Two day sale today and tomorrow, 11/27-11/28, get 20% off your your order of $25 or more in the Dionysus Records Mail Order Cart, before shipping!

Click here to access the cart  use this code for your discount – 20OffDionysus2015

The Martini Kings only vinyl album, Palm Springs Serenade  has been repressed on transparent red 180 gram vinyl! This will be the final run of this album, once these 500 LPs are gone the title will be deleted so grab now!

Purchase from Dionysus Mail Order at this link

Palm Springs Serenade is a vinyl compilation of the group’s favorite tracks from numerous The Martini Kings CDs, and features a guest appearance by Buddy Greco. The cover is illustrated by SHAG, with liner notes by Cocktail Nation’s Koop Kooper, printed on a thick, old-style LP jacket called “tip-on” which consists of slicks glued on board.  The LP was cut on a vintage Scully lathe using a classic Westrex 3D cutter head. The album is packaged in a poly sleeve and includes a free digital download code. The first pressings of this LP were 400 black 180 gram vinyl and 100 clear vinyl.

The Martini Kings will be performing at Don the Beachcomber on Friday, November 7 with the Hukilau Hot Shots and DJ Senior Amor!

Last year when moving the Dionysus Records office I found a few boxes of empty Dukes of Hamburg LP covers. Shortly after, our old pal, Dukes of Hamburg’s  Thilo Pieper reconnected with Dionysus, giving us news that there are now two reformed Dukes, in the US and Germany, and sending over some new recordings of his version of the  group based in Bielefeld, Germany. We agreed to do a new LP and run enough LPs to fill the empty jackets for both Bad Side of July (Dukes of Earl) (around 300 copies) and Twist-Time im Star-Club Hamburg (around 400 copies) LPs. Both are available via Dionysus Records Mail Order (follow the above links)  as well as select shops and internet mail order companies… you can only get them on vinyl as there are no CD or download versions of either! The represses also have different label designs than the originals, courtesy of Thilo!

The new Dukes of Hamburg release Liverpool Beat on Dionysus will be out soon, we’ll let you know when it’s just about ready to ship!

Dionysus Records welcomes  Jimmy Vargas & The Black Dahlias!

Jimmy Vargas is a racketeer and crooner, reincarnated from the twilight side of Los Angeles’ sin alley circa 1947. Lilana is a sorceress and exotique from the Mission Dolores San Francisco by way of Buenos Aires Argentina.

Brought together in the Broadway dancehall on North Beach by the Black Pope of the Bay City on the eve of the Dias De Los Muertos 1992, Vargas and Lilana’s relationship forged over several lifetimes. Vargas venerates her as his Shadow Bride. She vaunts him as her swinging Galahad, Gnostic crooner, and carney wise-cracker. Liliana alone tempers and guides the melodies, visions and words that come from Vargas’ hands. Her sexotique DNA alone seeds Jimmy Vargas & the Black Dahlia’s canon.

Jimmy Vargas & The Black Dahlias have created seven albums; the first, El Torchtura, was released in 1994 and set the template with its’ melancholic jazz swing, torch and Lynchian soundtrack. Six more sassy, satanic, swing noir episodes have followed, tempered all by Liliana’s essence and mystic influence. Liliana’s iconic holy image is embossed on each of their records and DVDs, as a haunting talisman.

Dionysus Records now stocks several Jimmy Vargas releases in our mail-order cart and will soon be releasing Digital versions of each album. Keep your eyes open for a new Vargas & Dahlias CD/Digital release and a vinyl LP in 2013! Click this link to order all four releases in-stock:

Death Swings’ (Album I & II)
Lust Angeles (Album VII)
My Shadow Bride Ghosting
Requiem For My Shadow

Their new disc, Lust Angeles, is now unleashed just in time for the zeitgeist. It’s a vintage and futuristic soundtrack for the new metaphysical soul shift. Fleshed in satanic hosiery and divined in a Gnostic spirit, these are urban hymns for the unsaved sons and daughters of Eve and features nine more tracks of lupercalian blues, scorching mambo and torch that one would imagine blasting out of a Hollywood pleasure house jukebox of 1948.

