Dear People,

This week we have plenty of new releases that apply to the constituents of Relative Theory. Every week there are about 200 new cds made available to the buying public however we could not possibly afford to stock all of them, especially the new age ones. This week we have highlighted 34 or so titles that we believe bear some cultural significance or just that they will sell and we can make some money to buy a sandwich. If you review the list you might believe that there are enough awesome titles to make your 2006 top ten list all titles that came out on the same day - don't get too excited though because Sept 12 is going to kick your pants in as well. We got the Relative Love back on track last week and we intend to make this much more of a weekly effort and at the same time put a little more razz matazz into it. We are funny guys and we should really let the world know. In other independent music news we went to the myspace page of Jacqui over at Secretly Canadian and SHE'S HAWT! Also over in France Grizzly Bear got the play the main stage at a festival because some band cancelled and they sang to 5000 new fans, this news via James a Relative employee. Have you heard of the Boat Tour? It is headed by Peter and The Wolf and Norfolk is the start date. We are having a serious Labor Day party and we will be jamming with psychedelic folk music and submarine sandwiches starting at 6 PM. Don't miss it. Right now on my desk is a roll of toilet paper, a thing of Log Cabin syrup and a copy of the new Lee Scratch Perry - What am I about to do? You may have noticed that the relative links below has said google the past couple of issues and that is because it is a lot easier to update that way. Lastly, we haven't seen any movies lately but we hear Snakes on a Plane and Talledega Nights are both entirely worth it.

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Against Me!
Americans Abroad! Against Me! Live in London!

Release Date: 08/22/06
Label: Fat Wreck
CD: $13.98 Sale $9.98

The Mean Fiddler was the chosen location for the audio capture of an intense live set with the band offering up a prize mix of songs from each of their three full lengths. Seems a bit bizarre that a live record would have a title track but American's Aboard! Against Me! Live In London doea and its a brand new song called Americas Abroad. Tons of pictures from the day of recording adorn the packaging, along with this being an enhanced CD featuring a live video from problems. All the ingredients come together for a complete live record experience.

His first Saddle Creek release is an unadorned and unapologetically forthright collection of songs. Whereas Bachmann's Crooked Fingers 2005 effort Dignity And Shame was his most poppy and immediately accessible album, this one is his most sparse and reflective. Erics warm vocals and deceptively simple arrangements keep the songs quiet elegance ardent and complete only occasionally augmented by Miranda Browns angelic harmonies or Tom Hagermans haunting violin. The record tells stories of self imposed or unintentional isolation and the common search for or escape from some kind of sanctuary.

Since the release of Accidentals in 1996, Broadcast have released three full length albums plus numerous EPs and singles. The Future Crayon illustrates the scope of the band's vision over the last 10 years, from the fringes of 60s Psych to the playful world of European Library Music. Blending nursery rhyme pop with radiophonic arrangements, Broadcast transmit a beautiful music of the memory.Incredibly the album flows like a proper album, it's a really good way of weaving through Broadcast's career.

All was quiet in Camp Cursive for more than a year...And then, slowly at first, after much decompression and contemplation, they began to discuss and then assemble a new record as a freshly reconstituted four-piece--the longtime core of Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass), Clint Schnase (drums) and Ted Stevens (guitar, vocals).

The band's reemergence finds them self-assured and assertive as ever. Rather than retread familiar artistic ground, Cursive has unfurled their most adventurous and accomplished work to date, Happy Hollow.

Happy Hollow takes the scalpel to its small-town inhabitants and their stories, dredging up debates of intelligent design, blind devotion, homosexuality and patriotism--while calling out false virtue, righteous cant and sanctimonious liars -- to create a literate, impassioned and empirical look at organized religion arranged as 14 hymns for heathens.

Once upon a time, there lived a group of revelers who made their homes along the sparkling landscape of the California coast. Amidst the glitter of the ocean and the sun-lit haze of the morning, they began to make music together, drenching their guitars in blissed-out fuzz, their drums pulsing and crashing like waves, and stretching echoing harmonies sky-high. And with each distorted squeal of feedback, with each note drifting upward and heavenward, gleaming in the shards of California sunlight, as if it were meant for divine intervention: Darker My Love was born.

