Aquarius Records is probably my favorite record store in the universe. I discovered them when I lived in SF nearly 10 years ago, and even though it was significantly smaller than Amoeba, it felt more like my kinda place. I was sad to lose my regular trips there when I moved to L.A., but soon found that they have an amazing website and they review nearly every album they carry. The reviewers are all knowledgeable and smart and each have their own personalities and niche taste in music. They're kinda like that cool older kid in high school who introduced you to all your favorite bands. Just the other night a friend was asking me "where do you find out about all these crazy underground bands?" My secret is Aquarius Records.
Anyway- while I was up in SF for APE, I stopped by and gave them a bunch of the Melvins comic books to sell. And this review of it includes my favorite description of the comic so far. Read it on their latest "new arrivals list #305":
"For those of you who missed out on the ultra limited Melvins A Senile Animal box set (which is probably most everybody), we managed to get a handful of these super limited comics, by aQ customer Tom Neely, which came in the box along with a belt buckle and a bunch of other stuff. The comic is amazing, inspired by the album, which means it's bizarre and twisted and fucked up and garish and beautiful. For those of you who have yet to see Neely's art (you very well might have and just not known it as he does a lot of commercial stuff too), you're in for a treat, classic and old fashioned, but just a bit tweaked and damaged.
This Melvins comic is the tale of a horse, who loses his head, some sort of spectre, plenty of gore and blood and vomiting, a bandaged worm man with a very powerful tongue, being chased by little legged dots, a bar full of vampires and historical figures, a wolf in grandma's clothing, a long journey across a black sea in a rickety rowboat, a strange mountaintop female cyborg, a giant eagle, a city wrapped in living tendrils, more removable heads and a horde of horses. Sure it sounds insane, it's a comic based on a Melvins record!!! The back cover has a funny Melvins parody ad, and the inside back cover has bios of both Neely and the Melvins."
So, now you can order the book from Aquarius or from Hydra Head Records. Support independent record stores like Aquarius. They are a dying breed, but one the last representatives of the amazing diversity of arts in the world we live in.
1 comment:
I already own copies of that book but thank you so much for reminding me of the Aquarius web store. I was just at a record store in town and was thinking about how I want to get some stuff I just can't find here.
Post a Comment