Following the Washington, DC band Beauty Pill's summer 2011 open recording residency at Artisphere, the Immersive Ideal project returns with a multimedia installation designed by Kelley Bell and Stephan Moore. The installation will feature a user-interactive, monome-controlled array of photographs from the recording sessions by Nestor Diaz, Morgan Klein, Brian Libby, Jon Pack and PJ Sykes. From January 7-22, you can listen to Beauty Pill's new album --recorded at and presented exclusively at the Artisphere-- while immersed in the photographs that document the band's experiment in radical artistic transparency. The installation will run in the Black Box Theatre itself, where the recording took place, furthering the intimacy between the viewer/listener and the work. Opening reception Sat. Jan 7, 7-10 pm (free).
--text taken from Artisphere's press release

Artisphere is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22209

After a brief breather in the mail-order department, we are back up and running and orders will be shipped as normal throughout the week. Thanks for your patience and for your support !

For all those who are considering placing orders online, please keep in mind ... Dischord’s mailorder service is about to slow to a crawl. Thursday, December 22nd, will be the last day we’ll be shipping individual orders for a little while. Of course, you're still welcome to place orders, but we won't be back in action until Monday, December 26th.

If you’ve ever looked through the other label “stuff we sell” and thought, “I have no idea where to start,” please allow me to help:

Start with The Shirks.

I just went through and listened (again) to all four of their records (all of which are seven inches), and they’re all equally good. I love this band because they’re a shining example of the very best aspects of a classic punk sound. They’re a contemporary band capturing everything that was (and still is) incredible and inspiring about late ‘70s punk (a time when punk sounded like faster/dirtier/snottier rock n roll) without ripping off any of the greats. Al Budd’s vocal delivery lies somewhere between Stiv Bators (Dead Boys) and Chris Bailey (The Saints), the riffs are killer and constant, the bass lines hit Rezillos quality, and Andy Gale’s drumming (as always) just destroys.

The other thing I love about The Shirks is this: There’s almost no information about them on the Internet; meaning, you have to catch them live or buy their records in order to be in-the-know. In a way, it’s a return to the true spirit of the underground, an underground where you actually have to do some digging to find the worthwhile records. And when you find The Shirks, you've hit pay dirt.

Below are links to each release:

The Shirks – Dangerous
The Shirks – DC Is Doomed
The Shirks – Disease
The Shirks – Cry, Cry, Cry
(This last one was recorded by Nikhil and features fantastic cover art by Laura Harris.)

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan

At this point, most people are fairly in-the-know regarding the assorted musical endeavors of J. Robbins. He’s been a prominent and prolific song-writer in the DC area since joining Government Issue back in 1987, on through the Jawbox days, and currently with Office of Future Plans (not to mention the various bands and projects in between). Since the release of the Office of Future Plans record, I’ve been on a bit of a listening-frenzy with J.’s music, spanning the years, and I thought I’d take a moment to share some of my favorites. This is, by no means, a complete list of J.-related projects – that would take an eternity to write and there’s only so much time in a day; this is merely a list of some highlights:

Office of Future Plans – Self Titled
If you haven’t picked this record up yet, do yourself a favor and get to it. This record (besides being a straight-up rocker) is beautiful and thoughtful throughout. If you're looking for an individual song to check out before committing to the whole album, I recommend the song "Ambitious Wrists" for one of the better opening lines ever. Actually, it's not just the opening line … lyrically, this one's tops. All the champion trivialists will race to "see Angkor Wat by satellite," just you watch.

Rollkicker Laydown – Self-titled seven inch
This record is long-since out-of-print, and we have exactly one copy left in the office (which I imagine will get purchased pretty quickly after posting this).
I heard a rough mix of these songs back in 1991 when my brother's old band was recording with Geoff Turner at WGNS. Geoff was kind enough to play it for us in his basement studio, and I immediately couldn't wait for this record to come out. We were already fans of Jawbox, Gray Matter, and 3, so the union of J. and Geoff's vocals was of particular interest. If you read the brief liner notes on this seven inch, you'll notice that the band is made up of Tom Lyle, J., and Pete Moffett, all of whom were in the last incarnation of Government Issue. "No Voices in the Wire" is a great, great song. J.'s voice gets super gruff toward the end, and Pete really lays into the triplet fills.

Channels – Waiting for the Next End of the World
I've got a soft spot for Channels because I was their driver/roadie on their singular tour to Chicago and back. The tour was great: the band played perfectly every night, the Beauty Pill van actually held together for the duration of the trip, we met a lot of nice and generous folks, and I ended up having all of Channels' songs run through my head for months afterward. Please, please listen to the song "The Licensee," and let Janet Morgan's vocal delivery remain in your head for the rest of the day. It's like incorporating all the beautiful phrasing and hookiness of Stereolab's Mary Hansen (circa Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops) into a powerful and upbeat rock song. I absolutely love this track. Most will probably hang on to "Chivaree" as the song that has it all (especially if you hone in on whatever it is Darren Zentek's playing during the chorus – impossible! and he makes it look so easy), but I'm still sticking with "The Licensee."

