SKiN GRAFT News for You's

B A L L P E E N ( ! ) B U L L E T I N S

updated: November 12th, 2010

IN THE NEWS:

HOLIDAY SPECIALS
vv - DAZZLING KILLMEN 2 x CD Bundle!
vv - AIDS WOLF / ATHELTIC AUTOMATON 2 x CD Bundle!
vv - CHINESE STARS CD & LP Bundle!

Hi Everyone!

This is Mark writing - I'm getting on an airplane in less than 24 hours so I have just a moment to get this down. Now that the gift-giving season is starting to get into gear, I wanted to post a few holiday specials for you. These prices are only available at this News Desk, but of course you can add additional items to your cart HERE at the paypal shop.

Shipping charges are INCLUDED in the prices to customers in the USA and CANADA. Overseas customers -we have a special shipping chart listed at the paypal shop - please add the appropriate shipping charge to to your order.

~~(SALE!)~~

DAZZLING KILLMEN Bundle
"Face Of Collapse" & "Recuerda
#GR12CD&36CD
( offer ended )

~~(SALE!)~~

AIDS WOLF VS.
ATHLETIC AUTOMATON Bundle
"Clash Of The Life-Force Warriors"
#GR84CD&84LP ( offer ended )

~~(SALE!)~~

THE CHINESE STARS Bundle
"Turbo Mattress" CD and
Listen To Your Left Brain" LP
# GR69CD&86LP ( offer ended )

Add additional titles to your cart at:

More New News:

B A L L P E E N ( ! ) B U L L E T I N S

updated: September 19th, 2010

: ( ! ) NOW RELEASING ( ! ) :

AIDS WOLF "March To The Sea" LP/CD
New Full Length album: includes Throbbing Gristle cover "Very Friendly"/ First LP's on Colored Vinyl

ARAB ON RADAR "Soak The Saddle" LP
Back In The Saddle Edition: includes colored vinyl & metallic ink silkscreened sleeve

AIDS WOLF
"March To The Sea"
ULTIMATE EDITION
includes Colored vinyl LP, color poster and full-length CD

AIDS WOLF
"Very Friendly" remix LP
remixes by Weasel Walter, John Olson, Jason Forrest, Emeralds & Nautical Almanac

AIDS WOLF
"March To The Sea"
full color Poster

GAY BEAST
"Charm" 7" Vinyl Single
silkscreened Sleeve

CHEER-ACCIDENT
"Barely Breathing" 7"
edition of 300 copies!

CHEER-ACCIDENT
"Gumballhead" CD & Comic
special sale price!

All titles available for ORDER at

Salütes Sound Seekers ( ! )
SKiN GRAFT's Ace Reporter, "Jazzy" Joe Romita here with another staggering summary of the frankly phenomenal feats fathered at the famed fount of flabbergast... the forever favored, far-from faddish, far-flung frontiersmen of the fashionable Fort SKiN GRAFT!!!! Face front, frenzied ones!!!

IN THE NEWS:

AIDS WOLF
vv - March To The Sea LP / CD / Ultimate Edition
vv - Colored Vinyl / Colorful Tour
ARAB ON RADAR
vv - Soak The Saddle LP
vv - Colored Vinyl / Metallic Ink Silkscreened Sleeves
GAY BEAST
vv - Charm 7" Vinyl Single Back In Stock
vv - New Album titled
RUINS
vv - Japanese New Music Festival returns to Europe
vv - with ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE SWR, AKATEN and MORE
SPOT THE DIFFERENCES
vv - From THROBBING GRISTLE bis AIDS WOLF
vv - Weasel Walter, John Olson, Jason Forrest
vv - Emeralds and Nautical Almanac
CHEER-ACCIDENT
vv - Barely Breathing hyper-limited 7" single & CD Sale
vv - Romantic Warriors Underground Prog Documentary
TAKING UP SPACE
vv - SKIN GRAFT's Free Hook Up service
vv - Our Ad + Your Zine = Instant Indie Cred

Courage Compatriots!

Your international daze of mourning has at long last come to an end! Yes, your sanctified Sound Solicitor has finally returned to his Holy Land - that bilious barrage of bombastic briefs, beats and feats, that noggin-knocking narrative of noteworthy news and name-dropping know-all, that presumptuous platter pitter-patter which all of fandom assembled has come to call... the one and only.... Ballpeen Bulletins!!!

