S P O O K Y * T O W N * R E C O R DS

SPIKED PUNCH - "Chill Out And Eat a Mango" C30

2012-01-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in beach culture stretches a long finger of dirty blonde sand, where an entire day can yawn out unmoving, your nose-skin pale with salt, your eyes white and getting whiter. The purplish odor of baked seaweed spirals with the smells of food in a cart and the buzz of a biplane trailing a holiday greeting in red capitals. Parked between the mentholated lot lizards and the coconut-bra teengirls you meet Austin TX's SPIKED PUNCH in the back of a stationwagon. Their songs are spare and friendly, sung with the sounding-drone of an islander. Heavy with the musk of surf wax, crinkle fries, and the guitar wizards of the Golden Triangle. Discover 7 surf-space-reggae-pop jams to make you feel like driving your woody across the Pacific Ocean to the top of a volcano. C30, ltd. 100, $5+shipping.

SPIKED PUNCH by SPKY TWN

GREAT VALLEY / HAPPY JAWBONE - "Permanent Christmas" 7"

2011-12-16T12:25:00.000-08:00

Everybody's favorite Pretend Pop junk bands are back to SAVE CHRISTMAS! GREAT VALLEY & HAPPY JAWBONE have been working like elves around the clock on a pair of Holiday "singles" that will melt your heart. That Christmas Spirit! the one who tickles you awake at night and stuffs you full of joy like an empty sock! That Martian Santa! who leaves crop circles somehow around your chimney! These are not Holiday covers but rather Original Christmas Songs soon to be added to earth's wonderful Christmas canon! The greatest black wax Christmas gift in- or out-of-season! Ltd. 150 copies with hand-colored covers, co-released with FEEDING TUBE RECORDS. $6+shipping!

HAPPY JAWBONE - "A Happy Jawbone Family XMas Gift to You, 2011. Vol. 1: Operation Ho! Ho! Ho!" C50

2011-12-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://happyjawbone.bandcamp.com/album/a-happy-jawbone-family-x-mas-gift-to-you-2011-vol-1-opereation-ho-ho-ho"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;A HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY X-MAS GIFT TO YOU, 2011. VOL. 1: OPEREATION HO! HO! HO! by happy jawbone family band&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;You should have seen the Happy Jawbone Family Band on October 1st, when they pulled every box from their attic and hung colored lights from the ceilings and hid a Santa Claus figurine at the back of every drawer! They pounded their guitars like elves hammering toys together around the clock in order to bring this very special Christmas tape to you! The Jawbones' signature recombination of surrealist jukebox rock, sound collage joy, and radio-comedy playfulness--! Wrapped like a bucket of tinsel in red and green glowsticks. Fits exactly like a glove in your gramamma's stocking sock!! C50, Edition of 75, $5+shipping.

WISDOM TOOTH - "The Flying Mouth" C38

2011-11-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

The second full-blown installment of John Andrews' Wisdom Tooth trilogy visits the ongoing dance of the Flying Mouth--a lovely pair of lips with such a talent for crooning that a gang of jealous riflemen pursue her everywhere. The whole yarn recreated for an off-off-off Broadway rock opera with an elementary school teacher pawing at the upright, the actors pancaked, missing teeth, and joined at the hands to exalt their heroine on a shabby budget. Here amongst the trunks of cold cream, crinoline and prop fans, you hear the voices of people with dignity and babies with summer birthdays being baptized. Those gentle honky-tonking piano phrases, each one with a little bell on its toe! Those wide-yawning glitter guitars! Here vaudeville cradles Rock n Roll like a dinosaur cradles a caveman. There are waltzes; there are familiar and neighborly small-town swamp-dwellers like Old Scratch, and the sleepy machinery of a torch-lit production that could only be executed by the fondest of amateurs. Edition of 100, $5+shipping.

