ATOMIC MOUSE RECORDINGS & SELF-PROPULSION LABORATORY
This is the Atomic Mouse informational website, not a webstore. Our distribution arm has a webstore for in-print physical products at fractionalfarthing.com. Almost all digital offerings (DPDs) can be found at individual artist bandcamp pages and/or streamed from your favorite service.
Atomic Mouse Recordings / Self-Propulsion Laboratory:
CHARLIE III: the crazy from Simi Valley
Born on a ranch in Simi Valley on the day after Christmas 1968, Charlie had a hard, desert upbringing. He dropped out of school, worked odd jobs and spent his free time split between raising hell with rock and roll and isolated trips across the deserts of the American west. Charlie was discovered by Reverend Razor X (of URBN DK) playing in a small town divebar in central California in 2009.
You can test drive "Did It All For U" here here.
THE CHEATIN' WIVES: post-punk country-rock
Lloyd T Hartman's alt-country outfit specializing in songs about warm beer and cold women.
You can test drive Blame It On The Whiskey here.
DEVIANT: Deviant & the Clones, GMOs, The Economy, etc.
Deviant's early bands were loose affairs with revolving members coming together to hack out Deviant's ideas. Deviant & the Clones continued sporadically while Deviant pursued fuller efforts with other bands (Six Inches, Mary, etc.), in an effort to keep new ideas coming. This lineage died out in the mid-90s, but a return to this approach came back in the 2010s with the revolving clones-like formation of Deviant & the GMOs.
Peruse a range of Deviant recordings here here.
EL DEMENTO: observational post-punk acoustic singer
Yes, it's (mostly) just Deviant doing the man-with-an-acoustic-guitar thing. This style had been lurking behind the weirdness and rock since the mid-80s, but it didn't take off on its own until 2003's Songs From A Swamp Downstate EP (most of which is included on the Just Like Yogurt retrospective, which also includes other EPs, short live sets and tracks from hard-to-find 7" vinyl records).
You can test drive the Nora 7" here.
KEN CRIMSON: pyschoprogressive eco-rock
A Long Beach Huntington/Tim Haliburton project.
Release pending
LADYSHACKLES: rebirth, redemption & recovery
A solo artist.
Release pending
LONG BEACH HUNTINGTON: outsider roots & folk rock
A solo artist, frequent collaborator, and fixture of Long Beach California's indie/DIY scene.
Test drive some of his solo songs here.
MARY: progish-alt-rock power trio from Vancouver BC
The bastard step-daughter of late-80s Vancouver alternative rock that fittingly went under in 1992 just before next-level offers started coming in. The Deviant-Jansen-Maxwell line up was an awesome live trio. A make-shift reunion occurred in 1998 around a recording session in Chicago that lead to the "Monstercock/Alone" single and Resurrection Session cassette (later released as Necromaniac).
More info on Mary is here.
NAKED & SHAMELESS: America's premiere four-piece duo
"Big" Pete Naked, Dave Shameless, and the Riverside Rhythm Section bring the good times with a side of satire. Most of the recorded work to date under the Naked & Shameless monkier occurred during the 2000s with one of the previous Nakeds (which was presented as a duo, sometimes as a trio with drummer Annie Ampersand). The original 1980s incarnation of Naked & Shameless featured Jim Naked, a beat ranter and raconteur.
Peruse and sample the available N&S catalog here.
THE NEW HEADS: garage virus gone rouge
Vancouver's self-proclaimed "most annoying band" was a local staple of shenanigans throughout the 1980s. The New Heads are a conceptual and genre-spanning outfit born of basement punk rock, electronic noodling, and musical fanboyism. These are the suburban miscreants and pranksters that brought you the DIY basement cassette release Nancy Punks and have created so many performance art appearances that it's impossible to chronicle.
Test drive their Taped Over album here.
PIMMEL: a goth leaning cure for what ales you
Deviant took a detour in the late 90s with co-conspirator Lord God Ooze (bass). With the help of Nob (synth) and Dieter the Meter (drums), Pimmel provided quirky, often broody, morsels that always tipped their hat to the band's proto-goth influences. Most of the band's career output can be found on the expanded version of Puffmutterhangetitten.
A compilation track can be found here.
