Empty Cellar Records | Artists
Select Artist:
The Cairo Gang
The Cairo Gang was created in America. It has been acting as an operative for various organizations throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. The Cairo Gang will do what needs to be done, and by whatever means necessary, for the betterment of the environs that which they are called upon to fix, to rearrange, nurture or dismantle, employing the skills and practices obtained through several years of full immersion training from esteemed masters and teachers, who, with respect to their anonymity, shall remain nameless. Though they have been active for just over a decade, they have kept their presence next to invisible.
In the year 2006 they conducted a series of performances in the UK alongside the San Francisco entity known at the time as OCS. This occurred just before their debut release of recordings entitled The Cairo Gang in the same year by the defunct New York City label Narnack. In the fall of 2008 they went on their second outing, this time throughout California, alongside Chicago's Pillars and Tongues. This was in order to scatter copies of The Cairo Gang's second record entitled 'Twyxt Wyrd released in the same year by The Disneyland Reform Party. This record was a marked shift in The Cairo Gang, as it went from more of a scattered survey of differing styles and approaches, to a more unified sound. This record has plans to be re-issued in the winter of 2010 by UK label The Blackest Rainbow on a limited edition 12 inch record. The forthcoming EP entitled Holy Clover, which is a joint release by San Francisco's Empty Cellar and UK's Tin Angel(winter 2010), is yet another departure from previous works on account of its usage of cloning in order to preserve the singular vision of the subject in each tune. its suggested that it be played extremely loud on a preferably low quality hi-fi system so as to allow it to crack through the very mechanism of its transmission. It will preempt a third tour, this time in Ireland and UK in support of Baby Dee which will begin in late February. The Cairo Gang finds itself living in scattered corners of the world as it is in perpetual search for something it has yet to have found....
"One can’t help but feel that [Emmett] Kelly is a man with two great loves that he’s trying to reconcile: order and chaos, two contradictory forces that have fueled many of the greatest moments in pop. Other musicians have managed a balance in the past, but Kelly is admirably attempting to find some new ground."
-- Tiny Mix Tapes
"Kelly is a truly gifted writer, an old soul trapped in a [young] body that seems to be writing beyond his years."
-- Chicago Innerview
Myspace: The Cairo Gang
Discography:
2010 The Cairo Gang - Holy Clover 7" EP + Download [Empty Cellar (EMP005)]
2010 Various Artists - Joan of Arc Presents: Don't Mind Control, CD/LP [Polyvinyl (PRC191)]
2008 The Cairo Gang - Twyxt Wyrd [Disneyland Reform Party]
2007 Various - 13 Weeks of Summer [Attack Nine (ATTDD001)]
2006 Various - Presence Under The Tree [Attack Nine (ATTCD013)]
2006 The Cairo Gang - Self Titled [Narnack (NCK7038)]
The Dry Spells
Inspired to write their first song about the local tragedy of a 9 year old girl accidentally killed by a hunter while out
collecting leaves, three students at Bard College - Tahlia Harbour (vocals and guitar), April Hayley (vocals and violin), and Caitlin Pearce (drums) -
formed the Dry Spells in 2002. Classically trained violinist, Adria Otte, became an invaluable addition to the band soon after on guitar. In short time,
the four-piece began work on compositions that incorporated rapturous harmonies, mournful violin, and driving/intense guitar riffs
in a unique musical blend that garnered comparisons to artists such as Judee Sill, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac, and The Incredible String Band.
Drawing from traditional folk ballads of lost loves, unimaginable sorrows, and nostalgia for a forgotten past, the Dry Spells gradually assembled a
stunning collection of gothic melodies.
Following their graduation, The Dry Spells relocated to San Francisco, where fellow Bard grad, Ezra Feinberg, went on to recruit Harbour, Otte, and Hayley
to be a part of his then-fledgling project, Citay. This foray did not, however, put a damper on the Dry Spells,
and the ocean view from their new sunroom practice space, the neighboring urban forest of Golden Gate Park, and the addition of bassist Diego Gonzalez
(SubArachnoid Space, Citay,
3 Leafs) inspired a musical re-invigoration for the band. Like Citay, the now five-piece found their place
balancing an acoustic "traditional" approach with elements of world music and heavy rock. They played several Bay-Area shows, sharing bills with friends
like Vetiver, Entrance, Papercuts, Thao Nguyen, The Botticellis, Bart Davenport, and Black Fiction, and went on to record their debut Self-Titled and
self-released EP at Louder Studios with Tim Green (Fucking Champs). Soon after its release, Caitlin
departed the band for grad school, and a rotating cast of all-star drummers have kept her seat warm ever since. Meanwhile, Tahlia found time to join SF
Mission mainstay Sonny Smith in his new outfit, Sonny and the Sunsets, and the limited run EP took
on a life of its own. Soon, the band was signed to Antenna Farm Records, and back at Louder to record their debut LP, Too Soon For Flowers.