WISDOM TOOTH - Quitting the Circus by SPKY TWN

GREAT VALLEY - "Holiday, Holinight" C20

2011-11-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

Recorded in 2010, HOLIDAY/HOLINIGHT reveals, like an X-ray, how Great Valley un-bowed their land legs and first pushed off towards the sea. Five sparkling theme songs amble in sequence like a hand-cranked animated scroll, the protagonists boy shadows. "Born Again" warbles beneath the waves of a cramped coastal fairyland; "Lucky Me" is the boardwalk funhouse wriggling with ghosts. Part two's "My House" sounds as if the lamps and pots of your cottage are being tunefully tapped with a coffee table leg, and someone in the kitchen is sweetly bowing at the cookie sheet. "Under Beach" is the soft but thrilling chin-peck of un-certain doom, and "Wishwell" is the preemptive dirge. The far-from-home shivers constantly rattle and burble in the septics of the young men that helm this story, their naive bindle staffs boasting only ham sandwiches, an envelope of sour belts, and a tin of Vicks to remember mother by. In the wet, outstretched palm of every leering crone waits a suspect bonbon; nearby huddles a grizzled cast of wingnuts whose psychosis yawns 10 feet wide. Although the hot breath of the organ setting rasps menacingly in the background, it is a tale where glittering caches pine for our heroes in back corners and drawers, and a dappled pony is supplied for every getaway. Edition of 100, $5+shipping.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://thegreatvalley.bandcamp.com/album/holiday-holinight-ep"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Holiday, Holinight EP by Great Valley&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

BLOOD BEACH - "Blood Beach" C23

2011-11-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

The debut EP from Portland OR's Blood Beach. Imagine your big brother's garage band rehearsing the score to a horror movie you haven't seen yet. Driving low-end machinations and overdriven guitars, devilishly complimented by Shane's evil drawl and Camella's spooky, ghosts-at-a-party theremin. This tape is sure to get the teenage werewolf howling inside you. Oh yes! Edition of 100, $5+shipping.

BLOOD BEACH - Rick Roll Shop by SPKY TWN

SPKY TWN NEEDS YOUR HELP TO SAVE CHRISTMAS

2011-11-08T23:56:00.000-08:00

Help us deliver the Christmas Songs to the people's stockings! Visit our kickstarter project. Even though we already reached our funding goal thanks to a mysterious benefactor (THANKS!), you can still pre-order the HAPPY JAWBONE / GREAT VALLEY 7" XMAS PARTY using the kickstarter pledge. Actually it might not be a bad idea since these are going to disappear really fast like the smoke after fireworks.

NUDE SUNRISE - "Should Be" C62

2011-08-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

4 spacemen on an earth mission: Chicago's Nude Sunrise spins psych-kraut jammers that wrap around the globe and off to the moon. Jeff says:

As D. Boon once put it, “American trash can really ruin a good time,” but it’s just the opposite with Nude Sunrise. Here we have two dudes playing absolutely disgusting-sounding junk guitar juke-joint riffs/wah-wah jah-jah/100% fucked noise solos; a guy described by his own bandmates as “not really a drummer” bashing out lurching, drooling-dumb rhythms on a pretty awful kit; a skinny nerd playing “My Girl” on keyboard bass. Pretty much my favorite new band, Nude Sunrise play classic American trash and it is a really, really good time. The Chicago quartet cut to the chase of rock n’ roll and steal with shameless impunity, ripping off Neil Young lyrics and Motown basslines. The spoils of their thievery are merely templates though: they take the money and run with it as it were, building 6+ minute trash jams on the pilfered property. Everything’s pretty blurry and scuzzy, but it’s high time bands started milking Chrome again, and I’m all for it. Pat Steadman, the Shaggy Doo-looking guitar player, lets his glasses slip all the way down the bridge of his nose and contributes some kool-stoner vocals that really put the whole thing over the top. ... This band makes me feel stoked and gross at the same time.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://nudesunrise.bandcamp.com/track/cuttin-loose"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Cuttin' Loose by Nude Sunrise&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Edition of 200, $5+shipping.

