Dear People,

This week has been one of conceptual ideas and less of the details that make this place run smoothly. Thus the newsletter is being sent out late and not proofread very well. Recently we have decided to have a print out version of the newsletter in the store for people to read and encourage them to sign up for the newsletter. This brought about a cry from the people who dont regularly use their email or dont have time to sit and read for an hour at their computer. So we thought we should print these up and have them for handout. Well they are 20 pages long and that my friend is a cramp in Relative Theory's hamstring. So we are thinking it might be helpful to split up the mailer - that is instead of doing the postscript on Thursday we just have all the show/events, art gallery, and cafe info be the second mailer and Tuesday's mailer is just new and overlooked music. Thoughts? Last week we talked about making some changes to the weekly podcast and we did nothing so you will just have to wait. We will get to it after we get our truck working again. See, it won't start and we have replaced the starter, the solenoid, the battery, the alternator, the ignition switch, the ignition module, and still it behaves like the town recluse. We are not big on cars here at Relative but when you have to move 1000 lbs. of sound equipment you can't exactly use a bike, so we gotta get the truck working. Remember we have the new Relative Cards in the store and there is plenty of new music to buy - last week was deadly and Sept 12 is a bone crusher - be sure to read about all the new music coming out right here. That is all for now, big announcements in the weeks to come so be sure to prepare. If you are a diabetic you may want to sit the next few issues out.

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Birdmonster
No Midnight

Release Date: 08/29/06
Label: Spin Art
CD: $13.98

Birdmonster is not your typical quartet. They will not stand still and stare at their feet. They will not whine about their girl troubles. They will not devolve into aimless instrumentals or rehash tired 80s fads. Birdmonster plays rock and roll. And they play it with enough energy and reckless abandon that when you find them after the show they usually smell like barnyard animals and can barely breathe. Someone is probably bleeding. And everyone is very happy.

Electrifying unreleased tracks from the Tall album sessions [Disc 1] and recordings from the Band sessions [Disc 2] in 1997 when the Crowes convened to track a loose and organic set of rock gems spotlighting their range and maturity. Together, these previously-unissued works fill in long-missing gaps in the Crowes' creative journey.

Channels was reportedly brought together through a mutual love for Jesus Lizard and early XTC—two groups that have an obvious effect in their grind and energy, respectively—and a feeling of constant disillusionment with the state of world affairs. The record wasn’t titled Waiting for the Next End of the World merely for the sake of irony; it’s a silent warning towards the imminent threat of world conflict. --Stylus Magazine

Despite the cliche, some things do indeed get better with age, and Bob Dylan may be music's best example. It's rare that music fans anxiously await a new album from a 60-plus-year-old man, but then again there's no one quite like Dylan. America's Shakespeare releases his new album, MODERN TIMES, on August 29.

His first new album in 5 years was recorded this winter with Dylan on keyboards, guitars, harmonica and vocals, accompanied by his touring band. Special edition includes a bonus DVD featuring 4 additional songs and expanded booklet.

Latest from the bluegrass band that got their start opening for/playing with Dolly Parton. This is their sophomore release and it's a tightly-executed album that brilliantly expands on their unique blend of bluegrass and country influences.

GWAR is taking you Beyond Hell! Produced by the mighty Devin Townsead, the new GWAR album is set to tear your eardrums to shreds. This is GWAR's masterpiece, their St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club...except, it's about going to hell. The CD will come with a special limited edition bonus "SlavePitTV" DVD featuring tons of behinds the scenes stuff, recording process and much more....GWAR LIVES...you die!

Is he a genius? Is he crazy than all get out? Legendary original cassette available on CD for the first time in 15 years. Digitally remastered it includes full lyric sheet and fold-out poster of his origianl artwork.

Featuring a lush, expansive soundscape, his sophomore effort is an impressive artistic statement that transports his piercing lyrics and soulful vocals to lofty new heights.

This release takes Method Man back to '93 when hip hop was unsaturated and he & RZA were in the studio making magical music.

Two years after their debut album "O.C.M.S."hit shelves, the band prepares to release its sophomore collection which includes work songs, play songs, blues songs, protest songs, love songs and
more than a few songs about spiritual renewal.

Without Rocket From The Tombs, the world may have never heard 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Final Solution, Aint It Fun, Sonic Reducer, and Down In Flames--all Rockets originals, and all contained
on this release, along with 14 other tracks culled from archival live recordings, some of which have never previously been bootlegged. Comprehensive Liner Notes and never before seen photos are jam-packed in this complete retrospective that showcases the true inception of the Cleveland underground sound.

The group is back after a two year break with a new album filled with 14 hard hitting tracks that express their views on the state of the world. A very thought-provoking and incitive album.

This newly-compiled collection explores the many-splendored sounds of Stereolab's career from their formation in London in 1991, through rising out of the underground, to becoming one of the most influential rock bands of the '90s.

Nightcrawler is that perfect mix of pop craftsmanship with singer/songwriter sensibilities. Produced by Tony Burg, Michael Beinhorn and Pete himself, Nightcrawler, delivers songs catchy and
hook filled while maintaining artist integrity.