"It’s the kind of music that really gets under your skin; so full of sweet harmonies and intensely layered echoey vocals...
The Dry Spells paint truly ethereal dreamscapes with their enigmatic compositions, immersing the listener in a fairytale,
an enchanted forest of hypnotic folk music. By the disc’s end, you will be wandering down the path to a happily ever after of your own."
-- Wiretap Music
Myspace: The Dry Spells
Discography:
2009 The Dry Spells - Too Soon For Flowers, LP + Download [EMP003 / ANT529]
2007 The Dry Spells - Self Titled E.P. [Self Released]
Joseph Childress
Singer-songwriter Joseph Childress started writing and playing music in the mountains of Teller County, Colorado when he was 14 years old. Five years
later – inspired by Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound For Glory – he strapped his guitar, Mama, to his back and hopped a freight
train to see the country. Dubbed a "perennial vagabond" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Joseph traveled and toured for two years,
hopping trains and living in a van. His wanderings were punctuated only so he could play music, work ranch on the plains of Niobrara County, Wyoming,
and rest his head in San Francisco, where he eventually settled down. All the while, his heavily circulated self-released CDr, known to fans as
"the Rebirths", was inspiring devoted listeners in all corners of the country.
Joseph’s music draws inspiration from the mountains in which he was raised, the ranch on which he worked, his friends, family, and loves.
Compared to Jackson C. Frank, Devendra Banhart, and Bob Dylan (his biggest influence), his emotionally charged voice carries stories of love & travels over
guitar playing that ranges from sweet finger picking to furious strumming. He has played shows across the western United States with numerous
acts including Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Richard Buckner, Vetiver, Lavender Diamond, Entrance, David Dondero, Diane Cluck,
Kind Of Like Spitting, and many more… and has toured with lovely acts including the Love Letter Band (Bad Weather California), Mariee Sioux,
Messes, and Randazzo Robinson.
"Joseph Childress fleshes out his music and meaning in his songs
with his vocals better than any myriad of instruments or backing musicians ever could. The type of voice that rattles your bones when
you’re sitting two rows back, where you can’t wipe that smile off your face as you think how long you’ve waited to hear an artist that
truly inspires you to pay attention to nothing else but their performance."
-- Naturalismo
Myspace: Joseph Childress
Discography:
2007/2009 Joseph Childress / White White Quilt - Split (Water Tower) 7" + Download [EMP7001 / TAO7001]
2007 Strangers Die Everyday / Joseph Childress - Split 7" [Ash From Sweat #17]
2005 Joseph Childress - Untitled ("The Rebirths") CDr [Self Released]
Pillars & Tongues
Pillars and Tongues is a trio based in Chicago, IL, whose musical pursuits seem to defy genre categorization.
The ongoing result of these pursuits has been called, variously, "holy" and "sexy" and it may well be the tension between
these two concepts which lights the fire under (over?) Pillars and Tongues. Think on those things which are so beautiful they become obscene.
Speaking literally, the trio makes extended use of the human voice, violin, double bass, drums, bells and organs.
The music is perhaps distinctly American in both its affair with American forms and its refusal to adhere to them at all.
In the past two years, the group has released a handful of limited recordings on several American boutique labels, as
well as a more extensive release with Chicago's Contraphonic label. Additionally, their unique style has been tapped via:
a stint supporting Bonnie 'Prince' Billy throughout Canada and the west coast; prominent participation in the last two records
by Joan of Arc; and a variety of performances with the likes of The Cairo Gang, Dirty Three, Daniel Higgs, Sir Richard Bishop,
and many others. Pillars and Tongues has performed over 250 concerts in the past two years, touring extensively throughout
the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
"After listening through Pillars and Tongues' Protection, the listener may be left with the feeling of having attended a new
style, post-religion Mass with liturgical forms composed by Tom Waits, John Fahey and Arvo Part. Old rituals are transformed
and making art replaces the act of prayer. [. . .] The investment of time is essential in creating the atmosphere/effect produced
by this music. Pillars And Tongues are acutely aware of how time affects perception."
