Written by J Holt Evans III and James McKay Glasgow
Recorded at Plugpoint Studios in Wilmington, NC
Produced and Engineered by Holt Evans II
Cover Photograph by Josh Putnam

J Holt Evans III: Guitars, Vocals,
James McKay Glasgow: Guitars, Bass, Lead Vocals
Boyce S. Evans: Drums

Lauds

Wasted Hours

Luz de Vida is a compilation album of music from artists both in Tucson and affiliated with Tucson. All proceeds from the sale of Luz de Vida will go to the Homicide Survivors, Inc: homicidesurvivorsinc.org, the only officially sanctioned fund established to assist victims, families, and witnesses of the January 8th tragedy.

Luz de Vida – Spanish for Light of Life – is an expression of community, love, healing, grace and hope, a positive response from Tucson musicians and national artists who have a special bond with Tucson. Luz de Vida will be available in two formats: as a 37-track digital album and a special limited-edition 12-song vinyl release, with exclusively Tucson bands.

Included are songs written as a direct response, like Giant Sand’s “Recovery Mission,” in which the elder ambassador of desert rock Howe Gelb sings of the city’s tears and “collective heart.” The compilation also features “The Oasis” from the late, legendary blues guitarist Rainer.

Calexico, whose longtime friendship with Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly has resulted in the band’s music being played aboard the International Space Station, contributes the unreleased “Absent Afternoon.” Songs from Calexico collaborators Salvador Duran and Mariachi Luz de Luna reflect the city’s Hispanic tradition.

Tucson friends Robyn Hitchcock, John Vanderslice, Spoon, Neko Case, Meat Puppets, Jimmy Eat World, Ozomatli, Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard & Jon Rauhouse, Mark Growden and Chuck Prophet all contribute songs.

Fort Lowell Records artists Tracy Shedd and Dead Western Plains recorded exclusive follow-ups to their acclaimed 7inch records.

On the heels of their stunning 2011 debut album, Tucson’s Lenguas Largas returns with a special new track. The upstart R&B Kiss & The Tells make their recorded debut on Luz de Vida. Indie rockers Holy Rolling Empire and La Cerca explore new directions. And exclusive to the 12inch vinyl is a live recording of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” from Chango Malo.

Luz de Vida is compiled by Music Against Violence, a coalition of Tucson writers, recording engineers, and venue operators.

Luz de Vida: A Compilation to Benefit the Victims of the Tucson Tragedy

People Beat

Dead Western Plains "People Beat"

Original song by Filth, written by Dick Bakker; Adapted Lyrics by Lacie Jay of Neon Belly

Neon Belly

Don't Hide Your Hatef

Neon Belly "Don't Hide Your Hate"

Fort Lowell Records celebrates it’s inaugural year with Record Store Day 2011 and the "godfather of alt-country,” the "elder ambassador of desert rock," Howe Gelb. Combining two of Gelb’s projects onto one 7inch record, ‘Sno Angel + Melted Wires lend a voice of comfort in a time of need. ‘Sno Angel, featuring Gelb with his Canadian based touring band backed by the Voices Of Praise choir, provide encouragement to the listener with their track “Spiral,” recorded in 2006 and taken from their live CD ‘Sno Angel Winging It (OW OM Records, 2009), presented here on vinyl for the very first time. Meanwhile, the previously unreleased track “Cordoba in Slow Motion,” recorded nearly three years later during Gelb’s Melted Wires sessions, tactfully, without lyrics, compliments it’s counterpart by providing the necessary space for meditation.

‘Sno Angel is not gospel music, in theme or in content. Gelb describes the project as “a grand experiment to see if we could mesh the sounds of the muck I make with the dizzying effect of the glorious sound [the choir] makes.” While recording the studio album ‘Sno Angel Like You (Thrill Jockey, 2006) during an Ottawa winter, Gelb was inspired by the drastic beauty of snow and a cold not often felt in Tucson (it was -43° at the time). Although “Spiral” was not included with the original ‘Sno Angel studio album, it was first released on their live CD; the same version made available here by Fort Lowell Records with this 7inch release. Eventually, a studio recording of “Spiral” later appeared on Giant Sand’s proVISIONS (Yep Roc Records, 2008) as a duet with Henriette Sennenvaldt.