Of course on the tip of every tongue from Toledo to Tanzania is the question "Why?". "Why had you, our amiable audio anti-christ, forsaken us? What travels led you away from your faithful, fawning flock for these many moons of silence?"

Well... Much like H.R. recording "Sacred Love" vocals from the hoosegow, your divine dealer of noisy news and esoteric scuttlebutt is bringing it to you all the way live (plenty pent-up and positively pickled) from the State Penitentiary. Now of course your mild-mannered music messiah is innocent of Babylon's trumped up charges, but it could be said that Jazzy Joe has a bit of a weakness when it comes to the horses - and his wallet does not always have the strength to follow through on his convictions. So, this summer, your no-nonsense newshound has whiled away the hours playing Parcheesi in this pleasureless padded cell.

But rest assured, when it comes time to deliver his frenetic follower's embittered absentee palettes yet another tantalizing taste of his enduring, egocentric effulgence, Jazzy Joe will always plead "No Contest" and hunker down to dissect the disorderly conduct of the power players and soothsayers at the imperishable empire known far and wide as SKiN GRAFT Records!

So lets get to it-!

AIDS WOLF
electronic presskit
(click cover to open PDF

ITEM!: Ten Hut! Q-Tips at the ready, muckrakers? We've got just the hearing aids your inner ear has been pining for - AIDS WOLF "March To The Sea" walks among us! Here's the official solicitation as penned by our primo publicity pavement-pounder, Charlie Nite. Right shoulder... arms!:

The landscape is all ears and the distance is deafening.

With a new LP (their third), and an ever-renewable call to action, AIDS Wolf dribble and smear, smudge and sweep - spilling across the plains. AIDS Wolf March To The Sea.

o First LP pressing on Colored Vinyl.
o Recorded by David Bryant in The Pines, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
o Mastered by Weasel Walter in Hell, USA.
o Very Friendly written by Throbbing Gristle.
o Cover Art by Seripop.
o ULTIMATE EDITION available exclusively through skingraftrecords.com - including a Colored Vinyl LP, Full length CD and full color poster.

AIDS Wolf was birthed into the heady days of Montreal’s millennial music scene by Yannick Desranleau (aka Hiroshima Thunder) and Chloe Lum, who began the band in 2003. Unlike most of the local units finding fame out in the world beyond Quebec, AIDS Wolf pushed an abrasive, unforgiving and rather unwieldy sound around North America in a battered van.

AIDS Wolf has formalized its sound into a tight construction relying on intentional dissonance, polyrhythms and disjunctive compositional forms. The band takes its cues from “classic” New York No Wave, 90’s Midwestern No Wave, vegan cooking, 70’s proto-punk, Beefheartian modes, Ville-Marie school of white elephant architecture, Literature, www.crwflags.com, post-war continental modern composition and their unrivaled network of friends and acquaintances the world over.

PRESS QUOTES:
o AIDS Wolf are a no wave sonic demolition squad cartwheeling on the edge of the noise-rock precipice. - Alternative Press

o Rock can still sound threatening. - Popmatters

o A brutally beautiful sound that has caught the kids' pants on fire. - Hour

o An amazing, essential, noisy mess. - CMJ

AIDS WOLF "March To The Sea" LP is shipping now! To hear what you've been missing, an absolutely free MP3 has been uploaded at the AUDIO page - and for dealhounds, a special discounted price for the ULTIMATE EDITION LP/CD/Poster Set will be available direct from SKiN GRAFT Rex for a limited time. To enjoy the ease of direct delivery to the house you've been haunting, send checks and money orders to the P.O. Box above - or point and click your way to our virtual Paypal Shop - conveniently cornered right about HERE . AND - don't forget(!) - AIDS WOLF is taking the March to the people - visit the TOURS page HERE for a complete list of live appearances!