Dionysus Records proudly announces two vinyl LP releases for May of 2012: Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited “Plays Lost TV Themes” and The Creatures of the Golden Dawn “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was The Ground”

Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited “Plays Lost TV Themes” with free digital coupon – Dionysus Records ID123390 – click here to purchase

Out of print as an LP for over 15 years, Stereophonic Space Sound Unlmited’s debut platter, “Plays Lost TV Themes”, was originally released on Dr. Dream records on both LP and CD in 1997. When Dr. Dream folded operations a couple of years later, Dionysus Records reissued the CD, but not the LP version of this album.

Even with six full-length albums (including a soundtrack for a movie about Swiss racecar driver Jo Siffert) under their belt, not much is known about this mysterious Swiss electronica duo – not one SSSU photograph exists! But that hasn’t stopped them from garnering a legion of fans who love all retro, surf, spy, Henry Mancini, John Barry and electronica from buying and loving the group’s music.

The album jacket was designed by artist SHAG before he became famous. The LP was cut at HRS (History of Recorded Sound) on a vintage Scully lathe using a Westrex 2-B stereo cutting head. And – this LP has what is called an eccentric shut-off groove; when the album ends, the tonearm is lead to an off-center circle groove (harmless to the stylus) that swings the tonearm back and forth – this was a feature that was common on 78s and pre-1961 albums – it was used to kick in the shutoff or changer mechanisms. Dionysus had HRS cut the record this way because they are record geeks and wanted to take the retro thing a step further…

The Creatures of the Golden Dawn “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” with digital coupon, edition of 500 on gold vinyl – ID1233147 – click here to purchase

Arriving after the ’80s garage/psych revival – Bethlehem’s The Creatures of the Golden Dawn came on the scene with a lot more attitude then similar-minded combos. Lead by vocalist Mark Smith – their knife-sharp punky garage-meets-the-early-days-of-psychedelia tunes were filled with hooky riffs and always shadowed by varying degrees of darkness. The Creatures amassed a cult following in the states and Europe, and were played heavily on Little Steven’s Underground Garage syndicated radio show.

“Dark Was The Night…Cold Was The Ground” is a collection of what Mark Smith felt were the group’s best recorded efforts and includes tracks from their CD releases as well as their 7″ EPs. Though test pressings for the album were in Mark’s possession, Huntington’s Disease took his life before the LP was finalized. Thanks to the help of Mark’s brother Gregg and former Creatures of the Golden Dawn guitarist Steven Schlack, work on the record continued, was approved and set for release.

From the LP liner notes: Born of angst and attitude, The Creatures of the Golden Dawn bring forth a collection of songs compelling you to get up and get to action!  Savage rhythms, angry guitars and vocals filled with rage and emotion will set your souls, hearts and minds on fire!   This is the music that has brought teenagers around the globe to the edge of mania!  So get ready to GO with the primitive beat of The Creatures of the Golden Dawn!

Kenneth Anger and Brian Butler’s Technicolor Skull perform MOCA 11/19 for ICONS opening and release debut vinyl

Technicolor Skull performs their first West Coast appearance at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles on November 19, 2011, as part of the opening reception for Kenneth Anger: ICONS. This exhibition will showcase the films, books, and artwork of one of the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of post-war American cinema. This coincides with the release of Technicolor Skull’s self-titled recorded debut, a one-sided, bloodred 180 gram 12″ vinyl LP limited to 666 copies. The record will be avalible from the MOCA gift shop, technicolorskull.com and there will be a few copies avalible in the Dionysus Records shopping cart.

Technicolor Skull, a multimedia collaboration featuring Kenneth Anger on Theremin and Los Angeles artist Brian Butler on guitar and electronic instruments, will perform for the first time in Los Angeles at the exhibition opening on November 19. Technicolor Skull is a magick ritual of light and sound in the context of a live performance. The project premiered at Donaufestival in Austria, in April 2008, and has subsequently toured throughout Europe, performing at the National Museum of Art, Copenhagen, and the Serralves Museum, Portugal, and recently at the Hiro Ballroom, New York, for the Anthology Film Archives benefit.

Kenneth Anger “ICONS“