Melted Wires is a project Gelb formed from an informal cluster, two from Giant Sand and two from Calexico, which merited a sweet symbol of holiday spirit and friendship above all else. It included Gelb’s old friend and band mate, John Convertino on drums, Jacob Valenzuela on trumpet, and Thøger T. Lund on upright bass. They gathered and played in a way unlike most sessions, but much the same as the fabled W. Eugene Smith recordings from the late 50s / early 60s in his infamous New York ‘jazz loft’. Those kinds of jams were players playing for themselves and each other. This kind of capture was unlike any studio session or live gig. The session you have here called ‘Melted Wires’ is symbiotic with the sound of that jazz loft: players playing for the sheer love of it. It has a wonderful looseness, a playfulness that couldn’t happen in any formal recording or live presentation.

‘Sno Angel + Melted Wires may represent two sides to Howe Gelb, but the common thread allows these magnificently crafted songs, written and recorded years apart from one another, to speak as one and provide a wisdom and guidance much needed, …as, in Gelb’s own words, “another generation would be nice.”


Previous Press Accolades for ‘Sno Angel + Melted Wires

“(Gelb) he brilliantly fuses rock and gospel in a widely-adored career high that juxtaposes his rough, salt of the earth voice and guitar with the warm, sweeping soul of the Voices Of Praise choir.” – Watershed UK

“Gelb and crew manage to wrap so much of the human condition up into what is ultimately joyous music that it could hearten even the most jaded.” - Popshifter

"a band of stylistically unique players, with a looseness and a relaxed quality (yes, even for Gelb) that we rarely would be privy to as listeners.” – Tucson Weekly

“Tasty, jazz-inflected alt-heartland music” – A Fool in the Forest

'Sno Angel + Melted Wires Split

Spiral

Howe Gelb - 'Sno Angel "Spiral"

Lauds are a band from Wilmington, NC that was formed in the spring of 2019 by songwriters McKay Glasgow and J. Holt Evans III. Bonding over their love of Slowdive and Neil Young, the band plays in the style of the former while channeling some of latter’s more untamed guitarscapes. They are part of the dream pop-shoegaze-post-punk continuum, but carry an unpredictable edge. Other influences include acts on Creation Records and Captured Tracks, as well as British alt rock legends like Ride, Chapterhouse, and The Cure.

Glasgow and Evans were both craving an outlet to make guitar-oriented rock music, and Lauds is the result. Glasgow is also a member of Tumbleweed, a folk-rock group, but had songwriting ideas that didn’t fit within their confines. Teaming up with Evans, who has spent a lot of his free time in recent years recording reverbed-out bedroom pop songs, the two founded Lauds as a project to unleash their Jazzmaster ambitions.

Are You There All Alone

Lauds "Are You There All Alone"

Hailing from the beaches of Wilmington, NC, Lauds are five friends (two of whom are brothers) united by a love of the water and chiming guitar hooks. The quintet composed of McKay Glasgow (lead vocals, guitar), J Holt Evans (vocals, lead guitar), younger brother Boyce Evans (keyboards, third guitar), Gavin Campbell (bass), and Ross Page (drums, vocals) play a pulsing take on indie rock with lush intertwining guitar melodies that draw on everything from C86 jangle pop to British titans like Ride and The Cure.

On II, Lauds trade some of the more languid structures of their debut EP (Lauds, Fort Lowell Records) for hard hitting motorik-inspired pop. Now, the bass and drums are given equal footing with the guitars, which while catchy as ever, vacillate between moments of chorused-out bliss and searing noise-rock catharsis. The final product remains distinctly Lauds, with Glasgow’s vocals beckoning the listener to get lost alongside him in the sprawling guitarscapes.