DYLAN RAIHAN: a fully arranged blender of everything
A Canadian composer and mutli-instrumentalist. Hints of Esquival and Danny Elfmann, but very much his own variant, as can be gleaned from his debut release The Omnichord Variant.
Release pending
SERIOUS LONG BEACH: a sardonic duo
Long Beach Huntington and Dave Serious (aka Shameless) team up to deliver bunches of their songs in this new context.
You can test drive a demo here.
DAVE SHAMELESS: a.k.a Dave Serious
Former lounge-lizard and reprobate. Sideman. Catalyst. Architect of three incarnations of Naked & Shameless now also appearing in other capacities as Dave Serious. His first solo album Hoggin' The Covers (2004), was a strange lounge-country set of decidedly eclectic covers. He also founded the concept instrumental group Noname & Shameless playing "country & spaghetti-western".
Releases and re-issues pending.
SHARKULA: a legend from the hip-hop streets of Chicago
Every new crop of students at Chicago's Columbia College discovers the wonders of the avant-guard street-based hip-hop entrepreneur Sharkula because Sharkula works the streets. He has a diverse cult following not unlike a Kool Keith or MF Doom, but his style is uniquely his own. His recorded output is so vast it's impossible to catalog, but Atomic Mouse Recording's contribution is Dirty Caviar, recorded with iGod.
You can test drive Dirty Caviar here.
SIX INCHES / BLOODY MARY: pre-cursors to Mary
After the collapse of The Economy and Vertical Laughter, Deviant made efforts to "re-rockify the punk". Six Inches made a great stab at garage/demolition rock, expanding into the wider-berthed rock of Bloody Mary which quickly crashed an relaunched as Mary. All the studio recordings from this period are on the expanded version of Average Joes.
You can test drive Average Joes here.
URBN DK: long running punk band from Kenosha, WI
Atomic Mouse Recordings brings you two recordings made by the early-90s line up of URBN DK, Squirm and Denial, featuring Zimbabwe, Ratbone, Victor Galluzzi, and Razor X. Squirm is fun and lets you know what the band is about. Denial sounds formidable (recorded by Steve Albini).
You can test drive Denial here.
LIAM WARFIELD: a.k.a Liam Idiot
Liam is a Chicago-based writer, musician, and traveler. His world view speaks to a cross-section of his generation. A world steeped in working poverty, creative spirit, and neo-hobo wanderlust.
You can test drive some of Liam's work here.
Secular Pineapple:
Chips Ahoi!
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A Dole & Megalos noise side-project. After the first three albums, additional hands were brought in
to expand the density of sound.
Chord
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Power-ambient group from Chicago that focuses on a minimalist sound that is drone-like, yet relies heavily on compositional structures. Capable of both breathtaking rage and etherial quiet.
| webiste |
Diorama
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Collaboration between Lisa Eye and iGod combining electronics, field recordings, and spoken word.
| Bandcamp |
Phil Dole
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Phil is a busy dude. All things experimental, from ambient to noise to field
recordings to electronics to a smidge of rock. He keeps threatening to deliver
a solo album, but we haven't seen it yet... meanwhile, a chunk of his work
can be found at this bandcamp | here |
Dole & Megalos
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The ambient/ experimental duo of Phil Dole and Joe Megalos (who also moonlight together as Chips Ahoi!)
Field In Stream
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Phil Dole spearheaded this series of "Ambient Guides" that integrate field recordings
and ambient textures.
| Bandcamp |
Grand Kali-Ma
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The deep-dive ambient electrocoustic duo of Ladyshackles and Phil Dole.
| Bandcamp |
iGod
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Reclusive electronic artist and internatoinalist iGod has used his toolbox of digitalness on his solo discs, collaborations, and work for hire.
Start with his 2007 breakout album, Google Search & Destory. Other solo incarnations include Ambien T and Xronosaurus.
| website |
Joe Megalos
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Canadian knob twiddler and electronics enthusiast who showcased his lighter side
on his iGod-produced debut. He also practices darker arts in several Phil Dole collaberations.
X-Bax
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Started in 2004 by Phil Dole as a solo "frequency project" before joining the ranks of Chord, X-Bax has
continued as an avenue of sonic exploration and experimentation, spinning off many other projects. Ken "Long Beach" Huntington joined in 2015.
| facebook |
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