GHOST ANIMAL - "A Ceremony" 7" EP

2011-04-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

After a long list of blog-smashing singles, Portland's dark shoegaze duo Ghost Animal finally presents its vinyl debut. In A Ceremony, Michael and Marisa unveil five reverb-drenched pop songs that cover a wide emotional range--from dreamy introspection to furious angsty joy. Misfits-esque power chord progressions and cymbal-smashing drums. Howling, heartfelt vocals. Beautiful lo-fi production. Raw spooky feeling. Edition of 600 (first 300 with special spraypaint labels), $6+shipping.

GHOST ANIMAL - Golden Boy by SPKY TWN

HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND - "Return of Hotel Double Tragedy"

2011-01-14T08:18:00.000-08:00

Vermont's unstoppable faux-pop Family follows up their amazing Feeding Tube LP Hotel Double Tragedy with this amazing sequel tape! The Return of Hotel Double Tragedy gives you more of what you know you need. Brilliant, bleak, inspired songwriting; deep layers of messy grooviness; tape loop meditations; and actual real rock n roll vibes! 14 songs for soul-searching or for wildfooting or for lucid dreaming, on really shiny gold tapes! Edition of 200, C44, $5+shipping.

SOLD OUT!

Tell Me Tell Me by SPKY TWN

THE GREAT VALLEY - "In the Silver Dream" LP

2010-11-26T19:57:00.001-08:00

Spooky Town's pretend pop duo The Great Valley are back with their first full-length since 2008. In the Silver Dream has the same dedication to spookiness and twisted pop grooves, but spins it more towards the carnival than the haunted barn. Wow! These songs tilt and spin like a too-scary trapeze clown and hypnotize you unreal like a night at the circus. Recorded by the band on 80s equipment in an abandoned house. Synthesizers and pitch-bent guitars. Mysterious, puzzling lyrics about the silver screen, UFO abductions, and some mystic misty waterfall. Dense, layered pop confusion on brains-pink vinyl (plus free digital download). Edition of 250, $13 + shipping.

PRINCE RAMA OF AYODHYA & THE GREAT VALLEY - "Divine / Journey"

2010-10-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sonic-utopian synth mystics and pretend pop make-believers don't always sound so good side by side as Prince Rama of Ayodhya and The Great Valley do. Prince Rama's twelve-minute earth-shaker "Aeolian Divine" winds its way to eternity, from the floating island Atlantis, through some kind of cosmic dancehall, and into an infinite-space ecstatic-calm of heartbeat drums and swimming synth lines. Then the Great Valley descends with ukuleles and guitars down from space, through a tree in the forest, and into their underground home. SPLIT LP with home-made recycled covers, $13 + shipping, ltd. 300.

BACK IN STOCK! FINAL 30 COPIES: TOTALLY LAST CHANCE!

WISDOM TOOTH - "Baby Neptune"

2010-09-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Lo-fi arena rock anthems for the Neverland generation and dream pop lullabies to put you to sleep for a hundred years, pieced together with piano and guitar and organ and saw and Johnny Wisdom Tooth's inimitable cartoon crooning. All over an eerie bunch of tape-collage elements. (Betty Boop's maniacal laughter at the end of the track "Be Human" will send you into a state of euphoria.) This is Wisdom Tooth's most complete and intricate release to date. You gotta check it out. C42, edition of 99, $5+shipping.

MANNERS - "Look Into Look Unto" 7"

2010-08-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

The MANNERS 7" is just right for seriously deep chilling out. Slow panoramic folk songs so light they're heavy. Layers and layers of delicate guitars, blown-out drums, reverby voices, sweet and moody. Clear vinyl with digital download and hand-letterpressed cover, $6 + shipping.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://manners.bandcamp.com/album/look-into-look-unto"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Wood &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Copper by M A N N E R S&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND - "Hotel Double Tragedy"

2010-08-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

I grabbed a stack of Happy Jawbone's vinyl debut from Feeding Tube Records. It's a monumental record (a monument to Pop Music burning down). Like the Family says,

The Hotel Double Tragedy is constantly burning. You will be too with these new
hits from the family! Simply listen to the album at a decent volume and watch your
life fall apart. We were thinking of releasing this album under the pretense that it
was found under the bed of a dead priest who was the grandfather of a couple of
members of the Vaselines, but we thought better of it. You deserve the TRUTH!
You deserve magic in POP ATTITUDE! You deserve ONE ANCIENT JANGLE!
In ten seconds FLAT! You deserve HOTEL DOUBLE TRAGEDY! Get one today
for yourself or for someone you care about.

