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Jon Langford & Skull Orchard: Old Devils (Bloodshot 175) Release date: August 2010
SONGS: 1. 1234 Ever 2. Book Of Your Life 3. Getting Used To Uselessness (listen) 4. Self Portrait 5. Luxury 6. Pieces Of The Past 7. Haunted 8. Flag Of Triumph 9. Death Valley Day 10. Old Devils 11. River Of Ice 12. Strange Ways To Win Wars Bonus Tracks (via Vinyl only): 1. Amazing things we’ve done 2. Danger Rock	Lineup: Jon Langford: guitars, vocals Alan Doughty: bass, piano, vocals Joe Camarillo: drums, vocals Jim Elkington: guitar, mandolin, piano plus Jean Cook: violin Barklay McKay: piano, rgan Tawny Newsome, Sally Timms, Andre Williams: additional vocals Bonerama Horns: Mark Mullins, Craig Klein, Greg Hicks

Notes

LP contains download card with digital version of album, plus two songs not on the CD and extra artworkContinue reading→

Wee Hairy Baesties : Holidays gone crazy (Wee Beatz 02) Release date: 2008
SONGS: 1. Belly Button Blues 2. Here Comes My Shadow 3. Yellow Snow PSA 4. The Tail Of The Night Before… 5. Dinosaur Christmas 6. Pumpkinhead 7. Tidy Up! PSA 8. Wee Scary Beasties 9. Holidays Gone Crazy 10. Eat Your Greens PSA 11. Bury Me In The Sand 12. The Lonely Vampire 13. Tummy Trouble PSA 14. Jug Rag	Lineup: Jon Langford: guitars, perc. vocals Sally Timms: vocals Kelly Hogan : vocals Rick Sherry: harmonica, washboard, vocals, kick drum, jug, kazoo Joel Paterson: lapsteel, guitar, vocals, kazoo, drums Tom V. Ray: bass, ukele Order: http://www.myspace.com/weehairybeasties / Bloodshot

Sponsored by WBUG, a radio station that only insects can hear, The Wee Hairy Beasties’ first concert was at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. The band was under the mistaken impression they would be playing to the animals, so all their songs were about animals. The children that showed up seemed to enjoy the show a great deal as well, so a CD was concocted. The resulting Beastie music on Animal Crackers is mostly for kids, but if used wisely, shouldn’t bug the adults either.

The Beasties, CYRIL the KARAOKE SQUIRREL Jon Langford—Mekons, Waco Brothers, Pine Valley Cosmonauts), MARJORIE the SINGING BEE (Kelly Hogan), MONKEY DOUBLE DIPPEY (Sally Timms-Mekons) and Devil in a Woodpile believe that music for kids need not be unlistenable! Their dance-with-ants-in-your-pants blend of back porch blues, hoppity country and wiggly old-timey swing is bound to please any animal, child or adult within earshot.

The Beasties are Back! On their debut album, Animal Crackers (Bloodshot), Wee Hairy Beasties brought you frisky tunes about fuzzy things. Now Chicago’s motley kiddie band crew come to your house with a covered hot dish of brand new songs for the holidays when they release Holidays Gone Crazy on November 4, 2008 through their new label Wee Beatz, a subsidiary of Carrot Top Records. On Holidays Gone Crazy, you’ll find familiar, scary fun on Halloween with “Wee Scary Beasties” and “Pumpkinhead”, and you’ll even meet some far out holidays that may only exist in Beastieland, like “Dinosaur Christmas”. So roll back the rug, put the crispy onions on the green bean casserole, and set up the kids’ table in the basement—let’s go!

Wee Hairy Beasties—stews up a diverse bunch of new tales: creepy lullabies, nighttime stories about lonely vampires, and sunny day action tunes about playing in the sand. There’s an ode to everyone’s ever-present pal, your shadow, a cautionary tale about what lies deep in your belly button (!), and a super-rocking punk jumper about a veggie-patch dweller named Pumpkinhead! Check out the Wee Hairy Beasties’ PSA’s too: did you know that ice cream for breakfast is GOOD FOR YOU? Wee Hairy Beasties will set you straight! There are songs with Shangri-Las finger-popping flavor, fresh seat-of-the-pants harmonies, a musical nod to Slade (yes, Slade!) and some very special guests: actual kids singing along in wide-open ,b-i-n-g-o style! And, as always, Devil in a Woodpile’s bright and bouncy instrumentation—washboard, slide guitar, thumping upright bass, clarinet and harmonica—percolates like the best Harman-Ising cartoon bug band that ever was.