Over the course of the last decade Daniel Burton (the man behind Early Day Miners) has become one of the mid-west's best kept secrets. Mentored by Daniel Lanois at his Teatro Studio in Los Angeles, Burton has been putting his project-oriented stamp on a variety of records for the last 10 years. Anywhere from early Songs: Ohia recordings to the tribal rumblings of On Fillmore (Glenn Kotche of Wilco's band with the venerable Darin Gray) to the pink noise and melodies of Windsor for the Derby, Burton's ideas and experiences with various bands in the studio have coalesced into this career-defining work, Offshore.

Initially composed in 2001 for Let Us Garlands Bring (their sophomore album), Offshore is quintessential Early Day Miners. The faithful set closer, Offshore is equally beautiful and noisy...composed though loose; akin to late 80s/early 90s 4AD-laden world of shoegaze wash-rock like Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Mark Hollis, their predecessor Peter Gabriel or modern day saint William Basinski.

In the Lanois/Eno tradition, Burton collected an all-star cast to flesh out his vision. All contributing their talents though not distracting from the task at hand, Offshore features the core band of Burton, Joe Brumley, Jonathan Richardson, Matt Griffin (OlO) with special appearances by hauntingly beautiful voice of Amber Webber (Black Mountain), Windsor for the Derby's Dan Matz on guitar, the prepared bass of Darin Gray, Unwed Sailor's Johnathon Ford on electric bass and mixed by the deft hands of John McEntire (Tortoise).

Offshore has been a favorite for years. This is the director's cut.

Radiodread is the long awaited follow-up to Dub Side of the Moon. This time out Radiohead's OK Computer is the subject of The Easy Star All-Stars' reggae treatment.

Over the course of three albums Eluvium (aka Matthew Cooper) has crawled from total obscurity to his rightful place as one of America's premier modern composers. Tying up his career to this point - and acting as a companion piece to "Talk Amongst the Trees" - the four pieces on "When I Live by the Garden and the Sea" showcase both the neoclassical piano-driven elegance and the tidal drones that he has become almost famous for. It takes his explorations in sound and vision to their logical conclusion, clearing the way for a new phase to be unleashed on his next album in spring 2007.

This new quartet showcases the improvisational talents of four longtime members of Chicagos storied underground jazz scene. Nicole Mitchell is the first female co president of the AACM was named Downbeat Mags Rising Star Flutist of 2005 is also the daughter of Art Ensemble of Chicago member Roscoe Mitchell. Harrison Bankhead is currently Hamid Drakes main partner on bass and cello and is also a member of 8 Bold Souls. Master drummer percussionist Avreeayl Ra is
a long term member of the Chicago AACM and devotes much of his time to the Congo Beach Initiative a society in which Chicago musicians dancers and artists play music and practice their spiritual and healing arts.

At the start of 2005 Grails returned to the US from a month lxist in the ong European tour. Stepping off the plane most of the band walked in one direction and the violinist strayed off in another. It ended up being the last time most anyone would see or talk to him. A bandmate of 3 records and 5 years had vanished only to eform of vague rumors (violin hocked for petty cash, living on the streets, etc). As the varied reports of brief encounters and sightings grew stranger and darker, the band started a series of recordings called Black Tar Prophecies. The remaining members had particular dissatisfactions with how the band had been grouped into the innocuous contemporary 'post-rock' movement. This frustration, combined with newly liberated instrumental roles, introduced new possibilities for the band's sound. In this way the collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the groundfloor 60's and 70's experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music.Grails third full length recording, and first full length since leaving Neurosis' label Neurot, is The Black Tar Prophecies. Seven of these nine tracks from this full length were released in small highly sought after pressings of 12” vinyl on two European labels.

The Black Tar Prophecies is a massive evoltionary step in the established Grails sound and it is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style which has established them a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy and for lack of a better term “psychadelic.” We're not talking about the cliché co-opted psychadelic fashion, but psychadelia as a reckless embrace of new states of mind and possibilities. This sound has always existed within a Grails song but now it's been heavilly pushed to the foreground. Perhaps even more elloquently and simply stated, Black Tar Prophecies 1-3 is their best record yet.