To order, visit:

ITEM!: Now over the last few weeks an avalanche of emails have come barreling down the pipes of the SKiN GRAFT servers - bitching and moaning about ARAB ON RADAR's ill-fated west coast tour (see Mr. Mark's previous update). Now suffice to say that if Jazzy had his way - everyone would have the opportunity to see AOR live and on-stage, but as grandma always says "stuff happens". Now for those bearing a grudge and looking for someone to blame, Jazzy suggests you look inward - to your own dysfunctional family. If mom and pop hadn't taken so long to bring you into this world, you would have had plenty of opportunities to see the ARAB ON RADAR ten years ago when they went round and round this great country of ours on a regular basis.

But enough with the finger pointing - while ARAB ON RADAR may have eluded a host of concert goers this time around, they were captured on mag tape during the aforementioned heyday - and their most brutal session ever is back on vinyl!

Here's the scoop:

"Arab On Radar were one of those rare groups to rise out of the muck of '90s post-Grunge with a unique sound and presentation. They were equal parts simian punk rock (complete with demented ass-touching and other monkey-like rituals) and cutting-edge psychedelia (the band mapped out a new synaethesial frontier that Frank Zappa or Faust would no doubt have been eager to explore).

Now all the AOR players - Mr. OCD, Mr. Pottymouth, Mr. Clinical Depression, Mr. Type A are back with their first tour since 2002 to save our insanity once again." - Sean Carnage

Powerful and cathartic, ARAB ON RADAR is a unique and unprecedented brand of psycho-neurological terrorism. The strain introduced on "Soak The Saddle" is the most dangerous: free-er, alive and unrooted, with any semblance to daddy's Rock n' Roll long gone. On stage, Arab On Radar generate more energy and more hysteria than any band you've ever seen. Audience members have been known to have SEIZURES, HEART ATTACKS and HEIGHTENED STATES OF SEXUAL AROUSAL while watching the band perform. "Soak The Saddle" is back - and where it all came together- on vinyl.

This is no joke. This band will infect you.

The first 600 copies pressed will be on colored vinyl and come complete with hand silk-screened sleeves, printed in metallic colored inks by Neil Burke.

PRESS QUOTES:
o With 1999's "Rough Day At The Orifice", Arab On Radar seemed incapable of sinking any lower (that's a compliment). But as "Soak The Saddle" proves, that isn't the case. "Produced" in near defiance of fidelity by the Flying Luttenbachers' Weasel Walter, Soak The Saddle is AOR's crowning achievement: 19 minutes of trebly, cum soaked horror that captures all of claustrophobia and wanton violence of the band's live set. - Magnet

o While many of today's rockers preach the tired "music is my only release" rhetoric, the men of Arab On Radar would rather feed you your teeth than say it. - Alternative Press

o Arab On Radar should be the most popular band in the world. Arab On Radar will never be the most popular band in the world. - Slender

ARAB ON RADAR "Soak The Saddle" LP" is ready to order! No Shirt? No Shoes? No problem! Our virtual Paypal Shop is open 24/7 to royalty and riff-raff alike! Go HERE to have SKIN GRAFT wares delivered direct post-haste - AND - don't forget "Soak The Saddle" is also available for legal downloading at virtually all major digital music providers for those hear-happy-hep-cats who prefer their music in the non-physical format. A sample MP3 is up for the listening HERE!

And Lastly - thanks to Mighty Matt Carroll for the AOR pic up top! Lots more killer kamera work can be found HERE!.

To order, visit:

ITEM!: A few months back, those lucky enough to catch GAY BEAST on tour were able to score their new single "Charm" b/w "We Keep Our Victims Ready". A handful of copies were shaken from the trees for sale to SKIN GRAFT's direct customers, but now, though the rest of the world remains as ill-equipped as ever to handle it, GAY BEAST's "Charm" is being made available for mass distribution!

Read on!:

Minneapolis' GAY BEAST fire their sophomore SKiN GRAFT salvo with the "Charm" 7" - a pleasingly caustic affair; entirely in line with their stated unsettled sonic aesthetic; but one that also highlights a presence previously cloaked beneath overdrive and echo.

The eponymous A-side "Charm" is rife with martial rhythms - and to the untrained ear, the band's characteristic time-keeping appears skewed, yet even.

However, these Illusionary foursquare beats have been maliciously designed to exhort sympathetic responses from the body, paving the way for an utterly empowered entry on the single's B-side. "We Keep Our Victims Ready" points to a new direction - haunting, atmospheric and a overflowing with a newfound emphasis on The Groove.

