This Wednesday marks the fourth installment of our Artist Mix Tape series that’ll last throughout the next few months. If you’re in a band that’s featured by our guests, and you’d like your song removed, please email us and we’d be happy to take your track down (I’m lookin at you Squeeze XTC Walker Bros Stuart Murdoch, I have a feeling a bunch of these fools are gonna post the shit outta your tracks).

Whatever Brains at Berkeley Cafe “What makes a man make what makes man start fires” from Mann’s World on Vimeo.

Please welcome Rich Ivey, Introduced by Jeff Byers: Rich Ivey, if you live inside of the general Harrisonburg MSA, is a man that needs no introduction. For those with this unfortunate handicap, Mr. Ivey is the man behind the curtain known as Whatever Brains and the singer for Order. You can usually find him each April surfing on top of band’s trailers going downhill and talking about plagiarizing Belle & Sebastian lyrics. This year, Mr. Ivey will take a break from such hijinks to record what will sure to be a hellraising lo-fi journey in and out off Raleigh’s inner circles of indie rock, to be released on Sorry State records this fall. 

DOWNLOAD RICH IVEY’S MIX HERE

Mayo Thompson – The Lesson
Red Krayola main dude goes it solo and records one of the greatest
records ever. This is the first track from 1970’s “Corky’s Debt To His
Father,” and it’s a scorcher for every possible reason. We should all
write music this good.

Tall Dwarfs – All My Hollowness To You
Oh, Chris Knox, where do we begin? It’s no “Stomp The Yard,” but this
beat slays. Unbelievably catchy. Unbelievably mean. I can ask no more.

Lung Leg – My Secret
Wet Dog and Grass Widow are two of my favorite current bands. It
wouldn’t be fair to say that they wouldn’t exist without Lung Leg, so
I won’t say that. I think Lung Leg got the Riot Grrrl tag too much.
This is more like the sister band to The Yummy Fur. Oh, and singer
Jane McKeown is the sister of Yummy Fur singer John McKweon. Bring it
all together now. Tight track.

Black Grape – Reverend Black Grape
“It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah” topped the UK charts in
1995.  I think I was pretty into Silverchair around then. If only us
Yanks had taste. This band belongs to Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy
Mondays, a rapper named Kermit and some other guys. “Reverend Black
Grape” is a slamming stab at religion that has one of Ryder’s best
lines ever: You do nothing but socialize and become a menace/ Put on
your Reeboks man and go play fucking tennis.

Anika – No One’s There
Producer dude from Portishead and some young Brit who sounds like Nico
getting Krauty, dubby and creepy in one fell swoop. The record has
some cool covers, namely our Lord and Saviour Ray Davies’ “I Go To
Sleep” and Yoko’s “Yang Yang.” This is an original cut, and I dig it
hard.

Von Sudenfed – The Rhinohead
Mouse On Mars and Mark E. Smith. This shit should have been a massive
hit. Kanye?

Harriet The Spy – Retardo Y Retardo
I’ve been trying to rewrite this song since 1998. I’ve never come close.

The Spits – Eyesore City
My favorite Spits song from my favorite Spits record. My favorite
Spits song overall? Dunno, but it rules. Three-fifths of Whatever
Brains drove to Charlotte to see these dudes recently, and they killed
it. Best band.

Brain F(lannel) – (Date Rape) Real Estate
Brain F opened that Spits show in Charlotte and were pretty fantastic.
This track is from their demo tape. They’ve also released two smoking
singles and have an LP on the way. I’m making them do a tour with my
band in July and will not take NO for an answer.

Index – Turquoise Feline
Psych collectors freak over this record as they should. Light it up.

Belle & Sebastian – Pocketbook Angel
From the infamous demo tape. “Pocketbook Angel” is heavy on the cheese
factor and light on the fidelity, and I love every bit of it. Stuart
Murdoch said he’d never rerecord this song because it’s been
bootlegged and circulated so much that too many people have already
heard it… or something like that. The only book I’ve really read cover
to cover in my 20s is about this band.

Cheveu – Charlie Sheen
People are talking about Charlie Sheen a lot right now because he did
some drugs and had some sex. People should be talking about Cheveu
right now because they just put out the best record of the year.

Doom Spiral – Fat Frog
Somewhere between Eat Forever and My Mind was Doom Spiral. “Fat Frog”
is too good to be missed. Kind of a hip hop vibe on this one. Speaking
of which, there is no rap music on this mix. That sucks, but what’s
done is done.

Alex Chilton – Hook or Crook
“Like Flies on Sherbert” is one of my favorite records. The Brains
used to cover this song.

The Male Nurse – Back on the Pills
So good.

This Wednesday marks the third installment of our Artist Mix Tape series that’ll last throughout the next few months. If you’re in a band that’s featured by our guests, and you’d like your song removed, please email us and we’d be happy to take your track down (I’m lookin at you Squeeze XTC Walker Bros, I have a feeling a bunch of these fools are gonna post the shit outta your tracks).