When an album suggests from its opening notes just how stunning it will be, a sort of promise is made. It is the kind of promise few bands are able to keep, but from the opening string quartet intro straight through the album's delicate closing, Headlights deliver a pop masterpiece with Kill Them With Kindness. This record is alive with a pulse that beats with shoegaze spirit. Through its veins runs the lifeblood of an indie-pop band not afraid to incorporate a synth wall of sound and a mod organ in consecutive songs, not afraid of anything at all. There is a synthesis of keyboards and guitars, of vocals, of ethereal programming and huge
drums; a solidification of lyrics centered on the paradoxes, the ups and downs we all experience. And in this world of stun or be stunned, by the time Kill Them With Kindness shimmers to its close, you realize not only how remarkable the album is, but how rare it is for
a debut LP to yield such dramatic results.

On August 22nd, 2006 J Dilla’s 'The Shining' will serve as a testament to the fact that legends never die. On February 10th, 2006, the world of Hip Hop lost J Dilla aka Jay Dee.

James ‘J Dilla’ Yancey leaves behind an impression on Hip Hop that will last the test of time. A bridge between Hip Hop’s underground and mainstream, Dilla’s contributions ranged from single handedly defining Detroit Hip Hop as a founding member of Slum Village to providing his production talents to Common, D’Angelo, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, The Roots, Janet Jackson and Macy Gray.

The Shining marked the reunion of J Dilla & BBE, who had released Welcome 2 Detroit, J Dilla’s debut album. The Shining serves as showcase of J Dilla’s talents which features him not only as a producer, but also as a rapper, singer and musician. Featured guests on this album include Busta Rhymes, Common, Pharoahe Monch, D’Angelo, Madlib, Black Thought, Medaphor aka MED, and Guilty Simpson. a debut LP to yield such dramatic results.

Their franchise of 'pure American metal' is only getting bigger. Their new CD is going to expand their audience and bring them mainstream attention with their anthemic hooks and explosive riffs.

Their tenth full-length is yet another stunning collection of songs written by Kurt Wagner and brought to life by up to seventeen band members and collaborators. Eschewing the overt country influences of early Lambchop records and the R&B and soul influences of mid-period albums for a hushed austerity that is uniquely southern yet oddly universal, Damaged continues in the quiet and haunting tradition pioneered on the past three Lambchop albums (Is A Woman, Aw C'mon, and No You C'mon).

BBE Records is proud to release the new album from World music and South African trumpet great, Hugh Masekela, Presents: The CHISA Years 1965 – 1975 (Rare & Unreleased). The tracks on the album come from the vaults of CHISA Records, the label formed and run by Hugh Masekela and producer Stewart Levine.

Hugh Masekela has enjoyed major success as one of the earliest leaders in fusing Pop, Funk, R&B, Disco, Afropop, and Jazz. Masekela’s vibrant trumpet and flugelhorn solos have been featured on hundreds of recordings. He’s had American and international hits and worked with bands all around the world, including Paul Simon’s Graceland. In addition to being an accomplished mucician, Masekela has produced for World music great Miriam Makeba and others.

Stewart Levine has produced music over the years for Hugh Masekela, Simply Red ("Holding Back The Years"), The Crusaders, Dixie Dregs, Minnie Ripperton, Sly & The Family Stone, and B.B. King. Recently, Levine has produced Jamie Cullum’s Twentysomething and Catching Tales albums.

Solo album from the female lead singer of the Stars. Lush, bittersweet country-tinged pop ditties.

Since its original release in 2002, One Step More and You Die has become the monolithic cornerstone of MONO's discography. Every subsequent release has been inevitably (and perhaps unfairly)
compared to this album, as if it were the band's high watermark, never to be dethroned. MONO brilliantly answered even the most stubborn of naysayers with 2006's transcendent You Are There. To celebrate that release, we dug into their back catalog and pulled out this masterpiece of dark dirge, repackaged with additional artwork. One Step More stared the "sophomore slump" threat square in the face and pummeled it from note one. Four years later we can confidently
say that it sounds just as brutal and beautiful

"Get Lonely" is every bit as assured as its predecessor, "The Sunset Tree", but the mood is entirely different. "Sunset" chronicled the fraught, violent relationship between John Darnielle and his stepfather and derived its power from an unblinking exorcism of personal demons, while "Get Lonely" is the haunted aftermath. It's a reflective, intimate record. The mood is one of bittersweet resignation rather than cathartic release. It's a quiet triumph, murmuring with a modest but entirely surefooted confidence. An uncannily coherent and subtly redemptive record which will come to be seen as Mountain Goats' most resonant, assured, and magical collection of songs so far.