-- John Dworkin, All About Jazz
"Pillars and Tongues cite Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, W.G. Sebald, and Interstate 25 among their
primary influences. It's an eclectic list, but one indicative of the furrowed contemplation and entrancing horizon lines conjured
by these Chicago experimentalists."
-- Max Goldberg, the San Francisco Bay Guardian
Myspace: Pillars & Tongues
Discography:
2010 Pillars and Tongues - Lay of Pilgrim Park, LP + Download [EMP006]
2010 Various Artists - Joan of Arc Presents: Don't Mind Control, CD/LP [Polyvinyl (PRC191)]
2009 Pillars & Tongues - 'Made Sheen', CDR - [Self-Released (50 copies)]
2009 Pillars & Tongues - 'Of the Miracle', CDR - [Self-Released (70 copies)]
2009 Pillars & Tongues - 'Great / Most secret', CDR - [Self-Released (50 copies)]
2009 Pillars & Tongues - Untitled (Autumn 2009 recordings), CDR - [Self-Released]
2008 Pillars & Tongues - My Joys Are Greater Than Ever They Have Been, Cassette [Featherspines 14 (100 Copies)]
2007/2008 Pillars & Tongues - Protection, CD [Self-Released / Contraphonic (CON047)]*
2007/2008 Pillars & Tonuges - Sacred Architecture, CDR - [Self-Released / The Lotus Sound (TLS-HM 06)]*
2007 Various - Jardim Elétrico: a Tribute to Os Mutantes, CD [Madcap Collective (MDCP054)]
2006 Pillars & Tongues - Demonstrations, CDR [Self-Released]*
*Two different issues of this release exist with different track listings
The Sandwitches
Our favorite twisted old-timey garage trio, The Sandwitches, formed in 2008 after songwriters Grace Cooper &
Heidi Alexander developed a strong musical friendship, while serving in the trenches as backup singers in the Fresh & Onlys. Shortly after, they were joined by their friend
Roxy Brodeur of Pillars of Silence on drums, with whom they recorded their debut LP, How to Make Ambient Sadcake
(Turn Up! Records). Roxy has since moved on, and Lance Kramer from Beat Cops has assumed the drum roll.
The Sandwitches' sound is a bitter-sweet batter of old-time americana, 60's garage, soul and country. Imagine if the Shangri-las got together with Loretta Lynn, or better yet... the Carter Family, to sing
on lost PJ Harvey songs performed by the Monks. Their delivery is heartfelt, honest, and at times achingly ach-ey, and despite the vast and diverse musical terrain they chose to tread,
they never break the spell. Each refrain/beat/note is part of a greater cohesive work of damaged songs for wounded hearts, even if it landed there by mistake.
"Imagine a 60's Girl-group is on tour and their van breaks down near a gothic castle high on the hill, Dario Argento invites them in to perform a concert
for his tweaked actors in a big dark red room inside and, if the dream is right, it’s the Sandwitches - they'd fit right in with those misfits and speak
the same language. I'd like to be there to dance. Close your eyes and you'll see what I mean. These are fab, haunting tunes wrapped in tender weird pop.
That's what we got here. A heavy party you want to hang out at."
-- Kelley Stoltz
"There is also something so honest and sincere about their delivery that you get the feeling they would play these songs with as much conviction and emotion in their
living room filled with a few friends as much as they would on stage at a packed venue."
-- Aquarius Records
Myspace: The Sandwitches
Discography:
2010 Various Artists - In A Cloud: New Sounds from San Francisco, LP [Secret Seven (SEC-7-005)]
2009 The Sandwitches - Back To The Sea, 7" [South Paw]
2009 The Sandwitches - How To Make Ambient Sadcake, LP [TurnUp! 001]
Sonny Smith
Sonny Smith is a native of San Francisco, but it wasn't until he moved to Gunnison, Colorado that he got
started with music. Smith began playing blues piano in little mountain town clubs of Colorado when he was 18. These piano gigs led him to Denver and
then into Central America where he worked on an Organic Farm and busked up and down the Telemanca Coast. At this time, smith began working on screenplays
and short stories, which ultimately broke apart into long winded songs with characters and dialogues and plots.
