduce me with you new wave jams that remind me of a mixture of The Cars and The Cure. Do you remember the time you played the record store and Your Black Star destroyed everything with their waves of moonless shimmering guitars and walls of synth. Or the time Wax and Wayne gathered 100 kids around a campfire and told stories from the sea about love and regret. I know you remember Under Twilight Sleep playing. Their one of the best local bands that no one knows about. Come back. Come Back.

MON JUNE 19, 2006

2 funki 4 u 2 .

The Never are out on the road and have decided to stop off in the 757 and play some tunes for us. The play acoustic driven rock songs that are as big as they are catchy. Also, on the bill is Random Effect. And if you have never seen Random Effect you need to - very Frusciante-esque (which is a good thing). And playing their final show of their residence is Kamikaze Shake. MC5 meets Stooges revival. Sex, drugs and rock n' roll a plenty this night. Don't get caught with your pants down. Scratch that.

JUNE 3 - JUNE 30 | 2006

For this show, Davis has created works that relate directly to a road trip that he took early 2006. He trekked through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri in search of solace and piece of mind after his design firm relocated. He left with wonder and worry and returned with solidified friendships and a terrifying run in with a deer. The trip was filled with discoveries and these paintings are his attempt at sharing these said discoveries.

Debbie has contributed works of photography taken from inside a natural science museum. The images were shot in a way that takes from nature photography but shown in a very unnatural light. The dark, desaturated tones and the murky quality of the images, as if being preserved in formaldehyde, convey this unnatural deathly quality and the strange sensuality from having mastered that which was not made to be confined.

click here for more on these two.

Relative Brews

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Buy any coffee beverage and receive a free muffin. We seem to offer this special often because these are the greatest baked mountains of flour ever.

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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.

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