Transit of Venus

Where’s My Golden Arm?’, the sophomore offering from Philadelphia’s Like A Fox, is a celebration of sonic contrasts & textures anchored to an undercurrent of classic rock & pop. For every digital twist & turn that your ears are taken on throughout the album, there is always a sense that the songs have been crafted by a real band with some interesting stories to tell.

Across the 11 tracks of ‘Where’s My Golden Arm?’ the optimism & melancholy of the melodies parallel the lyrical themes of life’s magic & loss. These songs deliver on what you would hope for from an evolving group who specialize in modern psychedelic rock/pop; a fine balance struck between the surreal and the “real” (and of course some kick-ass guitar solos too).

Philadelphia’s ‘Like A Fox’ is rock band skilled at merging tweaked electronic touches with its foundation of weird progressive-pop songwriting. The sounds are large, warm, strange and ornate. The group has a dedicated ear for production (both live & in studio) that places stunning decoration on top of well-crafted songs. Live the group is known to blast these creations on an epic scale, taking their album tracks to a massive level while retaining the details that make the recordings so engaging.

Founded by songwriter Jay Laughlin (guitar, vocals, keyboards, etc.) following his time spent with 90’s guitar-chemist noise-poppers Lenola, the band was fleshed out by engineer/guitarist Dave Grubb (also ex-Lenola), bassist Brian Wilkenson, Pete Girgenti on drums and utility man Jeff Scioli (guitars, keyboard, vocals).

Happy to lean toward the future while absorbing rock’s classic template, this is what modern psychedelic pop should sound like.

Track Listings
1. A Feeling That Launched A Thousand Wars 2. Internal/External 3. Night Person 4. Better Bring A Bomb 5. Gold 6. On The Way 7. Time Stands Still 8. Since He Was Born 9. Heard The Shot 10.Been Sitting Here 11. Just A Light Hit

Order Long Gone and Nearly There:

$10 Postage Paid in the US and Canada:

$13 International:

 

 

D.C.-based rocking pop band, ex-Velocity Girl

Just because a CD will hold 80 minutes of music doesn’t mean it should.
Ten songs totaling just over 25 minutes in length, Long Gone and Nearly
There, the debut album from Washington D.C.-based quartet Julie Ocean
makes a case for fast over fatuous, poppy over prog, and concise over
complicated. The album is being released by Transit of Venus in partnership with
Empyrean Records, distributed in the U.S. by RedEye.

Julie Ocean songs generally follow three simple steps: they start, they make
their point, and they stop – but, somewhere along the way, they charm, too.
Long Gone and Nearly There is underpinned by a taut, frenetic energy
reminiscent of Dag Nasty and The Descendents, is infused with the casual
chaos of primetime Guided By Voices and Pavement, and contains undeniable
elements of sweet 60s pop of an early Beatles stripe, coupled with the searing
melodicism of late 70s heroes The Jam and The Undertones (from whom the
band takes its name).

Guitarist/singer Jim Spellman was a member of 90s alterna-faves Velocity
Girl, who released three top selling albums on the Sub Pop label, and he
played guitar in The High Back Chairs, Jeff Nelson’s post-Minor Threat
combo. Guitarist/singer Terry Banks has played in a host of critically
acclaimed indie rock bands, including the Saturday People (Slumberland
label), Tree Fort Angst (Bus Stop) and Glo-Worm (K Records.) In the late
80s, drummer Alex Daniels was the teenage dynamo propelling the
young-and-angry Swiz and later took an artier turn as the drummer in Severin,
who recorded for the Dischord label. Bassist Hunter Bennett began musical
life in a post-Government Issue outfit called Weatherhead, an odd, D.C-based
collective who troubled the early 90s stages of DC Space and other hallowed
spots — sometimes wearing masks.

Long Gone and Nearly There was produced by Geoff Sanoff whose
production credits include Fountains of Wayne, Luna, and The Secret
Machines, among others. Julie Ocean frequently plays live in the D.C. area
and plans to play dates in support of the record on the East Coast — and
perhaps a few other further-flung places, too.

Order Your Secret Safe/Luzerne.

$15 Postage Paid in the US and Canada

$17 Postage Paid in the US and Canada

Order Oliver Future - Pax Futura - $12 Postage Paid in the US and Canada

Oliver Future - Pax Futura (TOVFPCD706)

New album from LA-based Austin, TX transplants Oliver Future is produced by Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Trolleyvox, Helium). Transit Of Venus is co-releasing the physical CD with Fireproof Recordings who are handling the digital release. - July 24th.

