New additions to the store!

Posted in Latest Additions, Live Shows, Music, Official Tour Series, Original Art, Posters, Valley King Records with tags , , , , , on January 6, 2012 by Secret Serpents

Thee Oh Sees / The Fresh & Onlys NYE San Francisco – silkscreened poster by Alan Forbes

Thee Oh Sees / The Fresh & Onlys NYE San Francisco – original artwork by Alan Forbes

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We only have a handful of pre-order copies left of the new Anywhere “Infrared Moses” 7″. This is Valley King Records second release for Anywhere, which consists of Christian Eric Beaulieu (Triclops!, Liquid Indian), Cedric Bixler Zavala (The Mars Volta, At The Drive In), and Mike Watt (The Minutemen, fIREHOSE). They are joined by Toshi Kasai (Big Business) on this recording!

You can pre-order by clicking HERE!

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We are also taking orders now for the limited Valley King Records t-shirt! Pre-ordering now is the only way to guarantee your size, so don’t miss out! We will stop taking pre-orders on January 15th. Pre-orders will start shipping at the end of January. All pre-orders will come with extra shwag! Click HERE for more info!

Happy New Year from Secret Serpents!

Anywhere “Infrared Moses” limited edition 7″ pre-order information…and more!

Posted in Latest Additions, Music, Original Art, Valley King Records with tags , , , , on January 2, 2012 by Secret Serpents

Valley King Records next release will be the second single for Anywhere! This record will feature a slightly different line-up: Christian Eric Beaulieu (Triclops!, Liquid Indian), Cedric Bixler Zavala (The Mars Volta, At The Drive In), Mike Watt (The Minutemen, fIREHOSE), and Toshi Kasai (Big Business). This release, as with all Valley King Records releases, will have silkscreened packaging with art by Alan Forbes (who is widely known for his album cover art for The Black Crowes, AFI, and many others!). This will be a limited pressing of 500 copies. The last Anywhere single sold out VERY quickly, so get this one while you can!

Christian Eric Beaulieu – guitars, percussion, stylophone, melodica
Cedric Bixler Zavala – vocals, drums, percussion
Mike Watt – bass
Toshi Kasai – keys, toy piano

Format: 7″
Edition: 500 on black vinyl
Artwork: Alan Forbes
Other info: signed / numbered by Alan Forbes; exclusive vinyl sticker

If you pre-ordered their first single, Pyramid Mirrors, through us, we will try our best to send out matching numbers!

We will start taking pre-orders for the Anywhere “Infrared Moses” 7″ on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 9:00 am PSD.

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The original artwork for the Pyramid Mirrors single is available. Alan uses a brush and inkwell on bristol on all of his originals (no computers, pens, or correction fluids!), which is a lost art these days! The original artwork comes with a copy of the single on colored vinyl! Click HERE for more information! We will also be offering the original artwork for the Infrared Moses single with a copy of the record on colored vinyl when it’s available.

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We will still be taking orders for the limited Valley King Records shirts until January 15th. We are only making up to 50 of these….and all shirt pre-orders will come with extra swag! Click HERE for more information on the shirt pre-order!

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Current Valley King Records releases:
VKR701 – Sweet Apple (J Mascis and members of Witch, Cobra Verde, Guided By Voices)
VKR702 – Carlton Melton (members of Zen Guerrilla)
VKR703 – Golden Void (members of Earthless and Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound)
VKR704 – Spiders (members of Graveyard and Witchcraft)
VKR705 – Anywhere (members of Triclops!, The Mars Volta, Sleepy Sun, w/ Mike Watt) / SOLD OUT

Happy New Year from Valley King Records and Secret Serpents!</stron

Alan Forbes final poster of 2011…and more…

Posted in Latest Additions, Live Shows, Official Tour Series, Posters with tags , , , , , on December 29, 2011 by Secret Serpents

Alan Forbes final poster for 2011 is for a co-headlining New Years Eve show for San Francisco’s THEE OH SEES and THE FRESH & ONLY’S! We will have a very limited amount for sale after the show!

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We also added a few more artists edition copies (on gold metallic paper) of the 3rd tour poster for the Chris Robinson Brotherhood 2011 tour. In addition, we have added a few show edition (on off white paper) of the poster. These are the last copies of each version.

For the ARTIST EDITION, click HERE!
For the SHOW EDITION, click HERE!

Valley King Records shirt pre-order!