In 1996 Sonny Smith returned to San Francisco, where he once again found work as a blues pianist, but before long Smith abandoned the piano and began
performing his own unique long-form story songs on guitar. Sonny’s early albums include This Is My Story, This Is My Song, released in 2002,
followed the next year by Sordid Tales of Love and Woe, Sweet Lorraine featuring Jolie Holland on harmonies. In 2005, Watchword Literary Magazine
commissioned Sonny to produce One Act Plays, a CD that includes Edith Frost, Neko Case, Miranda July, Jolie Holland, Andy Cabic, Virgil Shaw, Mark
Eitzel, John Dwyer and Mekons’ Rico Bell, among other talented artists. Following this was the release of Fruitvale, a collaboration with Wilco’s
Leroy Bach and other Chicago musicians that features songs Sonny wrote about his then neighborhood in Oakland. In 2006 Smith toured the Southwest as the
opening act for Neko Case. Notably, the tour featured Emmett Kelly of the
Cairo Gang on drums. In 2007 Sonny formed his most recent outfit, Sonny & The Sunsets, with the help of friends Shayde
Sartin & Tim Cohen of the Fresh & Onlys, Thalia Harbour of
The Dry Spells, and Kelley Stoltz. Since then, The Sunsets have seen a cast of players pass through the ranks, but Smith's voice, snakey guitar and
one-of-a-kind songs remain at the fore. The band recorded their debut LP, Tomorrow is Alright (2009 Secret Seven / Soft Abuse),
in various apartments in the Mission District in 2007 and 2008.
Song writing and making records, however, have only been one small part of Smith's voluminous creative output. He has written multiple plays, short
stories, screenplays, and columns for a variety of publications and literary magazines (see his website for a
complete list). In 2005, this work garnered him a residency at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts to write
and perform the play "The Dangerous Stranger", which was followed by a residency in 2006 from the LAB in San Francisco
to produce part two of the saga, “Stranger Danger!".
On the first day of his residency at the Marin Headlands, Sonny cheated death in a near-drowning at
Fort Cronkite. This event forever affected his psyche and has since inspired many songs,
a play, and a novel Adelard The Drowned, which broke up after the first draft into a bunch of character sketches. Those sketches have formed the
basis of his "100 records" project - for which he returned with another residency to the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2009 - in which 100 artists
create 7” record covers of fictional bands that he supplies the music for. The show debuts for a five week run at Gallery 16 in San Francisco in April
2010. The first official installment of this series will be released by Empty Cellar Records this winter.
"Smith's songwriting has the ability to carry the listener into another world"
-- Juneau Empire
"With Sonny there's no telling whether the joke's on him or the joke's on you, tongues are poked firmly in cheek while at the same time being so
confessionally honest that it catches you off guard. Johnathan Richman and Brian Wilson clasp hands and stumble down hillsides to laugh in the sun and
cry in the shade and somehow main Sunsetter Sonny Smith pulls it all off with the charm and conviction of a wizened soul shaking his head at those young
bucks that'll never listen and hardly learn."
-- Raven Sings the Blues
Website:Sonny Smith
Myspace: Sonny & the Sunsets
Discography:
2010 Various Artists - In A Cloud: New Sounds from San Francisco, LP [Secret Seven (SEC-7-005)]
2009 Sonny & The Sunsets - Tomorrow is Alright LP [Soft Abuse / Secret Seven]
2009 Sonny & The Sunsets - Broom & Dustpan 7" [Home Skillet]
2009 Sonny & The Sunsets - Love & Death 7" + comic book [Soft Abuse]
2006 Sonny Smith - Fruitvale CD [Bellesound]
2005 Sonny Smith - One Act Plays CD [Self Released]
2003 Sonny Smith - Sordid Tales of Love and Woe CD [Self Released]
2002 Sonny Smith - This is My Story, This is My Song CD [Jackpine Social Club]
Tim Cohen
To say that there are "Two Sides" to Tim Cohen is to make a serious understatement. Tim Cohen - known to some as Feller Quentin or Smif Carnivorous - is one of the
most prolific and enigmatic music makers in San Francisco today. He is best known as the lead singer and co-songwriter for the
The Fresh & Onlys and the frontman for Black Fiction,
but his creative output reaches far beyond those involvements. His many sides extend to freestyling and making beats for the bi-coastal Hip-Hop group
The Forest Fires Collective or
his previous Hip-Hop duo The Latter,
backing Damo Suzuki of CAN in San Francisco's premier psych-improv outfit 3 Leafs , laying down hypnotic
riffs under his Black Metal alias Amocoma, or weaving together his musical worlds in the
Window Twins.
A short history... Born and raised in Virginia, Tim listened to Hip-Hop almost exclusively until he was 18. After college, he moved to San Francisco
where he grew increasingly involved with local musicians and released albums with bassist Evan Martin and several others under the names Hattattack and
Feller Quentin. Feller Quentin
disolved and evolved into the genre-defying band Black Fiction for the 2005 Mission Creek Music Festival in San Francisco.