With the long-playing album succumbing to today's single song downloadable world, Oliver Future's Pax Futura is refreshingly anachronistic. Filled with mini-suites and recurring themes, Oliver Future and acclaimed producer Adam Lasus have created an album in the biggest sense of the word. From the first winsome notes of opener 'The Many Things I Am Aware Of,' to the manic closer 'The Slow Fast,' the record brims with intensity and highlights the band's impressive range. Songs fade into each other like scenes from a film as frontman Noah Lit muses on topics such as the apocalypse, politics, failed romance and natural disaster.

Order the Swivel Chairs - The Slow Transmission:

$12 postage paid in the US & Canada.

$16 Postage Paid International

TheSwivel Chairs newest release The Slow Transmission (TOVCD07004). The Slow Transmission is an album born of a friendship and musical partnership that has lasted more than a decade. Over that time, the Swivel Chairs song-writing duo of Jeremy Grites and Jason Brown have polished their craft through numerous self-released cassettes; CD-R albums; compilation tracks; several split albums and EPs with bands like Audible (Polyvinyl) and The Banes; and the acclaimed 2004 indie-pop album “A Late Day For Regrets” on Portland, OR’s Paisley Pop label.

The Slow Transmission is the first fruit of a two year creative burst that saw the musical partners write and record nearly 40 songs. The album is packed with a memorable collection of songs that range stylistically from retro guitar-pop to alt-country, new wave and folk-rock. The album’s cohesion comes from the sharply crafted hooks that stick with the listener long after it's done playing and the genuine emotions that come out in their lyrics.

Basic tracks for The Slow Transmission were recorded in Brooklyn and the album was completed and mixed in Philadelphia. It features contributions from long-time friends like Ed Hogarty (Audible, Lefty’s Deceiver, Bigger Lovers) on guitar; Eve Miller (Rachael’s, Matt Pond PA) on cello: Mary Garito (Audible) and Beth Filla (Trolleyvox) on harmony vocals; Mike Brenner (Slo-Mo, Marah,The Low Road) on pedal steel; Greg Potter (Blank Pages) on guitar and backing vocals; and Andrew Hall (The Moonlighters) on upright bass.

Order Milton & the Devils Party - How Wicked We've Become:

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$16 postage paid International:

Listen to How Wicked We've Become:

PHILADELPHIA’S MILTON AND THE DEVILS PARTY is a rock band for thinking people.After three years of downplaying the fact that singer-songwriter-bassist Daniel Robinsonand guitarist Mark Graybill happen to be English professors, the band has grown weary of apologizing for being who they are. So here it is: yes, they are grown men (with jobs),and, yes, perhaps they are a bit smarter than the average rock band.But while they may seem a little pompous, and for that they do apologize still (as theycould for many years to come), Milton and the Devils Party is really just a rock band creating great music out of what they know best.

How Wicked We’ve Become is their second album, and this time they attracted a producer with an even nerdier curriculum vitae than theirs: as a Classics major, Brian McTear studied Virgil and Catullus in the original Latin. And not unimportantly, he has also produced and/or engineered brilliant albums by such luminaries as Apollo Sunshine, Espers, Danielson, Matt Pond PA, B.C. Camplight, Mazarin, and The
A-Sides. So together, over eight intense days at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia, McTear and MDP got their geek on and completed what may be one of the finest albums of 2007. How Wicked We’ve Become is a considerably more mature and cohesive record than its predecessor—musically and thematically. McTear’s expert guidance has opened up the band’s previously dense sound to showcase Graybill’s exquisite guitar work and to give the songs room to breathe—and they do breathe, alternately sighing and panting with longing and desire and continuing Robinson’s interest in romantic collisions and cosmic loneliness.

News:

• PopMatters says The Trolleyvox on Karaoke Meltdowns "cut achingly sweet power pop with muscle and intelligence..."

• AllMusic gives The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns 4-1/2 out of 5 Stars
  

The Shimmers
The Way You Shine
(TOVCD06001)

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from Itunes

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Transit of Venus Store

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Shimmersmusic

The Trolleyvox
The Trolleyvox Present The Karaoke Meltdowns
(TOVCD06002)

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from Itunes

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The Transit Of
Venus Store

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Thetrolleyvox