As we come to the end of the year, it seems right to take stock of all we’ve collectively accomplished over the past 12 months. What a fucking shitshow. It’s been a rough one for sure; isolation, stress, loss - we’ve each felt it in our own ways.

But through it all we’ve also seen a triumphant rise in what we are able to do for one another. Community members coming together to support each other, offer services or support in any way that they can. We’ve all come out stronger, even though it might not feel like it yet. We love you all, and are so proud.

On the shop side of things, we’ve got a bunch of exciting things coming in on the lead up to xmas. Suss our write-ups on international crates from Toxic State, Dark Entries, Feel It, & Instar Books as well as the constant dependable trickle of homegrown flown freaq flags we all love so dearly.

Also, for those of you who love HOT DEALS we have a HOT DEAL for you! To celebrate the end of year and ring in 2022 we’ve finally done a much-requested reprint of good friend of the shop Jimmy Neumann’s classik Lulu’s design. And to encourage you all to SPEND BIG this chrrristmas, if you add anything else to your cart alongside one of the JN reprints you’ll get 10% off everything. Allllll of it.

Much love, as always.
Stay safe.
Lulu’s xoxo

NEW ARRIVALS

550BC - "OXY-ACE & RS6" BOOK

550BC

550BC are a Netherlands based publisher that explores the intersection of crime, conflict, social media and visual arts, owned and operated by Pouria Khojastehpay. Each book reveals a glimpse into a different violent world: Crime Wave Tehran provides a glimpse into the world of organized crime in Iran, Crowbar Hotel is a collection of contraband smartphone photos of incarcerated Bloods and Crips gang members, Favela Mafia documents the violent life and self-portrayal of (young) Brazilian traffickers and hitmen.

Oxy-Ace & RS6 covers the world of professional ATM raids in the Netherlands. Designed and presented as series of products available from a mailorder catalogue, the title refers to two of the items used by Dutch criminals to blow up an ATM, rip out its contents, and escape. Each "product" has a brief bio explaining its function in the crime. You will never look at an Audi RS6 and not think of balaclavas and explosives. The contents also include an couple of essays on the means and methods of these groups and a collection of CCTV stills.

This is the third edition of Oyx-Ace & RS6. Limited copies available from Lulu's - completely sold out from the publisher.

NEW IN FROM DARK ENTRIES

We have received a fresh package from our friends at Dark Entries, who continue to be the finest curators of synthetic detritus we know. Included in this drop are brand new club-ready discs from Jasmine Infiniti + TV.OUT, plus a whoooooole bunch of archival releases. We've got synth-funk gay porno soundtrax from Patrick Cowley, transcendent new age from Suzanne Doucet, bedroom dirges with Dark Day, spoken word smut courtesy of Roy Garrett & Man Parrish, plus heappppss more oddities; all well worth your time.

THE COWBOY - "RIDDLES FROM THE UNIVERSE" LP
Feel It Records

Much ink has been spilled / pixels enforced to shape holy words attesting to Cleveland's place as one of the great homelands of American rock n roll music. For anyone paying attention to the sounds and smells of modern Australian guitar/bass/drums/sweat music, the influence and affect is real and true. The Cowboy host some heavy hitters from the Cleveland rnr underground who have been punching on with the American dream for decades, and their new LP is hot shit.

Riddles From The Universe sends its message across the oceans crowded with islands of plastic and criss-crossed by freighters full of meth: a gesture of tribute to the hard edged sounds of Australian pub punk. Fans of X and feedtime, take note! One hand washes the other.

Friends of Cleveland will remember the density of skull musicians Homostupids, and The Cowboy continue where they left off, with a little more pep in their step and weight behind their punches.

13 succinct songs.
Polite guests for your next dinner party.
Cosmic, comic, tonic.

LULU'S - NOW STOCKING INSTAR BOOKS!

Lulu's is proud to be the sole Australian stockist for NYC publishing house Instar Books. Though the imprint has a wide focus, there are several through lines that may be observed; a fixation on hyper-specific and unique digital spaces/communities, the queered body, intrigue and mystery, conversations between friends, smut.

We encourage the open minded amongst our community to take a look at what Instar has to offer, and are delighted to offer the opportunity to both broaden your minds and whet your whistles.

NASTI - "LIFE IS NASTI" LP
Iron Lung

New on Iron Lung, a label so prolific we're constantly catching up to ensure we've richly stocked, and for this public service we have been nominated as un-Australians of the year. Gratitude, accolades and award ceremonies disgust us, so we plow on through the shadows with records like Nasti to give us purpose. Fearing this one is gonna fall into the racks without mention, we've got to shine a little light on it and call the heads to attention: Nasti is worth at least a couple dozen listens today, and a couple dozen tomorrow.

Iron Lung's own Jensen Ward plays bass on this record, but it's his tenure in Washington's Cold Sweat that can be heard echoed through the heavy agro in Nasti. Cold Sweat are one of few bands who dragged mid-period Black Flag into modern hardcore without sounding like a retro cos-play routine. Nasti seem cut from similar cloth.