Originally released May 16, 1966 "Pet Sounds" is hailed as one of the most influential and important albums of the 20th Century. It has been noted by over 100 domestic and international publications/journalists as one the Greatest Albums Ever. This limited 40th Anniversary Edition CD+DVD is packaged in a unique "fuzzy" digipak. (Also available in regular jewel box version). The CD includes both the original mono and remixed stereo versions. DVD video features: The Making of Pet Sounds - Behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews with Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston and Tony Asher. Pet Stories - Brian Wilson, Tony Asher, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Don Randi, Frankie Capp and Tommy Morgan reflect on the Pet Sounds sessions and the album's legacy. Rhythm of Life: Sir George Martin & Brian Wilson in the Studio (BBC TV show excerpt). 1966 Promotional films for Sloop John B and Pet Sounds. 1966 Good Vibrations "Firehouse" promotional film. God Only Knows photo gallery synched to
audio.

The alluring debut album by Santa Barbara-based band The Coral Sea might seem simple, but is not so easily defined -- one of its many beautiful contradictions for you to explore: its graceful power, its tragic mirth; it's space rock and a string quartet... It calls to mind classic albums by David Bowie, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, with current comparisons ranging from Yo La Tengo to Mercury Rev to Radiohead. Pastoral, atmospheric art-rock, led by frontman and founder Rey Villalobos' luminous, androgynous croon.

Genre/Style: Rock / Pop

Bob Dylan called him his long lost father. He's a living link to Woody Guthrie, Brownie McGhee, and the beat poets. Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Kris Kristoffersen, Bruce Springsteen, and Beck all cite him as an inspiration. Now more than ever Elliot stands alone a crucial reminder of a proud and dying American tradition a self made wayfarer whose fifty plus years of experience resonate in every note he sings. Elliott offers an introspective look back at his career through meditative takes on favorites and untied material.

An on-again, off-again supergroup of the Midwest's finest country rockers, Golden Smog return with Another Fine Day, their first album since 1998's Weird Tales. Once again, the group is comprised of three-fifths of the Jayhawks (Gary Louris, Mark Perlman and Kraig Johnson), Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, drummer Jody Stephens of Big Star, and, on about half the songs, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. No one singer or songwriter dominates the album, but the twangy, rootsy power pop of the Big Star and Jayhawks axis flourishes on songs like "Corvette" and "Gone," while Murphy's harder-rocking lead-vocal showcase, "Hurricane," nods to Soul Asylum's punky origins and Tweedy's "Listen Joe" is a spooky take on Wilco-style art-country.Their first album in 8 years falls a little less alt-country and more on the power-pop side than their previous efforts. It's an album of personal reflection and timeless optimism.

From British Columbia come Shapes and Sizes. Theirmelodic pop inhabits a world of beauty noise whispers and elusive contradictory moods where the dynamic of a steam piston gives way to elegiac understatement often within one song. With three of its four members writing for the band their repertoire is one of constant surprise oftern going out on a limb but never falling off..

Tapes N Tapes
The Loon

Release Date: 07/25/06
Label: 4AD
CD: $13.98
LP: $13.98

Tapes n' Tapes have earned the love of music bloggers, music buyers, and fans across the country, selling over 10000 copies in the US since the November 1st release of The Loon on their self run record label. Their sound is the basement indie of Pavement, the eclecticism of Talking Heads, and the frenzied power of The Pixies, but with a vital thrilling and unique blast of energy and melody that has rarely been combined before. At SXSW, two of the most extraordinary bands defied categories and tore apart verse chorus verse forms. Tapes n' Tapes were rhapsodic, with songs that metamorphosed from reticence to frenzy and back

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

Genre/Style: Pop

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.

The highly anticipated debut full-length from British pop darlings The Pipettes - Becki, Rose, and Gwenno, along with their backing band The Cassettes. The band have won fans around the globe with their trademark polka dot dresses, super-poppy 60s-style girl-group anthems, and feel-good choreographed hand movements.

After all the promotion, the interviews, the advertisements, the onesheets, the haranguing from publicists, it all boils down to one thing: does this band have it -- that impossible-to-define something that you can't explain, but instantly recognize? Even though they don't play the most accessible music -- an instrumental amalgam of punk, metal, indie-rock and even prog -- Russian Circles have it. "Enter," their debut album, definitely doesn't sound like a new band clumsily over-thinking their songs, but instead it sounds like one cohesive composition in six movements. Each movement holds its breath through the intense moments, but exhales through sweeping, airy horizons that slowly collapse into dense panoplies, showcasing the band's shifting dynamics, and not just the binary code of loud/quiet. Coupled with their richly textured guitar-work, thick, growling bass lines and propulsive, polyrhythmic beats, it's an exhausting 44 minutes, yet it'll still leave listeners wanting more

Sounds narrate the songs and direct the listener into new settings while allowing Vollmar to create pieces that are both surreal and expressionistic. Each song is about separate people who collectively make a family of sorts; 12 songs exploring 13 or so characters weaknesses, vulnerabilities and sensitivities in search of some glimmer of light.

