COMING SOON

July 16th 2008
Says Jonathan from Built On A Weak Spot...
The Self-Titled debut from Germany’s Tiger Shower Caps is the latest release from the Radio is Down label. Formed in 2006, the band is made up of former members from Are We Electric?, Sabet, Bhang Dextro, and Motorambo. While their name alone was almost interesting enough to get me to listen to the record, I was glad to find out that the album also contains a number of good tunes on it as well. Sometimes artist bios aren’t necessarily the most accurate thing whenever I get a chance to read them, but with Tiger Shower Caps I think they were pretty close on theirs. The band does in fact sound like a mixture of 80’s post-punk and the burgeoning 90’s indie-rock set, although I would say more so the Chicago scene more than anything else as the guitars are full of that razor thin and trebly goodness that you would expect. The vocals fit the bill especially, with the singer’s frantic yelps that nicely off set the bands casual hooks and infectious melodies, not allowing the listener to get too comfortable with the record. With a name like Tiger Shower Caps, it’s obvious the band has a bit of a sense of humor as well, that works its way into the record too here and there.
Okker's "Two Axes" due early September.
Currently listening to Straight A's, Ex-Wives, Bhava, Cripple and Casino, Tay Zonday.

June 7th 2008
We're pleased to announce that Edinburgh, Scotland's Okker have joined our active roster.
Diving Reference:
Like a well executed jack-knife, Okker cut through the pool of 90's art-rock inspired hacks without turning into the much hated back flop (check Reed Rothchild's failed forward flip). Okker are much the opposite. The sound is very much that which allows for forward motion without second guessing and/or dwelling on the origin of said sound.
Historical Reference:
Devised by James Watt (1736-1819), Okker is the power required to lift 550 pounds by 1 foot in 1 second: 33,000 foot-pounds per minute. 1 Okker=745.7 watts; or 2,545 BTUs per hour.
Expect to see Okker's debut recording released exclusively by Radio Is Down later this summer.

May 3rd 2008
Tiger Shower Caps' self-titled debut is now available in our store. Thirty minutes from start to finish, this is arguably our most infectious release yet. Grab it now as this is hot off the press.

April 28th 2008
Replicator's Whangbar Province EP is now available in our store. It's quite affordable. It has choice cuts. Two originals and a complete kick to the ass in the form of a BABYLAND cover. The package includes a limited run full color poster that offers full photographic documentation of the band as seen through the eyes of a variety of photographers. Get this while we have it. 100 were pressed. 40 are left.

April 19th 2008
Many thanks to all who were involved in making the Wisdom Teeth and Suzanne'Silver tour a success. This was a joint effort that could've easily flopped. It didn't! Both bands made it home safely. No extra charges for the rentals. No warrants for arrest.
Suzanne'Silver and Tiger Shower Caps are currently working together to book a joint tour of Italy and Germany that will launch this fall. We'll keep you posted as dates emerge.
Replicator's Whangbar Province EP will be available through our store shortly. Check back in a couple of weeks.
For those who are unaware, you may now visit us through myspace. This is a great option for those who would like to snag an audio sample of some of our releases. Plus you can view many more photos. Photos of the Wisdom Teeth and Suzanne'Silver tour for example.
Currently listening to Okker demo, Whangbar Province, Lowercase "Kill The Lights", Part Chimp "Cup", Faith No More "We Care A Lot", Early Humans, Waydowns.

March 20th 2008
Wisdom Teeth and Suzanne'Silver West Coast Tour:

Thursday March 20th @ Le Voyeur | Olympia, WA
Friday March 21st @ The Comet | Seattle, WA
Saturday March 22nd @ The Twilight | Portland, OR
Monday March 24th @ Pehrspace | Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday March 25th @ Cafe Mariposa | Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday March 26th @ The Smell | Los Angeles, CA
Thursday March 27th @ The Last Record Store | Santa Rosa, CA
Friday March 28th @ Ghosttown Gallery with Replicator | Oakland, CA
Saturday March 29th @ The Firehouse | Davis, CA

Tiger Shower Caps is in the final stages of production. Expect this to hit the streets in 4-6 weeks. More will be posted as the release date approaches.
Also still in the works: Battersea 3 (ex Unwound and Bunnyfoot Charm) and The Sideways Vagina Monologues (various artists). Perhaps a few more projects TBA.