Jawbox – Grippe
Here's another record that I couldn't wait for – mainly because I had the Jawbox demo tape on constant rotation during high school and I was anxious to hear new studio versions. With this release, I've always had a certain affection for the song "Green-Line Delayed." I used to look at the DC Metro map in the late '80s and early '90s (while living in Suitland) with tremendous frustration; it seemed the Green line would NEVER be finished. Now I don't know if that's what this Jawbox song is about, but that's the meaning I took from it when I was in high school.
We have one vinyl copy of Grippe in stock right now, and it's missing the cover. Seriously, I've looked everywhere for an extra cover, and there are none here in the office. If you end up buying this copy (sans cover), it will be marked down on our website to 5 dollars.
If you end up buying the CD, do not overlook the song "Footbinder." The lyrics are heartbreaking and poignant.

Various Artists – Play (compilation)
When J. recorded the Soccer Team song for this record, "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again," Melissa and I asked him to provide a guitar solo for it, which he did, and it's my favorite moment in the song (besides Melissa's vocal part during the chorus, of course). I think J. was channeling his inner-DEVO when he came up with that, which was perfect and appropriate.

Jawbox – Tongues
Many people don't know, but we actually still have a lot of these in stock at Dischord. This marks the first appearance of Bill Barbot on the Jawbox records, making the band a four-piece and expanding the live vocal parts quite a bit.

Jawbox – Motorist
We still have these in stock, too (although not nearly as many). This record, engineered by Ian and Don, marks the first appearance of Zach Barocas on drums. It's mostly known for the B-Side, "Motorist," but the unsung hero is the A-side: "Jackpot Plus." The lyrics clearly paint a scene that references the ugliness of gambling. And the chorus trails off simply, "Someday I …"

Office of Future Plans – Self-released, Self-titled seven inch
We don't have any more copies of this record, but if you see it out on planet Earth somewhere, pick it up. The B-Side features a fantastic Stranglers cover, "Everybody Loves You When You're Dead." A great tribute to a great band.

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan

Due to a recent store return, we now have several LPs that were previously listed as “out of stock." We only have 2 or 3 copies of each, so it’s first-come first-served. Here’s what's available:

Ignition, Orafying Mystical of … (Dischord 39)

Faraquet, Anthology 1997 – 98 (Dischord 159)
The covers of these records are slightly bent in the corners, so the price has been reduced to $7.

Marginal Man, Identity (Dischord 13)
The covers of these records are slightly worn, so the price has been reduced to $7.

Q and not U, Power (Dischord 143)

The Fugazi Live Series website officially launched on December 1, 2011. You can now click to the site from the main Dischord menu or navigate directly to www.dischord.com/fugazi_live_series without any login restrictions (although purchases still require a free Dischord account).

We do expect some bumps along the road as traffic spikes and the site adjusts so don't be alarmed if you experience sluggish performance from time to time. As more traffic data comes through we will be making adjustments accordingly.

Fugazi played over 1000 concerts, covering all fifty United States, Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and many points in between. Over 800 of these shows were recorded by the band's sound engineers, often on high quality recording gear.

The Fugazi Live Series is a complete online archive of these concerts. Show pages will feature data from the concerts and (when available) related photos, flyers and MP3 downloads. The goal is to make the shows available to browse for free or to download for a small fee. Initially the band will release 130 downloads (101 new shows plus 29 of the shows released on the now out-of-print Fugazi Live CD series). Additional downloads, photos, flyers, etc. will be added regularly until the entire archive is available.

In keeping with the band's philosophy of keeping music affordable, the suggested price of a concert download is $5. However, we also offer a sliding scale option where you can set your own price. Additionally, we offer an All Access option that will allow you to download every show on the site - that would include all 130 presently available downloads as well as all subsequent shows that will be added to the site over time.

Fugazi Live Series is a wing of the Dischord Records website and utilizes the secure Dischord online store for payment and delivery of the downloads. The site was designed and produced by Dischord's Alec Bourgeois and was developed by Jerrod Blavos of RecCenter. All shows were mastered by Jerry Busher except the 30 shows initially released on CD, which were mastered by Fugazi. Thanks to Peter Oleksik, Lindsey Hobbs, and Amy Breesman for their expertise and help organizing the Fugazi archive. And a special thanks to the many photographers who have generously shared their work.