Georgia Anne Muldrow is one of Stones Throw Records newest signings, and is the only female vocalist signed to the label. Inspired by solid '70s soul, free jazz and a bottom-heavy hip-hop thump, Georgia paints a unique musical canvas that has the underground stopping to gaze and take it all in. It’s just one 22-year old woman behind such a breadth of sonic expression – she does her own vocals, background vocals AND the beats.

Georgia springs from a family of creative musicians, whose roots run deep in the '60s and '70s progressive jazz scene: her father invented instruments for Eddie Harris, and her mother performed with Pharoah Sanders. Their innovation passed to their daughter, who approaches her labyrinth of keyboards, synthesizers and various instruments with a fresh perspective every time. She was noticed early on by fellow L.A. hip-hop trendsetters Sa Ra, as well as Detroit’s Platinum Pied Pipers – both of whom tapped her for collaborations. From there, the buzz brought Georgia’s sound to the airwaves of “Worldwide” with Gilles Peterson on the BBC, and naturally, to Peanut Butter Wolf, who signed her to a two-album deal on Stones Throw Records.

Bring Me The Workhorse courageously gathers all the essential elements of classical and pop to create an album that breaks down the barriers of both worlds. These songs are simultaneously gentle and urgent, evoking moments of tremendous joy and sorrow with the magnitude of Italian opera and the modesty of a Japanese haiku. Under Shara’s gaze, ordinary objects begin to have supernatural meanings. A robin’s nest, a grocery list, a glass bottle come to represent love, mortality, and the overwhelming need to "freak out" every once in a while. Shara is not afraid to use superlatives. But she also considers the benefits of self-control. This is most evident in the carefulness of her arrangements. Earthy drums and bass guitar are augmented by Celeste, music boxes, prepared piano, and a string quartet; each song is scrupulously composed and arranged by Shara herself.

Shara’s songwriting reconciles the high art of opera with the low-brow of the folk song by compounding them into a form that is both as sublime as it is pragmatic. The music is set in transcendent landscapes familiar to Wagner’s operas, but it is also planted firmly in the materials of everyday life: dirt, tree branches, bird feathers and thrown away charms. Strings and chimes beckon mysterious apparitions, but Shara’s tone of voice is dead serious.

Almost every song pivots around a moment of crisis, distilling stories to their most distressing points of contact: a phone call, an injured horse, a dragonfly caught in a spider’s web. Shara doesn’t share all the information — just the stuff that matters. The effect is a sensational compression of time, in which an entire event is summarized in a single note. This, of course, is the essence of opera. But My Brightest Diamond is much more than musical theater.

Nouvelle Vague is two well seasoned, multi-instrumentalists / producers, Marc Colins and Oliver Libaus, who have found the beauty and heart in the sounds from this era and transformed them -- cleverly merging and arranging this radical music. Some of the songs are stripped back to acoustic arrangements with lithe shaker rhythms achieved by gathering a parade of heavenly chanteuses from all over the world (six French, one Brazilian and one New Yorker) as guest vocalists to sex up everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order to Blondie and Billy Idol.

Jennifer released her debut EP, Truth Love Work, in 2000. 'Time Out' wrote, "O'Connor is another Liz Phair or Elliott Smith waiting to happen. Her understated guitar-based songs lack the primping, preening and obviousness of Phair and the sad-sack whining of Smith. Rather, her matter-of-fact lyrics tell stories that us regular joes can relate to." Her self-released, self-titled debut followed in 2002, and Red Panda released the acclaimed 'The Color And The Light' in May 2005.

'Over The Mountain…' is her 3rd full-length, but it has the immediacy of a debut. The past year saw many personal upheavals which informed it more than she expected. "It's been so tumultuous, I think that inevitably crept into my songs," she says. "I wouldn't say that I always write from experience, but I did a lot of it on this record." For her most emotional songs yet, she self-produced and got rid of reverb and extraneous sounds, giving them an urgency that her other records didn't always have. She explains, "There's a lot of space; we purposefully pared everything down to what was necessary for the song."