This is mostly a mid-paced, gruelling ride, characterised by dual guitarists who each seem committed to write the perfect hardcore riff and outplay their partner, whereas all the other members appear in perfect agreement as they slam and creepy crawl their way through 8 malevolent tracks. Hardcore is Nasti music, oppositional music, full of contrarians, misanthropes and nihilists, and that members of hardcore bands can co-operate and agree on anything is as miraculous and wonderful as any functional family. Nasti is a miracle, like rain on a drought stricken landscape, like a mother lifting a 747 plane to pull children from underneath it, like edible styrofoam packaging. Nasti is life.

NEW IN FROM TOXIC STATE

We are always frothing at the prospect of a new release on New York label Toxic State, who first brought us the best of Ground Zero hardcore, the New New Breed: bands like Crazy Spirit, Dawn of Humans, Hank Wood and the Hammerheads.

The next wave of Toxic State has released some truly bizarre and no less memorable records. Standouts there include the Pinoccio, Anti-Machine and Dollhouse records for the rockers, and L.O.T.I.O.N. and Blu Anxxiety for the electronic murderers.

DOLLHOUSE - "THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING" 7”
Toxic State

To start with Dollhouse you need to know a little about Mommy, who released a couple of psycho raw punk records before imploding. A huge part of Mommy's appeal was Mike's vocals, delivered with more anguish than the customary outrage that defines that genre, recalling Rudimentry Peni's Nick Blinko.

Dollhouse are a continuation of Mike's vocal and lyrical prowess, and he is joined by Hank Wood and Margaret Chardiet (Pharmakon / Cheena). The songs are a mangled mess of hardcore and post-punk, across which Mike's menaced ranting, drooling and pleading express something that has for 40 years drawn people into the orbit of punk and the solace of bands like Dollhouse. Space to express and confront struggles that would isolate and condemn us to loneliness. Sharing this struggle, bound together in the ceaseless grind of service industrial culture and frenetic ultra-connected modern life. Absolution in the din and chaos of punk music.

The closing minute of this record in the track 'The First Day Of Spring' throws a melody into the mix that will stick into your head for days, and like a warm smile from an old friend after a period of solitude and self destruction, the light pours into the room, the flowers bloom, a puppy licks a fairy, a river of silver splits the air, a caterpillar becomes a worm with a top hat and a cute little bow tie, a frog kisses a toad, a lion rides on the back of a lamb, a magician turns disgusting rotten grape juice into delicious refreshing water, the dishes in your sink clean themselves with the help of an enchanted crystal fork, and for a moment you will thank Dollhouse and the world for the cavities and the abscesses, the scars and the wounds, the stench and the slime, the sutures and the scum. You will flip this record over to feel the darkness, but you will get back to that point of magic.

BLU ANXXIETY - "PLAAY DEAD" LP
Toxic State

Blu Anxxiety are a mutant strain of violent industrial goth punk that call to mind the early Ministry and Nitzer Ebb: club beats layered with all kinds of atrocity, vocals delivered in romantic gothic declarations or spat out in absurd couplets that continually reference graves, coffins, and the sweet scent of repressive agents of state control who are rotting inside them.

Plaay Dead is a bizarre and confronting listen, continually humorous and simultaneously deadpan in a way few bands can manage to balance effectively. Shameless cliches are delivered in continuous references to the vampiric and undead, like chanting of "Dracula" or "Transylvania". In the hands of mere mortals this would seem trite when balanced against references to police violence and state control, but the immortal Blu Anxxiety are a unique horrorshow, joining New York's L.O.T.I.O.N. in crafting something that draws from industrial and post-punk with the requisite savagery and intensity you'd anticipate from a Toxic State record. Plaay Dead is certain to beguile the squares and fascinate the freaks! DARK FREESTYLE

THE GLASS PICTURE - "THE GLASS PICTURE" CS
Hidiotic

Hideotic are one of the more understated Melbourne labels, a tape label that has no online presence, offering tapes that are released without press releases or official released dates in editions that are generous and without the collector bait of limited editions in planned obsolescence. Helmed by Al Montfort, the bands released on Hideotic include his solo project Snake, Ill Winds, Golden Scalpel, Sleepless Nights, Backstabbers, Primo!, Karl Frog, Chateau and Terror from the Deep. There is a certain consistency of style across these - somewhere between bedroom pop, home studio hits, lounge-wave, kitchen psych, laundry country.

The Glass Picture are a new band who have released their first tape on Hideotic, featuring Vio (Primo!) and Lucy (Drab Doo-Riffs), with a guest sax wail by Raven Mahon (The Green Child). To write such a dreamy, wistful collection of songs in a nightmare age takes some resilience. There's no sense of escape or retreat. This is dreaming with your eyes open music. The relaxed delivery of DIY post-punk bands like Marine Girls or modern Melbourne bands like Sleeper and Snake might offer a decent reference point for The Glass Picture's take on what dreaming with your eyes open music™ can sound like.

The Glass Picture is a compelling collection of songs in the "bedroom pop" pocket of the above list of abode references: home crafted pop songs in a housebound era. Vio and Lucy's voices are a beautiful pairing that compliment and elevate one another. The mood is light (not vapid), bright (not cheery), brilliant, beautiful and up, up, up.

As with all releases on Hideotic, The Glass Picture comes with the strongest recommendation from Lulu's!

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LULU'S DECEMBER 2021 NEWSLETTER

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