With Cohen at the helm, Evan on bass, and the addition of Jon Bernson (Drums), Jason Chavez (Synth), Joe Roberts (keyboards), and Anthony Marin (percussion),
Black Fiction became instantly popular. Their debut album Ghost Ride was released on
Howell's Transmitter in 2006, and the band went on to share bills with groups such as Akron/Family,
Dirty Projectors, Dengue Fever, Magnolia Electric Co., and the Mother Hips. Unfortunately, after three short years and only one album,
Black Fiction was laid to rest. The untimely end of the band did not, however, put a damper on
Tim's song writing. He exploded with songs, writing and recording hundreds up in a tower - known as "the Belfry" or "the Treehouse" - at his mysterious window-walled
San Francisco home. It is as if he was trying to give R. Stevie Moore (one of his many major influences) a run for his money. At this time Cohen joined forces
with bassist Shadye Sartin to form the incredibly prolific and much lauded The Fresh & Onlys.
In their first year alone, The Fresh & Onlys - including some blend of Wymond Miles
(guitar), Heidi Alexander and Grace Cooper of the Sandwitches (backup vocals), and a myriad of
drummers - released two LPs, two 45's, and two cassettes, and they are showing no signs of slowing down.
Cohen is like a sponge... constantly drawing on a myriad of influences, absorbing all the music he hears, pulling songs out of the air left and right,
and wringing them out over his 8-Track Tascam 388. He has been called a "visionary artist"
and compared to several songwriting giants including Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, Syd Barrett, Skip Spence, and Paul McCartney, and to a few of his contemporaries
including Ariel Pink, Panda Bear, Little Wings, and Devendra Banhart. Despite the comparisons, everything Tim does bears the Feller Quentin signature touch - a
propensity for writing about otherworldly matters, a mixing of haunted mysticism with matters of the heart, and a bittersweet delivery from an inimitable voice that
can shift unexpectedly from sweet falsetto to skewed baritone. Empty Cellar & Secret Seven Records were
fortunate enough to be able to release the first album under his own name The Two Sides of Tim Cohen (2009) which was written and recorded between the end of
Black Fiction and the start of the Fresh & Onlys. In the meantime, The Fresh & Onlys have been spreading their
eerie psychedelic garage vigor across the globe like a disease (of the good variety), stopping occasionally to back 70's psych/soul/folk legend Rodriguez.
"Like current toast-of-the-coast retro-pop deconstructionist
Ariel Pink, he's the unstable product of a wide range of perenially fashionable influences (Brian Wilson, '70s
R&B, primitive synth pop). But he's too thoughtful, disciplined and broad-minded in his assimilation to be
reduced to his quirks."
-- Dusted Magazine
Myspace: Tim Cohen
Discography:
2010 Various Artists - In A Cloud: New Sounds from San Francisco, LP [Secret Seven (SEC-7-005)]
2010 Tim Cohen - Laugh Tracks, CD/LP [Captured Tracks]
2009 TIm Cohen - The Two Sides of Time Cohen, LP + Download [EMP002 / SEC-7-002]
The White White Quilt
Conceived in 2005, out of a long-time friendship between Martin Salata and Alexander James, the White White Quilt made blues-tinged psychedelic folk with an epic feel
shrouded in an opiate haze - imagine a sedated Dr. John.
Stitched up in a quilt of guitar, rhodes bass piano, sub bass, tender vocals, and two drummer percussion, the Quilt's songs unfold with an easy calm similar to that found on
J.J. Cale, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power, and acoustic Grateful Dead records. The band played several shows throughout California including the Arthur Magazine sponsored
"Hypnorituals & Mesmemusical Miracles Hanging In The Sky: 5 Nights of Soleros & Bandoleros" festival curated by Devendra Banhart, & shared
the stage with many great artists such as Jana Hunter, Entrance, Feathers, & Joseph Childress. Martin & Alex parted ways musically
shortly after our intimate session with them in the water tower, but continue to make music under the band names Like Circles & The Quilt, respectively.
“Some bands project feelings through their music that you can sense without ever seeing them live.
The members of San Francisco's White White Quilt radiate a sense of ease and something that
would almost be aloof but stops just short and comes off as intelligence with out pretense.”
-- Raven Sings the Blues
Myspace: Like Circles (Martin Salata)
Myspace: The Quilt (Alexander James)
Discography:
2009 Joseph Childress / White White Quilt - Split (Water Tower) 7" + Download [EMP7001 / TAO7001]
2006 White White Quilt - Self Titled E.P. [Self Released]