While Jennifer writes (and often performs) alone on guitar, each song here (save the acoustic single-take "Today") is fleshed out with a band that includes her longtime drummer Jon Langmead, James McNew (Yo La Tengo) on bass, Kendall Meade (Sparklehorse, Mascott) on keyboards & vocals, and other friends including Britt Daniel (Spoon) on vocals, and Al Weatherhead, who produced 'Color...' & plays guitar on many tracks.

First, there’s PAJO. This is a guy who once upon a time, chose to call his band Aerial M. That’s sort of mysterious...but then he changed it to Papa M. The mystery’s thickening, right? Then, he started singing, after being an acclaimed composer of instrumental records. Weird, maybe — but not entirely without explanation. Well, then he took a bit of a sabbatical to join Zwan, okay? Full-on total mystery in effect. Coming back from that two-year mini-debacle, he makes a new record — but a new Papa M record? An ‘M’ record of any kind? No, that was just his vehicle for almost a decade, that's all. Now he’s PAJO — as in David Pajo, the mystery-man himself. Most mysterious of all is how this dude can keep making records and flummoxing us with the excellence of the outcomes — he records the parts all by himself, for the most part, and often in such compromised conditions as laptop recording provides. Now the one-time instrumental songwriter is singing on all his songs, and singing melodically, with songs about all kinds of crazy things, like love and death and different kinds of friendships. That’s what his self-titled PAJO CD was about (speaking generally) and his new one 1968 is even more about that. Plus it’s got drums! And one of the world’s fattest CD booklets of all-time.

The legendary Lee Scratch Perry is thrilled to grant the wish of Reggae fans all over the world by releasing a new album. Panic in Babylon is the choice full-length epic with a unique catchiness and hypnotizing rhythm only Perry's hands could bring to life. We invite you to soak in the album's sharply enriching tones as the renowned "Father of Dub" takes you for a psychotropic journey throughout life's highs and lows. Each tune's signature Reggae-echo bounces giddily off the inner walls of your head, sending thick, magnetic currents throughout your legs and hips.

The album was released shortly afterwards, and in addition to a glorious press response ('a surprisingly buoyant thrash ... intensely pleasurable' Pitchfork), Mast and Stroud found favour with a number of bands. This ended up taking them on the road around North America and Europe playing shows with The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Stills and Mouse On Mars.

They eventually packed away the flight cases after well over a year's worth of touring, and set about making the follow-up. The record began life in Mast's new Crown Heights apartment, but really found its feet when they spent 6 weeks out of the city at a friend's house in upstate New York.

Of course, 'Classics' remains resolutely instrumental, but they have however introduced a wealth of new sounds, from acoustic and slide guitar through to sleigh bells and cello. Having laid out their blueprint with 'Ratatat', their vastly improved production and writing makes 'Classics' a refinement of their art. Throw in the remixes they've recently been commissioned to make, the impending second volume of their mix tape, and their first ever full headline tour of the US, and you have more than enough to be getting on with.

Atlanta’s SNOWDEN drowns their brand of melodies in a sea of reverb heavy distortion and hypnotic layers. Anti-Anti, the band’s debut album for Jade Tree, integrates the ethereal guitar resonance and dynamic percussion reminiscent of bands like Ride, New Order and early Cure, with the volatility of contemporaries such as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Combining a mix of tracks recorded by Erik Wofford (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky, My Morning Jacket) at Cacophony Recorders in Austin with tracks recorded and mixed by principal songwriter Jordan Jeffares, Anti-Anti finds Jeffares and company elevating their trademark sound into an unpredictable mix of dirty pop soundscapes. If post-shoegaze exists as a genre, then SNOWDEN is proving their contention for the upper ranks.

RELATIVE SHOW NOTICE - LIVE WEDNESDAY AUG 23

Supersystem has always been ready to destroy a song in order to put it back together. Hip-hop, electronica, punk rock, so-called "world music"; a little bit of everything has gone into the architecture. This construct/deconstruct reflex is groomed and refined on the NY/DC quartet's latest release. Its eleven original tracks are saturated with African-tinged guitar, complex polyrhythms, atmospheric synthesizers, jaunty, funk-fried bass, and infectious beats. Look for them on tour this fall.