On gold vinyl with a CD and an insert and everything! Edition of 250, LP+CD, $13 + shipping.

SOLD OUT!

The Great Valley - "Holiday, Holinight EP" (FREE DOWNLOAD!)

2010-07-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

The Great Valley put their new spooky beach pop record up for free downloading thru Bandcamp. Just right for summer haunting or a vacation in the Bermuda Triangle.

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://thegreatvalley.bandcamp.com/album/holiday-holinight-ep"&amp;amp;gt;Born Again by The Great Valley&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

HAPPY JAWBONE FAMILY BAND - "Family Matters"

2010-06-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Brattelboro Vermont's Jawbone Family make the jukebox hits of a forgotten generation, or maybe the jukebox hits of a far-off planet. "Family Matters" is 76 minutes of surrealistic nostalgia-pop embedded in a web of electric noise freakouts like diamonds in a mineshaft. Minimal drums and twanging guitars and driving bass lines somehow come together into kind of miraculously well-crafted pop songs, only to be blown to bits by a sloppy-as-fuck guitar solo or Luke and Francis's atonal wailing. This is punk rock like Indiana Jones would make it, bounced off the moon and received in a tin bowl. edition of 100, C76, $5 + shipping.

SOLD OUT!

[CD-R reissue out now from SPIRIT OF ORR!]

MOUNTAINHOOD - "Shine Shine"

2010-04-30T15:54:00.001-07:00

Northern California's Mountainhood has a long long long discography, and we're psyched about the latest. Shine Shine is sometimes sweet folk songs, sometimes a wild party (like a bunch of horsemen dancing around a stump), and just about always full of plenty of goblin voices. Take it on your roadtrip and get nostalgic about redwoods and the moon. With an 8-page minibook of art by Michael Hilde. edition of 200, C38, $5 + shipping.

Burning Tree by SPKY TWN

V/A - "The Whitehaus Family Record Family Record"

2010-03-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

We picked up a handful of copies of the new huge double-vinyl sampler from our buddies The Whitehaus Family Record. The Whitehaus is a four-story mansion converted into a breathing home/zone for the 26 artists featured. Includes tracks from Prince Rama, The Great Valley, Truman Peyote and more and more. (Check it out.) 2xLP, $10 + shipping.

PRINCE BEDTIME - "Wildnight Dream Throne"

2010-02-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

Happy to announce the first ever Prince Bedtime cassette. Fairy-dust feedback squealing, drum machine looping, wild thing howls and jangly guitars all coming together to make a wizard's pop songs. Music for midnight cruising or lazy potion-brewing or daydreaming about sexy witches. edition of 50, c30, $3 + shipping.

SOLD OUT.

EASYBOY - "Friends" (FREE DOWNLOAD)

2010-01-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

We still have a whole handful of tapes left, but now for all the super cheapskates out there we're posting a free download of the first Easyboy album "Friends." Twenty minutes of really good, bizarre bedroom pop. Check it out.

WISDOM TOOTH - "Pianoskin"

2009-11-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

Wisdom Tooth showed up at my house twice last year with a notebook full of songs, and we went down to my basement and hooked a couple of microphones into a faithless cassette deck and he spun his tall tales, about a witch, the Tooth Fairy, Lady Lochness, the Sick Grandfather Clock, and of course Pianoskin himself. Anyone who isn't acquainted with the messy folky poppy lo-fi recordings that John "Wisdom Tooth // Mad Mouth" Andrews is cooking in New Jersey is about to find the part of the world he forgot, under his bed, around the backs of trees, in the corner of the wall behind the piano, et cetera. This is raw crooning for you to sing from your pillow to the moon. Seven songs. C21, ltd. 50, $3 + shipping.