Posted in Latest Additions, Shirts, Valley King Records with tags , on December 27, 2011 by Secret Serpents

We will be releasing a very limited Valley King Records shirt (designed by Alan Forbes!) in January, but to guarantee your size you can pre-order yours now! Once you order, simply send an email to info@secretserpents.com with your size.

The shirts will be discharge printed on American Apparel shirts. We will only be printing up to 50…and when they’re gone, they’re gone for good!

For those in the US, you can pre-order by clicking HERE!
For those outside of the US, you can pre-order by clicking HERE!

Valley King Records releases:
VKR701 – Sweet Apple (J Mascis and members of Witch, Cobra Verde, Guided By Voices)
VKR702 – Carlton Melton (members of Zen Guerrilla)
VKR703 – Golden Void (members of Earthless and Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound)
VKR704 – Spiders (members of Graveyard and Witchcraft)
VKR705 – Anywhere (members of Triclops!, The Mars Volta, Sleepy Sun, w/ Mike Watt) / SOLD OUT

Lil Tuffy curated art show!

Posted in Original Art, Paintings, Posters with tags , , , , , , , , on December 21, 2011 by Secret Serpents

New additions to the store!

Posted in Latest Additions, Live Shows, Official Tour Series, Posters with tags , , on December 19, 2011 by Secret Serpents

All of the new additions to the store this week are extremely limited (we have less than 5 of each for sale!). Click on each image for more info!

Barbarian Group, The – NYC 2011 by Alan Forbes

Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The (Night 1) – San Francisco 2011 by Alan Forbes

Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The (Night 2) – San Francisco 2011 by Alan Forbes

Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The (Night 3) – San Francisco 2011 by Alan Forbes

Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The (Night 4) – San Francisco 2011 by Alan Forbes

Anywhere “Pyramid Mirrors” in stores!

Posted in Music, Valley King Records with tags , , , , , , , on December 17, 2011 by Secret Serpents

We are sold out of the most recent Valley King Records release, the ANYWHERE ‘Pyramid Mirrors’ EP, but there are a few stores that have them in (very limited) stock.

San Francisco:
Aquarius Records
1055 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110
tel 415.647.2272
store@aquariusrecords.org

San Diego:
Thirsty Moon Records
525 A Evans Place
San Diego, CA 92103
tel 619-542-1500
thirstymoonrecords@sbcglobal.net

ONLINE:
Midheaven Mailorder
All That Is Heavy

We also have the original artwork by Alan Forbes available that comes with a copy of the record on colored vinyl (only 50 on colored vinyl were made!). Click HERE for more info!

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Check out Aquarius Records recent review of the Pyramid Mirrors single:

Local label Valley King are on fire, after singles by local space rockers Carlton Melton, SF psych stoners Golden Void, witchy Swedish rockers Spiders and Sweet Apple, the project of Witch’s Dave Sweetapple, comes this, the debut from L.A. supergroup Anywhere, which we have to say, we were a wee bit skeptical about. Not just because of the often bandied about ‘supergroup’ tag, but also cuz it seemed like a strange hodgepodge member-wise, Cedric Bixler Zavala of The Mars Volta and At The Drive In, Christian Eric Beaulieu of the late great Triclops!, Mike Watt of the Minutemen and fIREHOSE obviously, and finally Rachel Fannan from SF dreampsych combo Sleepy Sun. Weird right? The label explains how these folks all fell in together, but even then we weren’t sure what to expect, but whatever it was, it wasn’t this, a weird sort of psychedelic rhythmic acoustic guitar driven dronerock, laced with electronics, and tabla like percussion, a bit proggy and druggy and dreamy, the A side plays out like the first movement of an epic sidelong prog masterpiece, the guitars lush and shimmery, those tabla sound rhythms often run through glitched out effects, the melodies majestic and soaring, some classic sixties psych guitar laid over the top, it’s a shame it ends after only 5 minutes, when we had been plotting out the rest of the imagined song in our heads. Needless to say, it was a hugely pleasant surprise and had us hankering for more.

The B side adds vocals to the mix, Fannan’s hazy stoned croon, perfectly complimented by the warm, whirling acoustic strum and toy xylophone like percussion, the song ebbing and flowing in soft swells, even more than the first side, sounding like some lost sixties band, all Laurel Canyon, witchy folk flecked psychedelic classic rock, brooding and moody and darkly dreamy. Gorgeous stuff for sure, and here’s hoping they can manage a full length!

LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Already sold out, we have the last 20 copies, and then this is gone for good. Like the other Valley King releases, super swank sleeves with striking cover art by artist Alan Forbes, signed and numbered, includes a sticker as well.

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood / SF sets available tomorrow

Posted in Official Tour Series, Posters with tags , , , on December 15, 2011 by Secret Serpents

We will be releasing 10 4-poster sets of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood / San Francisco 2011 posters tomorrow (Friday, December 16th) at 9:00 AM PST via the Secret Serpents webstore. They will only be available in matched numbered sets. If there are any unsold sets, individual posters will be available on Monday, December 19th at 9:00 AM PST. Once these are sold, they will be sold out for good (it is an extremely limited edition of posters). There will be a one-per customer limit on the sets.

Scratch & Dent sale and a few new additions!

Posted in Latest Additions, Live Shows, Official Tour Series, Posters with tags , , , , , , on December 13, 2011 by Secret Serpents

We have a limited amount of scratch and dent tubes available! All tubes will contain at least 4 posters, but most will contain more (really, all will have as many as we can fit into a 3″ tube!). Some posters were just display copies from art shows and concerts, some were ‘handled’ by the post office, but none will be torn or obliterated. Perfect for taping or tacking up! We have out of print S&D posters for the Black Crowes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Mars Volta, and more…some band signed copies as well!

We will take requests for genres of music, but can’t take requests for specific posters, artists, or bands. After ordering, simply email: store@secretserpents.com with your genre requests.

Click HERE for more info!

A few new additions to the store:
Mastodon – Washington DC 2011 by Malleus

Swans – Milwaukee 2011 by Alan Hynes

Valley King Records: Anywhere

Posted in Music, Valley King Records with tags , , , , , , , , , , on December 12, 2011 by Secret Serpents

Anywhere began as a LA/SF collaborative project started by musicians Christian Eric Beaulieu and Cedric Bixler Zavala. Fresh off years of writing and touring as co-founder of Bay Area acid punk extremists Triclops!, Christian decided to immerse himself in the resonant universe of acoustic guitar and began performing solo under the moniker Liquid Indian. In early 2010 while in Los Angeles to perform at an art opening of mutual friend artist Sonny Kay, he befriended Cedric (singer of The Mars Volta) who was DJing  the event. The two exchanged numbers and planned to record something acoustic rooted in the open tuning, eastern raga style Christian was delving into. Months later the pair met in Los Angeles, enlisted the mobile engineering talent of Toshi Kasai (Big Business) and tracked an album’s worth of material in 2 days at The Melvins practice space in downtown Los Angeles. During that same visit Christian played live on “The Watt from Pedro Show” as the musical guest of Mike Watt (of The Stooges, fIREHOSE, Minutemen). After the show, before leaving San Pedro, Christian realized they needed bass on the new material, and boldly asked Watt if he’d contribute. Watt agreed immediately, and a few months later delivered the entire projects bass tracks. Returning to San Francisco, Christian decided to reach out to vocalist Rachel Fannan, who had recently parted ways with Bay Area psych rockers Sleepy Sun and had relocated to Los Angeles. Having never met Christian before, Rachel generously contributed vocals to two of the songs, while Cedric added vocals to three of the tracks leaving the rest to exist as instrumentals.

While searching for a label to release the album, Christian solicited the talent of SF psychedelic poster artist Alan Forbes. During a meeting to discuss art concepts, Alan revealed that he, along with his Secret Serpents partner Justin McNeal, had started a label called Valley King Records. They agreed to release the debut Anywhere album as a series of limited edition silk screened cover 7″s, all signed and hand numbered by Forbes.

The music captured on this material is a unique, resonant execution of what could be described as eastern acoustic punk. Likened to the voyeurism of Sandy Bull, Sir Richard Bishop, or Jack Rose style raga’s reinterpreted at times with Drive Like Jehu, Minutemen punk energy, other moments emotionally spiraling toward a haunting ethereal beauty akin to Vashti Bunyan or Grace Slick serenading desert ghosts on a lost Herzog soundtrack. Blending acoustic and minimal electric guitars with a multitude of percussion instrumentation, digital tabla machines, sci fi electronics and feedback, this avant garde collective of envelope pushing splatter artists have created a new presence. Modern mantras of electric silence that fuse consciousness into a recording of vibrant, transitional material  blending geographic as well as cultural diversity within the rhythms. Stillness amidst chaos, light below the depths, awareness of life turning into music, living inside the search for the sound.

 

 

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