Stag Hare - Black Medicine Music

I had planned to catch this guy at the Avant-Fairfax Festival last Saturday, but the 94 degree weather in April apparently causes extreme laziness. His watery rhythms, ambient drones, and overall meditative approach will have you lighting your nag champa and aligning your chakras. An absolute must for your next hike through the woods or trip to the oceanfront.

- Dan

Download Black Medicine Music

Beaches - s/t

This is one of the more enjoyable all female bands I've heard in a very long time. They're five badass "beaches" from Australia who create churning krauty psych-rock jams. Mastered by Bob Weston of The Volcano Suns/Shellac, this album oozes positive vibes, and minimal vocals allows the music to shine through. Solid from start to finish. A great summer road trip album.

- Dan

Download Beaches

VA - Kraut! Demons! Kraut! - German Psychedelic Underground 1968 - 1974

Ongakubaka updates from Kalamazoo have been sparse to say the least. Good news: I'm finally done with classes and currently unemployed so now I don't have anything better to do. I was going to post the new Big Business record, but after it leaked I gave it a listen and decided it wasn't worth the five minutes it would take me to put it up on here. Alright, maybe it isn't that bad but I had higher expectations. Maybe I should actually write something about the album I'm posting. Like many albums on my hard drive, I accidentally downloaded Kraut! Demons! Kraut! from some windowlicker on Soulseek who happened to have good taste in music, but lacked the mental capacity to figure out how to organize his files properly. I'm giving the guy a free pass because this record is so interesting and has a ton of variety. While nothing here reaches the quality of more well known acts like Can and Neu!, the comp does provide an excellent snapshot of a chapter in the history of psychedelic rock that most music fans are oblivious to. Plus you get to hear people with ridiculous accents sing about smoking weed and touching the hand of God. Can't go wrong with that.

- Steve

Download Kraut! Demons! Kraut! - German Psychedelic Underground 1968 - 1974

The Stabs - Dirt

I'm about 4 years behind on this one, but, thanks to an email from one of our Australian readers/listeners, I have been enlightened. This Aussie trio sounds like a mix of Mudhoney and The Birthday Party (and were actually requested by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to play the first Australian ATP festival back in January), but with more attitude and filthier guitar. Almost instantly became the best Australian band I've heard.

- Dan

Download Dirt

The Strange Boys - And Girls Club

Yes, yet another solid garage rock band release on In The Red Records, but this one is even more worthy of your attention and cash than quite a few of the others we've posed on here. I had previously overlooked this release last month, but after a recommendation from a close friend, I had to check it out. Ignore the terrible album cover and how incredibly young they look. These guys could potentially bump the Black Lips further down many of your playlists. This debut LP is virtually flawless in many ways, and they'll be gaining heaps of fans as they tour across the country this summer.

- Dan

Download The Strange Boys And Girls Club

Eureka Brown - iDigitalia!

We received a sort of press release for this album last month, and I finally took the time to sit down and give it a listen. We get a constant flow of emails from bands who want to be featured on this blog, and although there has been a few solid bands and artists we've heard from, there hasn't been many who we feel are appropriate for this blog. Eureka Brown is a shoo-in. According to the email, "Eureka Brown is a file sharing enthusiast from urbana Illinois who makes sunny, lo-fi, psychedelic dream-pop." Many of you will find it unnecessary to read any further based on that description alone, but it's his eccentric approach to the genre that has me interested. Heavy percussion, dubbing, analog synths, and a good variety of instruments will have you coming back for more.

- Dan

Download iDigitalia!

Thank You - Terrible Two

Picked up this LP for super cheap earlier today while doing my part to support our local record shops (including a new vinyl-only store that opened up a block away) for Record Store Day. Saw them open for Mi Ami about a month ago. They were a very appropriate supporting act. Animalistic rhythms, chants, and a progressive/hypnotic quality that reminds me a lot of This Heat, Health, or OOIOO. Good stuff.

- Dan

Download Terrible Two

Team Teamwork - The Ocarina of Rhyme

This one doesn't need much of an introduction, and some of you may have already come across this, but I found out about yesterday, and immediately blew a load at the thought of it. Hip Hop set to music from Ocarina of Time? Sold. Not every track is as solid as I had imagined in my mind, but this is still highly entertaining. The flow of time is always cruel...

- Dan

01 - Clipse - Virginia (Lost Woods)
02 - Dr. Dre + Snoop Dogg - Still D.R.E. (Getting Treasure)
03 - Jay-Z - No Hook (Meeting the Owl)
04 - Pimp C, Lil Keke + P.O.P. - Knockin’ Doorz Down (Hyrule Field)
05 - Common - I used to Love H.E.R. (Hyrule Market)
06 - Aesop Rock - No Jumpercables (Goron Village)
07 - Edan - Fumbling Over Words (Battle)
08 - MF Doom - Vomit (Horse Race at Lon Lon Ranch)
09 - Spank Rock - IMC (Zora’s Domain)
10 - Slim Thug + Mike Jones - Still Tippin’ (Great Fairy’s Fountain)

Download The Ocarina of Rhyme

OvO - Croce Via

This one was released last year, but I just got around to listening to it this week. It's hard to explain why I like this Italian duo so much. These advocates of doom create heavy, dark, and slightly disturbing sludge that makes feel like something terrible is going to happen to me just for listening to it. Actually...I guess explaining why I like this band is easier than I thought. The driving rhythms on this album make it their most enjoyable to date. Take Melvins, Boris, and Boredoms, stick them in a blender, throw a little mud and general despise for your ears and testicles in there, and you'll get a better idea of what OvO sounds like. Certainly not for everyone.

- Dan

Download Crocevia

ONGAKUBAKA JOINS THE WORLD OF TWITTER

Not content to just blog anymore, Dan and I decided we needed to start micro-blogging about the blog we already blog in. Confused yet?

We set up a Twitter account so that those of you who frequent our site can get instant phone updates as soon as we update Ongakubaka. This should help keep you on top of new leaks, cool old records, and all of the other garbage we put up on here. This should also help alleviate the age old question of "it has been x amount of days, I wonder if those assholes have finally gotten around to posting something new?"

So anyway, be our Twitter pal:

http://twitter.com/ongakubakablog


- Steve

Malade De Souci - MMMM-bbaa

Dan and I tend to post some really weird shit on here from time to time, and this album is no exception. The album title says it all here. 93 songs across 25 tracks on a record that clocks in at under 20 minutes. I should also mention that the copy I got ahold of had jigsaw puzzle pieces glued to the back of it for no apparent reason. MMMM-bbaa is a quick listen and has some genuinely cool moments throughout, but it's not for the faint of heart or sonically unadventurous. If you're hesitent to download this, just play one of your Ruins albums backwards at double speed and you'll have an idea of what you're getting into.

- Steve

Download MMMM-bbaa