Look, don't try to make sense of it - just go HERE, order now and pray later. And hold onto your jimmy-hats heroes cause Jazzy's got another SKiN GRAFT exclusive announcement: GAY BEAST's next album, tentatively. "To Smithereens", is scheduled for an early 2011 release and will be timed to coincide with series of European engagements!

For an sneak peek at one of the band's brand spankin' new promo pics, you need only click HERE!

ITEM!: Thanks to the new math anything is possible... Three Musicians? Seven Acts!??? It must be...

The JAPANESE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL (European Tour!)
Together on one stage for a one night stand in select cities, it's seven of the most innovative acts from Japan's vibrant and challenging new music scene!

RUINS (alone)
One of the most innovative composers in Japan, Yoshida Tatsuya is renowned as the founder of the unclassifiable bass and drum duo RUINS and progressive rock purveyors KOENJIHYAKKEI. Here Yoshida performs the music of RUINS solo in an unforgettable set of rapid fire, hardcore progressive rock, sung in a language of his own invention.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE (SWR)
Acclaimed as the greatest, most extreme trip-psychedelic band in the world, AMT's crushingly acute freakout sound is guaranteed to pulverize.

ZOFFY
The band hints at the members' interests in troubadour and classic rock, but in the end, there's no mistaking it - they sound like nothing but ZOFFY.

TSUYAMA ATSUSHI (solo performance)
Tsuyama has accumulated traditional musics from around the world and dismantled them. Now, through his interpretation, he creates a beautiful, unclassifiable, "new" traditional music.

AKATEN
Using commodities like scissors, toothbrushes, zippers, cameras, and plastic bottles as their instruments of choice, AKATEN is the experimental convenience store punk band that provides the sound images of a cheap and simple daily life.

KAWABATA MAKOTO (solo performance)
Best known for his noise-fuzz guitar in Acid Mothers Temple, here he draws upon a huge reservoir of original techniques that simply cannot be categorized as minimal, drone or experimental.

ZUBI ZUVA X
Japan's premier eccentric poly-rhythmic a cappella ensemble covers everything from gregorian chants to ethnic music, do-wop to hardcore screaming.

This can't miss event has even received a thumbs up from SKiN GRAFT founder Mark Fischer's parents - avowed avoiders of new music. See for yourself what Ralph Fischer calls "A little weird... a lotta fun!".

All the details are up now at the TOURS page!

ITEM!: Okay - deep breath - and... Hang on ( ! ) - cause here comes a radical, roundabout return to AIDS WOLF - to break yet another item! Featured prominently on their aforementioned new album "March To The Sea" is a stirring cover of "Very Friendly" from the First Annual report of THROBBING GRISTLE. Our pals at Lovepump United have unveiled a completely caustic, cranium-cracking complimentary release - the AIDS WOLF "Very Friendly" Remix LP - featuring no less than five phenomenal artists working their magic on AIDS WOLF's wholly original re-recording of the original THROBBING GRISTLE recording!

Place your bets - here's the track listing:

SIDE A:
Very Friendly (Weasel Walter Remix)
Very Friendly (John Olson Remix)
Very Friendly (Jason Forrest Remix)

SIDE B:
Very Friendly (Emeralds Remix)
Very Friendly (Nautical Almanac Remix)

Quantities are strictly limited to 500 copies - and we've got ya covered - copies are available for ordering now through the SKiN GRAFT PAYPAL SHOP!

ITEM!: Remember CHEER-ACCIDENT? We sure do and to jog your memory CHEER-ACCIDENT have returned with a VERY limited edition 7" - titled "Barely Breathing" b/w "Cynical Girl" - this rampage recording is limited to a measly 300 copies (just enuf to cover the population of Liscomb, Iowa) and will NOT be repressed - NO WAY, NO HOW. We have copies reserved for a select number of the SKiN GRAFT elite, so don't waste a second, place your orders HERE!

In celebration of CHEER-ACCIDENT's 7 inches of new music, we are also offering the GUMBALLHEAD THE CAT CD and comic book set at a special sale price. A masterful multimedia mishmash of formats, CHEER-ACCIDENT composed an exclusive CD soundtrack for cartoonist Rob Syers' full length Gumballhead The Cat adventure "The Mystery Treasure Of The San Miguel Apartments".