The Body, The Blood, The Machine was recorded at Supernatural Sound Studios in Oregon City, twenty miles south of The Thermals' home in Portland, OR by Fugazi's Brendan Canty. With the unfortunate departure of original Thermals drummer Jordan Hudson in late 2005, Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris (bass and guitar/vocals, respectively) split up duties on the new record themselves with Foster pulling double shifts as The Thermals' rhythm section for almost the entire record while Harris sang, performed all the guitar tracks and some of the bass tracks, and the two shared keyboard/organ duties. With a wider, brighter, and wilder sound than anything The Thermals have done in the past, The Body, The Blood, The Machine adds walls of guitars, organs, and even a few "ballads" (aka slightly pretty songs) to the mix, while still retaining the gritty post-pop-punk sound for which The Thermals are globally famous. The lyrics envision a United States governed by a fascist Christian state, and focus on the need (and means) to escape. While hardly a concept album, there is definitely a story told in the songs: a story about getting the fuck OUT while you still can. With the recent addition of local drummer extraordinaire, Lorin Coleman, The Thermals will be touring extensively with the release of The Body, The Blood, The Machine.

Tortoise's A Lazarus Taxon, should fill in all of the blanks in your collection. Spanning three CDs and one DVD, the set sums up just about all of Tortoise's extra-curricular activity during their 16-year career, previously only available for two-months-salary prices on eBay. The set is centered around the Rhythms, Resolutions and Clusters LP, which went out of print almost directly upon its release after their first album in 1995, and includes the lost Mike Watt remix track, which arrived too late to be pressed on the LP, and had to be respooled from a broken DAT by Bundy K. Brown just to be included here! As always, Tortoise is on the McGuyver tip. The rest of the set is filled out by 7" and 12" EP, compilation, and Japanese bonus tracks. And then there's the DVD, the piece de resistance, as they say. Over two hours long, the disc includes all of Tortoise's music videos; a couple of more conceptual short films using Tortoise's music; and several live sets, incl uding one long set from 1994, and a one-time only live collaboration with Fred Anderson and the Chicago Underground Quartet. The whole thing comes packaged in a striking hard cardstock box, printed with photography by the Swiss photographer Arnold Odermatt.

Tristeza's first ever CD+DVD release. 9 new abstract/ambient compositions on the CD. The DVD contains a 30 minute handmade tour film exploring Tristeza's psychedelic vision plus a bonus video for "Stumble On Air" from the 'A Colores' full-length.

Uzeda is a four piece from Catania, Sicily known for its close proximity to Mt. Etna a volcano so consistently explosive that it makes the most obvious and closest comparison to Uzedas music. The songs they create ebb and flow like molten lava. The Sicilian agro math quartet doesnt just keep up with its American counterparts it transcends the expectations of fans and tour mates Shellac, Fugazi and June Of 44. And at moments the album is one of the most intense things producer Steve Albini has put his name on since Big Black.

While working on the two Pirates Of The Carribean films Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski became fascinated with the lore and fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas. Enter legendary producer Hal Wilner who brings his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material. Artists on this double disc set include Bono, Sting, Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and many more. Rogues Gallery offers a look at the hardships the horrors the lusts and lurid depths and the crystal beauty that led men to the sea in ships for hundreds of years.

Originally released in 1996, Calm Hades Float is a timeless record that sounds like a dream collaboration of Martin Hannett and Brian Eno. Snaps of electronic drums collide with warm hum and reverb-drenched guitars on this ambitious release recorded by Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid. This re-release also contains the '+/-' flexi that came with the first 750 vinyl copies, along with 2 previously unreleased live tracks.

Veering from their debut, Minnie Greutzfeldt the band's sophomore album - is a study in nothingness. Also engineered by Wiltzie ?nnie came on the heels of a Kramer induced world of rolling bass lines and oceanic reverb. The record is paired with the long lost Metropolitan Then Poland EP, a collection of home experiments with synths, scissors and drum machines.

Possessed with the heart and soul of Neil Hagerty and Neil Young, Wooden Wand leads the band featuring members of Skygreen Leopards, The Vanishing Voice, and Davenport through eleven rollicking tunes that recall such cracked masterpieces as Tonights
The Night and Mendocino. Wand has become somewhat well known for his surreal lyrical imagery an uppity blend as informed by Robyn Hitchcock as by the Zimmer Man himself and on Second Attention he spares no detail.

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WED AUGUST 23, 2006

Snowden | site & sound
Invo | site & sound
Editorial We | site & sound
Tokyo | site & sound

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

fiber optic dancetronic .

