Carrot Top Records is an eclectic independent record label in Chicago releasing music in a variety of styles including pop, alternative country, jazz, electronica & folk.
Antietam
Long, LONG awaited new album from long time Lousiville/NYC rockers shows them as energetic as ever with a sharpened focus on melody on their seventh LP. Produced by Tara Jane O’Neil. “Tara Key is the feeling person’s guitar hero – capable of tearing fist-sized chunks from your soul with every
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Flying just below the radar for more than 20 years, but always making uncompromising music and maintaining a deeply devoted fan base throughout the world, Antietam play raw rock and roll that is nearly impossible to define.
Antietam was born from the ashes of Louisville, Kentucky’s original ....
Archer Prewitt
Debut solo album from Coctails, Sea and Cake, Sam Prekop band member. A pop
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Elegant pop rock from ex-Coctail, current Sea & Cake member and Sam Prekop sideman. While “White Sky” continues in the same vein as “In The Sun”, it is most undoubtedly the work of a more mature, more focused, reflective and confident singer, songwriter, musician and arranger. The album moves from
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8 song minialbum (27min) recorded in an old, haunted nunnery on the beach in Australia in 1999. Simple, delicate & windswept music that mirrors the recording environment that even captured the thrum of insects & wind and ocean noise in the background. Incl. 4 wonderful Aussie musicians plus strings
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Bitter Tears
"""...thank God for the creative, uber-feisty cabaret edge on this [Bitter Tears] local band's country-fried rock 'n' roll.""—Chicago Tribune
The Bitter Tears have staked their reputation on a sometimes lewd and entertaining theatrical live show, always heavy on spectacle. With their ....
David Greenberger
David Greenberger & Terry Adams
Comprised of two, one hour performances by creator David Greenberger from a short series commissioned by & presented at St. Ann’s in Brooklyn Heights, New York in 1994, and broadcast on WNYC, New York Public Radio. Longtime friend, supporter & collaborator ....
KatJonBand
Jon Langford of The Mekons and Kat Ex of The Ex share a history outside their duo, KatJonBand. Both members of the 70s punk-rock squad, each faced their share of successes and failure in two of the biggest bands to emerge from the scene. Through a series of mishaps and shared friends, Jon and Kat
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Megan Reilly
One of Harp Magazine's Top Nine Emerging Songwriters: "There's nothing astonishing in her background to suggest she would be destined for the greatness of ner debut album, 'Arc of Tessa'...Incredible musical potential." New York by way of Memphis singer/songwriter who has managed to corral a
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Second album from NY via Memphis singer/songwriter maintains the sense of understated elegance that was apparent on her debut "Arc of Tessa" but leaps light years ahead in melody, musicianship & craftsmanship, outstripping normal expectations for sophomore albums. Her band of aces, TONY MAIMONE
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After a five year wait, the enigmatic Megan Reilly returns from our last ghostly encounter with her captivating music to present us with a new album that holds a creative leap born of great, unexpected personal transformation. With her band of aces, Steve Goulding (d-Mekons), James Mastro
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Retsin
Well-travelled folk poppers who land firmly & unconditionally in the melodic folk pop camp. Giving birth to an absolutely gorgeous blend of mostly downtempo, sparse acoustic numbers garnished just so, with lilting flute harmonica & small bits of wonderful effects wizardry, & mid-tempo electric
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Tara Jane O'Neil (SONORA PINE, RODAN, Quarterstick) & Cynthia Nelson (NAYSAYER, RUBY FALLS) recorded their new album at a cabin in the woods in upstate NY. They've finally found a recorded vehicle for their quirky, emotional pop songs filled with somber beauty and echoes of wood. Banjo, flute,
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Speck Mountain
"“The whole thing feels like a nice warm dream.” --Paste Magazine
Inspired by desire and fidelity, Karl Briedrick and Marie-Claire Balabanian of Speck Mountain have been categorized as space-rock, dream-pop, and shoegaze, but these co-leaders like to call their music “ambient soul.” Recently ....