February 15th 2008
Please forgive us for waiting until mid February to update you on several new developments. Blame the computer upgrade. Speaking of which, holy shit, we've purchased a new computer to better serve our customers. Friends have made it quite clear that our embrace of modern technology will open us up to some "spooky shit".

As for new developments, let's start by welcoming a new band to the family. Tiger Shower Caps, hailing from Stuttgart, Germany, have joined our active roster. Expect to see their debut disc in April. These gentlemen have put together one of our most infectious releases to date. Descriptors include, but are not limited to, disjointed, angular, post-punk, narcissistic, art rock, etc.

We're also very pleased to announce that Suzanne'Silver will be flying over from Italy to join Olympia's Wisdom Teeth for a ten day tour of the western coast of the USA in March. We'll post the dates and locations soon.

We're not as pleased to announce the splitting up of Replicator. The band will be performing their last shows between now and April 5th. Two of which will be on March 28th and March 29th with Suzanne'Silver and Wisdom Teeth. An RID showcase of sorts. On April 5th they'll be at the Hemlock in SF closing out with two full sets that'll likely take you through all stages of the band, Winterval through Machines. We're likely to have a hand in helping out with the band's final EP. This is going to be extremely limited. Likely less than 200. These will be set aside primarily for the final shows. At some point you'll be able to pick a few of these up through our store. We'll keep you posted.

September 1st 2007
Here's what some critics, through Italian-to-English translation, have had to say about our friends, Suzanne'Silver...

Andrea Firrincieli, Losing Today
Stars and stripes debut for Suzanne'Silver, a young band of Siracusa (Italy) that expressed itself translating the classical post-rock (influenced by Uzeda and Shellac) into the roads of a kind of noisy blues full of guitars. In fact it is the label Radio Is Down of Olympia (WA) to give full trust to these young boys that, after all, don't do anything but to abuse guitars or to warble bitterly. Nevertheless there's something charming in almost every track: sometimes it's a break, sometimes a sudden change between the beginning and a new movement ("Pages"). Comes out something new, that also recalling names as Fugazi or Unwound, it doesn't want to emulate. "President" or "Sand" are good examples to feel the vibrating heart of the album: drums and bass find the spaces to exalt themselves and the guitars always try to suffocate everything, without being able to do that. At the end we find "Gun", a noisy vent (Sonic Youth type). A perfect debut, a bet already won.

Tano Rizza, Girodivite
We knew well the Suzanne'Silver, we saw them "live" many times, and listened to their first EP out in with the footprint of Cesare Basile and Marcello Caudullo. But we waited of listening to, finally, their sound recorded good in an album. The American label "Radio is Down" has noticed them and decided to produce the Suzanne. Strange but usual that foreign labels (from overseas) notice good Italian bands. The Italian coordinates are insured by the sound engineers Sacha Tilotta and Alfredo Musumeci that have taken care of the work before sending it overseas in the hands of Matt Busher for the final mastering. The result is "The Crying mary" first album of the Suzanne'Silver, and it is a sounding summary of almost ten years of sounds and experimentations of the band of Siracusa. Nine sour and taut tracks wich range from the rough sound coming from the Seattle background, to touch the sicilian indierock (it has as teachers the "Uzeda" of Catania). The attitude of the Suzanne is noisy, howled, and desperate; the sounds are never predictable. Fractured guitars, taut rhythmics and then interrupted, are in the Suzanne's baggage. But it's not just an album of noise and howls, rather. The Suzanne also have a melodic approach to the sound, fancy (studied) and sporadically lyric sound. The few narrating voices are just hinted, they infiltrate themselves among the guitars that lapse into dark and heavy bass lines. Then the Suzanne stop, become reflexive and experiment sounds and charming hums that are the sounding prelude to tearing and dense tracks, or they catch you unprepared, and become violent, lacerating and lacerated. The sound is "indie" but a genuine "indie" wich takes a shape, second after second in the middle of the songs, never too much noisy, never too obtrusive. A sound that gives you the time to appreciate the sounding research of these guys that perform well. Another good work coming out from the earth of Sicily.