BIG SHOW NOTICE! Snowden is back with tighter pants! Just playing but their boot straps are slicker this tour. Their new record is out the day before this show on Aug. 22. Their new record is quite excellent and you must hear it immediately. They rip a sharp angular guitar with heavy keys resurecting the Zombies and boiling up the brit rock from afar. Kinda like Interpol but less somber and more hook heavy. Tokyo and Editorial We are back as well to support and they doing their thing which you love. Invo is also a local jam with bread and butter. This will be their first show at Relative and we think this lineup is going to be quite the fist pumper! Do not dilly dally and get here early as we are projecting a SOLD OUT show.

FRI AUGUST 25, 2006

Limbs | site & sound
Cinemasophia | site & sound
The Sounds of Kaleidoscope | site & sound
Fecal Food | site & sound

Time: 8pm
Tickets: $5 adv / $7 day of show

pointy hats mean business .

This will be a feast for your ears. Glad to say I will be in town for this show as shoegaze is best heard live. I like it loud as possible. Limbs are jazzy rock outfit with that early 90s college rock sound. I think of Slint but that may be from spinning their records recently. Distant vocals with agressive math rock stlye. Cinemasophia will be introducing their new material again for those who missed out last weekend and they will be bringing with them the DC shoegaze outfit Sounds of Kaleidoscope. Tuning Fork has stated this is the happiest surprise for shoegaze in the new millenium. Appearing again as he makes his rounds as the Local Resident Feature is Fecal Food. Seriously folks he lives here and that means we lay claim to his brilliance!

SAT AUGUST 26, 2006

Black Viking God presents

Bear v Manchi
Part II [a hip hop showdown]
feat. Mr. Mes

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

bones brigrade is my fav  .

This will be an all-star hip hop showcase presented by The Black Viking God. You may have seen him wondering around Town Point Park wearing a 70s bath robe singing from a book of psalms. He will fill your head with dreams of strippers and hand picked fruits. Beware he is a dangerous one. Many moons ago he resided in Tampa FLA where he threw down the first Bear vs. Manchi. We heard about it all the way up here in VA and decided to let it rain. Come out to Relative on this night as he churns out his cry for the deepest in underground hip hop. So underground that we got pool toys for the water table. Breaking ground is what we do best. Not to mention Mr. Mes - his myspace is woodrow illson - shit my garden vegetables aint even that fresh!

SUN AUGUST 27, 2006

The Never | site & sound
Bellafonte | site & sound
Soft Stone | site & sound
Benji Ashley | site & sound

Time: 8pm
Tickets: $5
Relative Card: 50 points

tire belly is king .

Charming popsters The Never are the kind that make you feel good but it is not so sweet that your teeth hurt. More like we ain't taking no more shit and we like to sing and shout about it. Have you seen their debut record Antarctica. It's a story book record and is always encouraging when bands go above the artisitc standard especially on their own dime. Bellafonte played here back in March and if you missed them then now is your chance for redemption. Math rock in the vein of Shellac but with a jazz twist like Karate. Kind of hard to picture but their last show here did not disappoint. Locals Softstone and Benji/Ashley will be in the house playing their blend of pop/folk/r&b which is always a blessing in disguise.

WED AUGUST 30, 2006

Beloved Binge | site & sound
In Black and White | site & sound
Marcleac | site & sound
Dale Richardson | site & sound

Time: 8 pm
Tickets: $5 adv
Relative Card: 50 points

tricks in the mix .

Niceness is what we are doing here. Treats for you and me. Have you checked out Beloved Binge yet? That Turkish Coffee jam is my mish mash. If you check out their myspace their sounds like description is incredibly accurate - they actually know what they sound like where most bands think they know what they sound like. In Black and White may not really fit the bill in a genre sense but I couldn't not help these guys out because they so perfectly create that Hot Water Music lite sound with a bonus of mathy guitars like they were from Chicago. They remind me of a band I cannot recall but I assure you it is a good band. - maybe Jazz June - yeah that is it! Marcleac is a local talent playing for his first time at Relative and we are told he creates folk of the experimental kind and Dale Richardson is coming in from the Eastern Shore and is chopping down the Elliott Smith tree. Come out!

AUG 22 thru AUG 30 | 2006