February 27th, Greg Edwards hosted the second-to-last (Modesto) Off the Air show featuring Rose Droll and Dana Falconberry. If you’re not familiar with Rose Droll or Dana Falconberry, go listen. Continue reading
Last year, a friend asked Micol Cazzell who is biggest influence is. I drunkenly interrupted to say that it was definitely Elliot Smith. Who knows what the real answer would have been, because I am a bad person. Either way, Micol Cazzell’s Broken Things goes beyond any Elliot Smith pretensions. The five song EP is carefully knit together; more crochet than stitched. The songs are founded on a guitar with aspirations of being a piano laid on the perfectly flat horizon of an August sunset in the Central Valley; the mountains are visible as green-screened fantasies beyond the grasp of the tired subjects stuck in pits and ruts.
Cazzell’s musical vision is spare. The writing is less Roy Harper and more Leonard Cohen. If Cazzell is a folk artist, the sound is not “wild, thin Mercury” or the various pop-folk thieves of the 60s, but interweaving counterpoint not unlike the production of Closing Time or Linda Perhacs. Drums appear in the middle of the album on “The Unraveling” and “1961,” lending the EP the feel of a traditional narrative structure with “The Waiting Song” sitting at the end of the album as a definite conclusion to the mystery of “1961.”
Broken Things is a flawless album. It was the best release of 2012. Visit his website and purchase the album at http://www.micolcazzell.com/.
Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy fame) and Sea of Bees released a split 7″ co-released by Off the Air Recordings, a Modesto, CA-based record label owned by Greg Edwards, and Crossbill Records. The record consists of Lytle and Sea of Bees mutually covering a song of the other’s. Below is the press release: Continue reading
Indian Runner released their new EP, Brother’s Bones, last Wednesday. The record has been brewing since before the days I ran a profile on the brutally tall frontman Michael White back in June. The record itself is a sincere brand of classic-rock sensibility married to earnest lyricism. Expect a review in the coming days. For now, be assured that the album is worth a listen. It’s available for free download through a pay-what-you-want model. Download at http://indianrunnernoise.bandcamp.com/.
The artwork was done by Brandon McMillan and Darris Bishel, magnates of magnificent facial hair. The album features Nick Tehada on guitar, Matt Beaman on bass and trombone, and Kameron Schuman on drums. It was produced by Dustin Speckman and Adam Bishop at Quiet Man Recordings. It was mastered by Jeremy Lai. Adam Bishop, who also has a recent release entitled To Someone Special, With Love, appears on backing vocals.
I don’t normally do posts like these, but a season of local releases deserves an article in Internet space. Beginning with Adam Bishop’s To Someone Special, With Love, (though technically, not an Airplane’s It Could Just Be This Place was released this year in January), this fall of 2012 is seeing an unprecedented amount of delicious local music releases. Allow me to guide you through the Modesto scene, Waterford scene, every scene within reach of our northern Central Valley. Continue reading
*This article is part of a series on small, DIY-centric record labels. This Q&A is with Sean Duncan of Way Grimace Records, which has released albums by Stabone and Demar Rock Group, Thombie, Kid Mud, and Creepy Pizza. The label is based out of Modesto, CA. Continue reading
The landscape of the music industry has dramatically changed in the last twenty years. Discounting the record store, the most affected unit of the industry is the record label. In an era of self-distribution, promotion, and recording, the modern record label finds itself having to change to avoid irrelevance. The spirit of D.I.Y. that is contributing to the erosion of big record labels has also led to the emergence of small-scale, local labels. Urban Scandal Records is a year-old label based out of San Francisco, CA, and is run by founder and musician Stephen Beebout. I sent him a list questions about his label, and his answers form the second article of a series all about the crop of modern record labels, small and large.
Continue reading
The landscape of the music industry has dramatically changed in the last twenty years. Discounting the record store, the most affected unit of the industry is the record label. In an era of self-distribution, promotion, and recording, the modern record label finds itself having to change to avoid irrelevance. The spirit of D.I.Y. that is contributing to the erosion of big record labels has also led to the emergence of small-scale, local labels. Quote Your Pulse Records is a three-year old label based out of Turlock, CA, and run by founder and musician Jonathan Jennings. I sent him a list questions about his label, and his answers form the second article of a series all about the crop of modern record labels, small and large. Continue reading
The landscape of the music industry has dramatically changed in the last twenty years. Discounting the record store, the most affected unit of the industry is the record label. In an era of self-distribution, promotion, and recording, the modern record label finds itself having to change to avoid irrelevance. The spirit of D.I.Y. that is contributing to the erosion of big record labels has also led to the emergence of small-scale, local labels. Quiet Man Recordings is a new label based out of Turlock, CA, and run by founder and musician Adam Bishop. I sent him a slew of questions about his label, and his answers form the first run of a series all about the crop of modern record labels, small and large. Continue reading
The Stabone and Demar Rock Group comes from a lineage of so-rock-it’s-satirical bands like Chickenfoot, Megapuss, and arguably Frank Zappa (and let’s add Velvet Revolver for their straight-faced delivery of shitty music). Stabone and Demar Rock Group are a supergroup; one look at the list of band members confirms this. Whether the members are famous in their own right is irrelevant: in the age of constant, easy collaboration and ever-expanding deluge of digital music, being a supergroup need not carry any requirements beyond sounding super-groupy. Continue reading