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WED AUG 30, 2006

Beloved Binge | site & sound
In Black and White | site & sound
Marcleac | site & sound
Zach Jones | site & sound

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

juevos are my ninos .

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 Zach Jones filling in for Dale Richardson and it should be quite the folky treat. Come out!

THUR AUG 31, 2006

River City High | site & sound
Freedom Hawk | site & sound
Manuetta | site & sound

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

bare knuckled .

One time I walked into a bar because I had to take a shit just before I was about to take a long bus ride. Halfstep into Acupulco's and I knew I was out of my element so I ordered 2 shots of tequilia from the latin maiden behind the counter. She was more beautiful than all the land. I had to play it cool because some luchadors were rapping about some chaos in the barrio. I couldnt wait any longer so I scampered off to the restroom. There were no stalls just 3 toilets. Ahhh! Sweat was dropping off my brow, what if they saw through my charade and new I only came to drop a deuce? I went as fast as I could but before my session was over the door was kicked in. It was Jean Claude Van Damme and he said "Can you hear it? It's the Freedom Hawk!".

true story

FRI SEPT 01, 2006

Casey Brooks Art Opening - Photography

Time: 7 pm
Tickets: free event

pretty versions sung  .

See gallery section for details.

SAT SEPT 02, 2006

Bound Stems | site & sound
Beautiful Uncertainty | site & sound
Mike Federali | site & sound

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

wipe away the rust .

One of the best eps to come out last year and what I feel has still gone unrecognized by everyone in the business. Maybe it got a couple of shout outs but are we to assume that after some shout outs and no developing buzz that the record is no good. I know eps are hard to sell but still where is the hype on these guys besides here inside Relative Theory. You need to come out and see this show especially if you dig on Broken Social Scene with a few extra pop elements. This show is going down with a smile. Locals Beautiful Uncertainty will be sure to please with their rocking chair folk stories and Mike Federali makes an appearance after a long absence. Enjoy!

SUN SEPT 03, 2006

In Light | site & sound
Astropop 3 | site & sound
Zach Parkman | site & sound

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

it still works, see .

In Light is on their first U.S. tour and I can't believe Relative Theory got one of their tour spots. Mixing together something in the line of early Radiohead and Supergrass, the have given a swirling ride that is sure to take note. Astropop 3 and Zach Parkman are the locals on the bill. If you haven't been over to Astropop 3's myspace in awhile you should be sure to check out the new songs they have posted. Bearing a 60s pop sound and ultimately a recreation of Astropop 3, we are extremely excited to hear these guys play live again.

MON SEPT 04, 2006

LABOR DAY PARTY!

Peter and the Wolf | site & sound
Jana Hunter | site & sound
Castanets | site & sound
Joel of Ki:Theory | site & sound
Fecal Food | site & sound

Time: 6 pm EARLY SHOW
Tickets: $6 adv | $8 day of show
Relative Card: 50 points

through the haze comes food .

It is tough to say whether or not this will be the best show of the year. It has all the right elements and the anticipation has been rising for the past 3 months. We have a couple of bangers on the books for November but I am thinking that Peter and the Wolf is going to take the cake. The only newcomer to Relative is Jana Hunter and we definitely wiggle our ears for her. Come out for submarine sandwiches and dance to the psychedelic folk goodness. Castanets will have all new stories to tell and there will be pots and pans to bang on! Buy your tickets early as we do anticipate this one to sell out!!!

AUG 22 thru AUG 30 | 2006

Coming Next Month

SEPT 01 thru OCT 02| 2006

Ah portrait of a young student. Casey Brooks will be showing her work at Relative Theory for this month and while I do not know much about her personal life I can tell she is a steady shot puts together a fine frame. She will be putting on display a collection of photos she has taken over the past 2 years and we will

Relative Brews

Remember Relative Cardholders:

Cafe Specials

Cool Beans.

Receive a free cafe beverage with any Larry's Bean purchase. Relative Cafe started to carry these awesome, organic, shade-grown beans last week and they are looking for eager grinders of coffee. Pick up a 1lb. bag for $13.98 and catch yourself a drink of ANY kind and ANY size. Spunky.

New Shapes!

New To The Menu

Now Available

We are looking to add a couple of new items and switch out a couple of products. We won't be carrying JetTea anymore and we are now using Big Train Fruit Goodness. We switched just because of the name. Just kidding. Also we are thinking of moving from Revolution Tea to this other brand whose name I can't recall at the moment but we liked to merchandising ability plus it allows us to consolidate vendors. And it's organic. Mighty Leaf! That is what it's called. Plus we are now selling retail size versions of Larry's Beans in a small take home 1 lb bag. The flavors are Bean Martin, Frank Sumatra, Larry's Pure Guatemalan. One day at a time we are becoming an actual cafe. Who knows, maybe one day we'll make a profit like a real retail establishment!

Come On Out

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