Spider Babies b/w Nothing Without Love
(La Brea - LBX07) 7-inch $6.75 (Out-of-stock)
The solo project of Phil Franklin (Secret Chiefs 3, Caroliner, Sun Burned Hand of the Man’s “resident surrealist”) gives a clear narrative of damaged optimism, amplified acoustic guitar and percussion. The A-side is a technicolor nightmare about a paranoid man who has spider eggs hatch his head, while the B-side offers the confessions of a soul plagued by regret. Silkscreened cover art by Christine Shields. Edition of 300.
Player Pianos And Other Sounds From A Penny Arcade
(La Brea) LP $15.50 (Out-of-stock)
Field recordings from San Francisco’s famed hands-on museum of early penny arcade machines (some over a century old) kept in their original working order for the public's enjoyment by the determined work of curator Edward Galland Zelinsky. Stereoscopic peep shows, moralizing fortune tellers, old baseball game machines, nickelodeons, prisoner art made out of toothpicks, music boxes, player pianos, "test your strength" challenges, animated dioramas, and of course laughing Sal, a larger-than-life size doll who just laughs and laughs and laughs. Silkscreened jackets.
Sounds and Songs of the Sea
(La Brea - LBX06) 7-inch $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
A strange and obscure artifact from mid-90s San Francisco, sponsored by Jaina Davis and Flatter! magazine. Real chanteys and ballads by Phil Frankin (Caroliner), Christine Shields (Blue Hole), James Goode (Faxed Head). Silkscreened sleeve.