The comic?: A mind-boggling foray into the sublimely ridiculous; filled with suspense, balls-out action, playstation addicted rave kids, hard rocking bikers and deals gone bad! The CD?: The spellbinding soundtrack sports a perplexing palette of opulent musical textures, and lightning in a bottle aural episodes custom composed to bring the broad ink strokes of Gumballhead The Cat into the fifth dimension!

We're talking OVER 60 MINUTES of adroitly extrapolated audio intrigue and jaw dropping dynamic group interplay - bordering on the telepathic!!! The CHEER-ACCIDENT "Gumballhead The Cat" CD and comic set comes packaged in a format unique to this edition - a big 7" x 7" comic book packed in a resealable plastic sleeve that allows easy storage alongside the CHEER-ACCIDENT "Barely Breathing 7" single - and being encased in plastic, it's protected against stray spray in the litter box!

A preview of the COMIC BOOK is available for viewing HERE and a 100% FREE MP3 is standing by at the AUDIO page - a'ready and a'waiting your downloads! Paypals can go HERE.

To order, visit:

And we're not done yet: CHEER-ACCIDENT is one of five bands spotlighted in a new feature-length film about the underground progressive rock scene called "Romantic Warriors". A lengthy trailer (almost 10 minutes!) starring Chicago's dreamy new romantics Cheer-Accident is featured up top. For more details on the documentary, you need only visit HERE - and tell 'em Jazzy sent ya!

ITEM!: Yeah, the internet is cool and all - but if you're like the Jazzy one, then you appreciate a good zine now and again for a pleasurable peruse, be it seated on the can or whiling away the hours waiting for your hillbilly-toothed parole officer to finish his lunch. Zine publishers: SKiN GRAFT wants to assist you in filling those xeroxed pages of passion - and has designed a brand-spanking new advertisement for free distribution to all the aspiring Willie Randolph Hearsts out there. Simply click the ad mini above to download a 300 dpi advert to your desktop - and cut n' paste away! Any zines who pimp our wares in their precious periodicals will get their just desserts - just get in touch! Burma Shave!

And that, friends, brings to a close another edition of the Ballpeen Bulletins. Y'know sitting here in cell block 666, I've had plenty of time to reflect on where we've been and how far we've come. Its been nearly 20 years since the SKiN GRAFT age of Records exploded onto turntables around the world. They've been good years, bad years - years of challenge and achievement. But now, as we face our third decade as the world's most popular purveyors of punked-up progressive punishment, the challenges are greater than ever - and our goal is to reach even higher. Faced with the task of proving that we can continue to kindle the excitement, wonder and dynanism that has made Skin Graft a household word wherever records are played, we vow to give it our best. We hope you'll stay with us each step of the way.

Of course it would be a tad easier if I wasn't subjected to this rotten prison food, cellmate Toothy G would take a bath, and the detention library had a halfway decent internet connection - but, hey, the rent can't be beat!

Excel-sore!

"JAZZY" JOE ROMITA

Click HERE for MORE new NEWS ( ! )

AIDS WOLF "March To The Sea" ULTIMATE EDITION includes Colored vinyl LP, color poster and full-length CD	AIDS WOLF "Very Friendly" remix LP remixes by Weasel Walter, John Olson, Jason Forrest, Emeralds & Nautical Almanac

AIDS WOLF "March To The Sea" full color Poster	GAY BEAST "Charm" 7" Vinyl Single silkscreened Sleeve

CHEER-ACCIDENT "Barely Breathing" 7" edition of 300 copies!	CHEER-ACCIDENT "Gumballhead" CD & Comic special sale price!


~~(SALE!)~~	DAZZLING KILLMEN Bundle "Face Of Collapse" & "Recuerda #GR12CD&36CD ( offer ended )

~~(SALE!)~~	AIDS WOLF VS. ATHLETIC AUTOMATON Bundle "Clash Of The Life-Force Warriors" #GR84CD&84LP ( offer ended )

~~(SALE!)~~	THE CHINESE STARS Bundle "Turbo Mattress" CD and Listen To Your Left Brain" LP # GR69CD&86LP ( offer ended )