Holidays Gone Crazy is a rollicking good time for big and little folks alike—folks who know that spiders are cool, that the dark can be fun, and that dinosaurs love Santa Claus just as much as the next guy. Once again, Wee Hairy Beasties bring you songs that give kids (and their parents) credit for having a brain and knowing how to wield it! (Though to be fair, this record is also very good for forgetting about your brain and just dancing around in your underwear!) This album proves that there’s a fun holiday for every time of year!

Jon Langford &Kat Ex: Katjon Band (Carrot Top Records 042) Release date: Sept. 2008
SONGS: Do you Albion Limbo Machine Gun Conquered Bad Apples Crackheads beware Moonscape Hey you don’t love me Red Flag	Lineup: Jon Langford Kat Ex
Downloads from Carrot Top: Bad Apples / Do you
Sites	Katjon Band on Myspace Carrot Top Records In Europe: Order by The Ex mailorder

Jon Langford of The Mekons and Kat Ex of The Ex share a history outside their duo, KatJonBand. Both members of the 70s punk-rock squad, each faced their share of successes and failure in two of the biggest bands to emerge from the scene. Through a series of mishaps and shared friends, Jon and Kat join forces to bring their self-titled release.

Musically and lyrically, KATJONBAND, is a tough album; stripped down, basic and to the point. The Mekons and The Ex have always been explicitly political bands, so it’s no surprise that the Iraq war, globalization, class, greed, patriotism and kinky sex all rear their ugly heads in these bone-bare, blood-boiling anthems. With Kat on drums and Jon on guitar, the duo shares the microphone, summoning Jon’s gruff Welsh pirate howl and Kat’s clear-as-a-bell Swabian soar.

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Back in the mists of time, before Kat drummed her way into THE EX and Jon dusted himself off after the disastrous demise of The Mekons mark one, Jon stumbled upon a small, damp studio known as Joke-rent-a-cow studio (or something like that) on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Dolf Planteydt, who ran the studio also worked as the soundman for Holland’s least compromising and most physically demanding punk- rock collective, The Ex. Jon then met Terrie Ex from the band and went on to produce several CDs for them throughout the 80s and 90s, often guesting on drums or banjo when the mood struck him. While The Mekons toured Holland, The Ex let them stay in their squat, leading the two bands to tour together and eventually become label-mates at Chicago’s Touch & Go Records.

Celebrating their 25th anniversary at Amsterdam’s Paradiso in November 2004, The Ex invited Jon to MC the weekend’s events, offering to back him up for a set of his own. When he arrived in Amsterdam they forgot their offer and since nobody else knew any of the songs he wanted to play, they decided that their drummer Kat would back up Jon. She played drums with Jon’s art-rock metal trio, The Three Johns, back in 1985 when their drum machine went on strike, but this promised to be something different: just the two of them with no-set-list, no rehearsal and a packed house! Kat drums like nobody else on the planet and while the gig was seat of the pants in extremis, the crowd went mad and offers of gigs started trickling in. The KatJonBand was born…

A brief tour of festivals in Austria and Germany in 2005 led to plans for recording in Chicago the following year. Writing songs on the spot at Chicago’s North Branch studio, Jon found matches on guitar for the melodies in Kat’s poly-rhythmic improvisations. Fleshing the songs out across the Internet, Kat completed them whenever she could manage to get back to Chicago. KatJonBand played The Hideout Touch & Go Block Party in September 2006, cramming in a day at the studio and another when the Ex came back to play The Empty Bottle later that fall.

Two of the few bands who continue undaunted and unfettered since the heady days of 70s punk-rock, neither The Mekons nor The Ex ever split up, so (obviously) they’ve never reformed for any pathetic punk rock nostalgia tours. Back in the 90s they made a single together; one side included The Ex playing The Mekons’ Keep On Hopping and on the other The Mekons covered The Ex’s Crap Rap. KatJonBand is only the most recent collaboration between these two legendary groups and stays true to the pioneering spirits of both.

The Last Drop In The Glass 4:42
Straight Talk (Meet Frank) 3:54
Rock ‘N’ Roll Holy Wars 3:19
What Was That? 3:14
Singe My Bald Head 1:19
Wasps In November 4:22
Red Mist 3:54
Nixon Is My Dentist 3:39
Tarin Kot 5:24
William Mulholland Meets Andrew Marshall 1:46
Christopher Marlowe 3:28
Three Barrels Full 4:13
Jamestown 2007 4:07
Fossil Cigarette Burns 1:23
Information Storm 3:45