SOLD OUT!

EASYBOY - "Friends"

2009-09-20T15:19:00.001-07:00

Easyboy is Eric Farber--one half of Boston's beloved tripped-out electronics duo Truman Peyote--here crafting a kind of crooked ferris wheel ride, somewhere between sound-collage and bedroom pop. This is music for summer nights. C20, ltd. 100, $5 + shipping.

SOLD OUT! DOWNLOAD IT ABOVE.

GREAT VALLEY ALBUMS; FREE DOWNLOADS

2009-08-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

You can get the mp3s from the Great Valley albums Sophia's Skull / White Gloves and Under Snow, absolutely sine pecunia, now that we've conceived the technology. Simply CLICK HERE.

Of course, if you are a person who appreciates objects, they are still available physically... around here somewhere.

QUILT - "Quilt"

2009-08-12T06:25:00.001-07:00

The first recordings of this strange trio Quilt walk gracefully down the weird line between psychedelia, punk, and drone, with their eerie three-part harmonies, their cavewoman drumming, and their repetitive hypnotic guitar riffs. Quilt maybe sounds like the music the members of Aerosmith might be making ten years after the end of the world, when they are all living in caves, eating raw meat, and pretty much losing their minds. C28, ltd. 100, $5 + shipping.

SOLD OUT!

THE GREAT VALLEY -"Sophia's Skull / White Gloves"

2009-07-18T11:34:00.001-07:00

Like we said earlier, The Great Valley, pretend pop dreamsters, recorded their first, most sincere full-length album during a week in an attic, sleeping during the day and working only at night. A choir of crickets backs up the spooky crooners on every track. Now available as a cassette, as it was originally conceived, with the twin dreams of Diamond Mouse and Big Dipperr lying back against back: Sophia's Skull and White Gloves. Multi-instrumental music for make-believers, with saws, organs, and lyrics about shrunken skulls, little sisters, and creepy gloves. Listen to it on Halloween. C42, $4

SOLD OUT! (BUT MAYBE STILL AVAILABLE AT SHOWS!)

THE GREAT VALLEY - "Under Snow"

2009-07-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

Wintertime in the Great Valley, when all the crickets go hibernate, only two men have the magic blood that never freezes. These are Big Dipperr and Diamond Mouse, standing side by side in their snowman suits, walking on frozen ponds, dragging an electric guitar to a snowy summit to wail pretend pop across the land. The six songs on this EP are as delicate as snowflakes, as epic as icicles, and as heavy as the snow on the roof. CDR or C30, $5, ltd. 100

THE GREAT VALLEY -"Sophia's Skull / White Gloves"

2009-07-10T16:14:00.001-07:00

The Great Valley, pretend pop dreamsters, recorded their first, most sincere full-length effort during a week in an attic, sleeping during the day & working only at night. A choir of crickets backs up the two spooky crooners on every track. Multi-instrumental music for make-believers, with saws, organs, and lyrics about shrunken skulls, little sisters, and creepy gloves. Listen to it on Halloween.

WE ARE ALL OUT OF THESE, PRETTY MUCH, BUT WE HAVE THE CASSETTE VERSION STILL, WHICH IS BETTER. CHECK IT OUT ABOVE.

THE GREAT VALLEY SHIRT

2009-07-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Screenprinted by The Great Valley themselves in gold on blotchy-dyed shirts. It's got a pumpkin & a christmas tree on it. We pretty much nailed the whole rainbow. Let us know what size and color you want. $5 + shipping.

XANADU MARY - "Snakehaired Lady"

2009-07-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

The first and only Xanadu Mary recording, these six mysterious, dark pop songs, recorded believe it or not on a cassette four-track. A weird collision of 1950s crooning, bluegrass-type progressions, and death metal vocals and distortion. CDR, $5

ALL GONE, SORRY. DOWNLOAD IT HERE.