Chri, Upside Down
Warm Sicily on summer, a field house absorbed in the arid country of Siracusa. The Suzanne'Silver record in three days this debut album, during last summer, containing, in a live performance, tangible substances as skeletal sound, impact and a great "lo-fi" dose. Sound carefully left virgin, all that comes out from skin and tubes resounds in the ears with perfect sounding continuity. It is not a case that the album is produced by an American label, the Suzanne play and breathe as they were also American, but oddly been born in Sicily. As touched by the hand of Steve Albini, in one of any of his creatures that populate the nineties, the album is "post" in all of its deviations, and disseminated of variations and rhythmic winces accompanied by melodies that balance well the mathematics of the underlying construction. Struggles between emotional pushes and rough-edges geometries are the lymph of the album that in the rare moments of sung parts it shouts and then relapses in silences full of neurosis. To assimilate different languages, to look for its features and to narrate themselves. To abandon. To look for their own perfection.

Matt Lebens, Radio Is Down
Italy plus Radio Is Down equals Love Forever.

August 10th 2007
Replicator Machines… tour 2007 ! !!
date venue city state playing with:
8/17/2007 A warehouse Los Angeles CA BAD DUDES, Sleeping People, and somebody else
8/18/2007 The Ruby Room phoenix AZ Minibosses, get down to brass tacks!, sweet bleeders
8/19/2007 ?? somewhere?? NM ??
8/20/2007 Plush Lounge austin TX We’ll Go Machete
8/21/2007 ?? norman OK gravity propulsion system
8/22/2007 Printer’s Alley memphis TN the family ghost
8/23/2007 Uncle Fester’s bloomington IN sump pumps, push pull
8/24/2007 Melody Inn Indy IN sump pumps, eat sugar
/25/2007 ?? philly/wilmington PA/ DE Stinking Lizaveta??
8/26/2007 Velvet Lounge dc DC ??
/27/2007 Arlene’s Grocery ny, ny NY STD, citizens of contrary knowledge, rock and roll karaoke
8/28/2007 O’Brien’s Pub boston MA Ho-AG and Paper Thin Stages
8/29/2007 Smiling Moose pittsburgh PA ??
8/30/2007 cleveland/off OH
8/31/2007 Gypsy Hut? Cinci/Columbus OH ifihadahifi, Knife the symphony
9/1/2007 Small’s Pub detroit MI Amino Acids, ifihadahifi
9/2/2007 Empty bottle chicago IL Bearclaw, Ifihadahifi
9/3/2007 Points East milwaukee WI ifihadahifi
/4/2007 Big V’s minneapolis MN Mise an Place and ??
/5/2007 ?? Fargo? ND? ??
9/6/2007 ?? missoula MT
/7/2007 Funhouse seattle WA Madraso, The Ruby Doe
9/8/2007 tonic lounge? portland OR X’s for I’s and ?
9/9/2007 Stone Inn Sacto CA ??

Wisdom Teeth CDEP is two weeks out. Keep posted as this, not to mention the poop-hot limited edition tour disc, will soon be available. Thanks to all who came out to see us on our four day excursion.

May 31st 2007
RID-009 is on the streets! Oakland's Replicator have sided with Radio Is Down for the release of their third full-length entitled "Machines Will Always Let You Down". Historically it's been hard to avoid the similarities, albeit good ones, to Shellac. With their latest effort, however, Replicator have officially come into a sound that is their own. The band recently completed a successful tour of the northwest, stopping here in Olympia along the way. The northwest sets featured Todd from Greenlight the Bombers as a second guitarist, adding more thunder to an already booming sound. We're currently crossing our collective fingers in hopes that Todd will quit, or get fired from, his job so that he can provide the same support for the upcoming U.S. tour. Keep posted for Fall tour dates.

Olympia's Wisdom Teeth have recently finished recording a five song EP due later this summer. Keep posted as we're in the process of adding this band to the site. Look for the EP in early August.

Lastly, we're putting together a yet to be titled release by Battersea 3, featuring Vern Rumsey of Unwound and John Devoy of Bunny Foot Charm. More news regarding this release later...