Please welcome Adam Smith: Frontman of Charlottesville’s garage-pop four piece Invisible Hand and drummer for Borrowed Beams of Light . After releasing a series of split 7”s (two of which are available in our store here and here), The Invisible Hand’s self-titled LP finally saw the light of day three months ago. In support of their slew of releases in the latter half of 2010, The Hand is hitting the road for a few weeks in March:

03/04/2011: VA Harrisonburg @Clementine Cafe
03/05/2011: VA Richmond @Strange Matter
03/06/2011: VA Williamsburg @The Meridian
03/07/2011: VA Norfolk @Concrete
03/08/2011: NC Chapel Hill @The Nightlight
03/09/2011: NC Greensboro @Legitimate Business
03/10/2011: NC Charlotte @The Milestone
03/11/2011: GA Athens @Farm 255
03/12/2011: GA Atlanta @The Music Room
03/13/2011: LA  New Orleans @Der Rathskeller
03/15/2011: TX Austin @Beauty Bar (SXSW)
03/16/2011: TX Houston @Super Happy Fun Land
03/17/2011: TX Austin @Spiderland (SXSW)
03/18/2011: TX Austin @Mellow Mushroom Showcase (SXSW)
03/24/2011: TN Knoxville @Pilot Light
03/25/2011: NC Boone @Boone Saloon
03/26/2011: VA Lynchburg @Rivermont Pizza
04/01/2011: VA Harrisonburg @Clementine Cafe (MACRoCk)

Here’s a 14 song mix that’ll probably see some heavy rotation in their van:

http://www.mediafire.com/?buwdjnecfd08tl8

1. Aphrodite’s Child - It’s Five O’Clock
…somewhere… sounds like these children have had a long night of drinking and are now their on their very first walk of shame. It’s so heart wrenching! I really feel for the kids on this one. What better way to start off a mix than with a melodramatic ballad waxing about nostalgia and shit? What a loser this guy must be! But, we’ve all been there. On a purely factual note: Aphrodite’s Child is Vangelis’ first band, who later moved on to produce distinguished soundtracks such as Chariots of Fire.

2. Roky Erickson - Mine, Mine, Mind
Yo, I like this dude. Has he lost his mind or is he a harbinger of things to come? A Line like “eye the devil child’s mind, flash their dagger like teeth in rhyme” could be just finding cool things that rhyme with rhyme OR we could assume he is foretelling
the arrival of Damien…

3. Idle Race - On With The Show
Pre-E.L.O. Thanks Ed Donny Hue for telling Thomas who told me and now I tell you.

4. Tame Impala - Alter Ego
Speaking of contemporary who says I don’t listen to anything beyond 1999? I recently became aware of this group through Guen (the owner of the Charlottesville record store melody supreme). To me it sounds like the hippiest shit ever! Like, bust out your glow sticks, eat some drugs and talk about your feelings kid of jam. It also, oddly, has a chemical brothers feel to it, which I quite dig.

5. Faust - Flashback Caruso
Love this band. Can do no wrong to me. Moon-walking in a garden of sand and “Marshmallows jumping inside a stone of cream” sounds like a blast!

6. Sand - On The Corner
Speaking of sand. This band’s name is sand. What is it with Germans and sand? Another kraut-rock gem unearthed. This album was produced by the lofty composer, Klaus Schulze (of Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra temple fame), who used a technique called “Artificial Head Stereo Sound” wherein the sound is supposed to feel as if it is coming from all around you, a sort of quadraphonic feel, I guess. So, when I listened to this album on headphones for the first time I was immediately struck with paranoia for I had thought that someone was in the room with me! Good job Klaus! You succeeded in scaring the shit out of me.

7. The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore
Let’s bring it back with a little gloomy tune in that “wall of sound” style of yore, this one being sans Phil Spector though. This song particularly strikes me because it paradoxically couples a hopeful, almost anthem like melody with some real sad bastard lyrics.

8. Half Nelson - Saccharin And The War
Proto-Sparks. The Mael brothers have much more of a “psychedelic” sound going on here probably due to peer pressure. Later the group evolved into much more of a dramatic, power-pop force, but to me, this early shit is where it’s at.

9. White Fence - Who Feels Right?
Hey, another band from our era! I don’t really know much about them but it’s a real lashing, hippy crusher with indistinguishable lyrics. Love the ambiguity!

10. Damin Eih, A.L.K. and Brother Clark - Take Off Your Eyes
While we’re on the psychedelic tip, this tune flutters like a nutter butter! Another mind trip “pick up your eyes, lie down in your head” was obviously influenced by grandma’s apple pie and boggle… wild panning makes this track as confusing as it is
peaceful.

11. The Deep - Trip #76
So, this Philadelphia band was the VERY FIRST to use the term “psychedelic” to describe their music in 1966, or so they say…(Blues Magoos being second and Roky Erickson’s Thirteenth Floor Elevators being a close third). But who’s heard of the Deep? Whatever, this band lives up to its genre; good vibes and weird lyrics do the trick for me.

12. The Moles - Breathe Me In
I first heard about this band when I was very young and fell victim to the BMG music club. At the time they had a listing of new bands that sound like they should have been from the sixties. Featuring such heavy weights as: Of Montreal, Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and…. The Moles! Being a huge Beatles fan, naturally I ate up this section of my monthly music club as it ate up my weekly allowances. But y’know what? I wouldn’t trade that time with you, BMG, for anything. We had something special there…

13. Country Teasers - Panty Shots
Is this Whatever Brains? This track made it to my top ten stalker/creepoid tracks of all time alongside “somebody’s watching me” by Rockwell and Blondie’s “one way or another.” How does front man Ben Waller make that riff sound so menacing?
Happy Valentines Day you freaks!

14. R. Stevie Moore - Goodbye Piano
Goodbye piano… this track is so apropos given my current situation of having a grand piano that I absolutely NEED to get rid of. Does anyone want a piano? It’s not that nice. It’s brown, huge, out of tune and a real son-of-a-bitch to move. Worst decision of 2010 was to think that I could get some use out of it. Owning a piano is not for the transient types.

15. Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air, for electric piano, dumbak & tambourines
Goodbye piano, HELLO ORGAN! If you don’t listen to this track all the way to the end you’re a pussy and need to hit the gym more often.

16. Roxy Music - More Than This
This song speaks for itself