"The mix of Americana dust and dream-pop gauze has never sounded this strong." - PopMatters
If Speck Mountain's first two albums sound like they were recorded underwater, their third studio release, Badwater, finds the band washed ashore onto a dusty
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The Coctails
Compiles selected tracks from the vinyl only, long out of print Hi•Ball releases 1990's “Hip Hip Hooray!”, 1991's “Here Now Today” & the ever charming “Songs for Children” 7”EP, plus unreleased stuff only available here. The release that started this whole
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Their most challenging album, originally released in 1993. An excellent instrumental garage "jazz-like" album with 4 untrained guys distilling their favorite bits of Mingus, Sun Ra & Miles into a cohesive work that was too rock for the jazz snobs & waaaay too jazz for the pop/rock crowd at the
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Rockin’ album produced by Bob Weston (Shellac/Volcano Suns) & Stuart Moxham (Young Marble Giants)! Surefire pop gem after
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A definite maturing in the band’s musical sensibility, execution, vision, & cohesion and a major leap from their previous efforts. Their almost constant touring since "Peel" came out honed their already keen pop breadth and depth to razor sharpness on this offering. It’s composed of ballads, some
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19 songs, 8 non-lp tracks, with some never before released. A sweeping “best of” done live recorded at their last show! Studio quality sound by Bob Weston as well, so fear
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Three CD box set includes material from their entire oeuvre including many studio songs that never found a place on an album, like the incredible, jazzy Skeleton Bones with Robert from QUINTRON and MATH. Many much-requested tracks from their first two vinyl albums, Hip Hip Hooray and Here Now Today
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The Darling Downs
The DDs stand out as the most unlikely of collaborations between longtime members of the fertile Australian rock scene. While it is not at alll insane to imagine the driving force behind SCIENTISTS, BEASTS OF BOURBON & SURREALISTS, KIM SALMON, working with DIED PRETTY's energetic frontman and
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A record of spare, tender songcraft, whose delicate shifts in tone make the simple alt.country tag inadequate. A brave move for both, brilliantly pulled off. 4 stars."-Uncut.
The Darling Downs stand out as the most unlikely of collaborations between longtime members of the fertile ....
The Handsome Family
Debut combines extra chunky guitar and bass lines for a grungy feel on some songs, while capturing a twisted, post-progressive country vibe, highlighted by Brett’s dry, low-key, Johnny Cash-style vocals, on others. Stories about giant ants, the Big Bad Wolf, ponies, gorillas & that old favorite,
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Fans of their unique, urban twist on stark, avant garde country music are definitely the beneficiaries in this instance. Song writing and performance are leaps ahead of the charming wackiness of “Odessa” has receded into the distance, a darker, blacker, and much drier humor has risen in it’s place.
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Showcases their beautiful, gothic songs in more traditional country or Appalachian folk vein. Critically
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Rising out of the shadowy forest, & up into a world of gypsy moths, circling crows, & seeds in the wind. Fireflies in the summer night, rocks rolling uphill, clothes thrown in the snow, whispering waves, & milky moonlight all find themselves circling the night sky of the Handsome Family's latest
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Welcome to The Handsome Family's fifth CD—a half-lit world of golden street lights, haunted parking lots, & invisible birds. In part, a farewell to Chicago where The Handsome Family have lived for the last twelve years. Recalls the near-darkness of night in the city where the flickering TVs &
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On their most adventurous album yet & their best since 1998's "Through the Trees", Brett & Rennie Sparks have outdone themselves. Songs about haunted Wal-Marts, lovers who chase the fire in streetlights, very VERY deep holes & the shadows that whisper inside of modern office building all give
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A collection of country folk love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru windows & shark-infested waters. The album celebrates the little miraculous moments of beauty found in everyday life: a golf course shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons singing from
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Finally released in the US, The Handsome Family’s ‘In The Forest of Missing Airplanes’, includes ‘The Blizzard,’ their exclusive, sublime cover of the 1964 Jim Reeves countrypolitan classic. A sad, SAD story of a man whose love for his pony is stronger that his love for his girl or even himself.
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Features a download exclusive bonus track.
"“They imply the wild things at civilization's edge - brilliant!"" -- Mojo
Taking place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes, The Handsome Family releases Honey Moon through Carrot Top Records on April 14, 2009. ....
Brett and Rennie Sparks have been collaborating as The Handsome Family for over 20 years. With lyrics by Rennie and music by Brett, The Handsome Family infuse their singular art with everything from punk rock to folk, and have garnered extensive critical acclaim over the years. Of course, you don’t
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The Naysayer
Rising out of the shadowy forest, & up into a world of gypsy moths, circling crows, & seeds in the wind. Fireflies in the summer night, rocks rolling uphill, clothes thrown in the snow, whispering waves, & milky moonlight all find themselves circling the night sky of the Handsome Family's latest
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A good song can be deadpan, cutthroat, heartbreaking. A good song can be perverted and romantic and crestfallen in the same breath. On their new album, The Naysayer delivers 12 such songs that will make you laugh out loud, rethink everyday gestures, and hit "play" again. Deathwhisker (saki024),
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Padgett’s songs make their own world, and that world is not quite like any other.” -Brooklyn Rail. New 5 song EP finds Anna Padgett & bandmate Cynthia Nelson (RETSIN, RUBY FALLS, SOPHIE DRINKER) exploring timeless questions amid playfully blatant countrified melodies & a newfound confidence. Matt
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Wee Hairy Beasties
Chicago’s motley kiddie band now have their very own label, Wee Beatz, and are coming to your house with a covered hot dish of brand new songs for the holidays. ‘Holidays Gone Crazy’ is a rollicking good time for big and little folks alike - folks who know that spiders are cool, that the dark can
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Wee Scary Beasties
BOO! The Beasties are back with a new collection of tunes that will help pull the cobwebs right out of your ears. But don’t let the name fool you; Chicago’s kiddie band crew, more regularly known as the Wee Hairy Beasties follow up their 2006 Bloodshot Records debut album, Animal Crackers, with a
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