Having become a staple of Wilmington’s thriving guitar-rock scene–playing packed sets at places like the Palm Room, Satellite Bar and Lounge, and, most notably, a sold-out Bourgie Nights slot opening for Athens, GA’s Futurebirds–look for Lauds to continue to make noise in their native the Carolinas and beyond. Next up: a 4/2 release show at Modern Legend, the first in-store show hosted by the record store and scene luminary in over two years. Featuring opening sets by local legends Color Temperature and Louis, this set promises to be the show of the year and a (noisy) celebration of all that live music has to offer in the Port City.

Fort Lowell Records
FLR046

Lauds is Boyce S. Evans, Gavin Campbell, James McKay Glasgow, J Holt Evans III, Ross Page

All tracks recorded at Plugpoint Studios in Wilmington, NC
Produced and Engineered by Holt Evans II and J Holt Evans III
Additional production work by Ross Langdon Page on ‘Shimmer’

Cover Artwork by Ross Langdon Page

J Holt Evans III- guitars, keyboards, vocals
James McKay Glasgow- guitars, lead vocals
Gavin Campbell- bass guitar
Boyce Evans- keyboards, additional guitars
Ross Page- drums

Rust

Lauds "Rust"

Tracy Shedd believes creativity is a necessity of life, and our surroundings should inspire us. Since 1999, she has crafted melodic, heartfelt compositions that encourage people to make the most out of every moment.  Shedd is an indie rock musician who has released six studio albums with Teen-Beat, New Granada Records, Devil In The Woods, Science Project Records, and Fort Lowell Records, licensed music to Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, The Fosters, and “The Rebound” (ft. Catherine Zeta-Jones), performed at CBGB, The Florida Theatre, plus festivals such as CMJ and SXSW, and has shared the stage with Cyndi Lauper, Cat Power, Iron & Wine, The Magnetic Fields, and David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets); not to mention Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth sat in on drums for her during a US tour.

Shedd originally wrote the song "Going Somewhere" in May 2020 as stay-at-home mandates were being lifted from the onset of COVID and people were going out for the first time.  This came shortly after the release of Shedd's initial response to COVID: a nearly-nine-minute song title "Mantra"; an optimistic melody set in motion to make a positive change in our world.  June 2020 found Shedd jumping back in the studio to record "Holding Space" for Fort Lowell Records' album GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter (ft. The Love Language, The Rosebuds).  This put "Going Somewhere" on the backburner where it continued to stay while Shedd remixed Honeybrandy's song "Not in Our City" that same summer, and where it remained while Shedd delivered "Chasing Time" the following year for another Fort Lowell Records' fundraising project: Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors (ft. Calexico, Dr. Dog, Amos Lee).

Fast forward to 2022, "Going Somewhere", now completed, will be released as a Digital Single on Friday, March 25th; Tracy Shedd's newest single, featuring James Sardone (Brickbat, Loose Jets) on background vocals, which received a World Premiere from Big Takeover Magazine on May 7th.

Going Somewhere

Tracy Shedd "Going Somewhere"

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Ever since our forebears crawled up out of the water and drew their first breath, our – which is to say human and animal (and for that matter, plant) – experience has never strayed too far from its life-sustaining force. This water IS life. It will continue to be. But what kind of life? Threats to that water are, in turn, threats to the very life it supports. 

Inspired by photography focused on water in urban landscapes against a backdrop of the evolving GenX (PFAS) water pollution problem in the Wilmington, NC/Cape Fear region, This Water is Life is a local multimedia, multi-platform project. It takes what Fort Lowell Records does best – put out and promote killer indie music of varied stripes – and fuses it with photography and other visual arts alongside river and wildlife advocacy. The goal is a virtuous circle contained within an intended series of records. Packaged together, musical and visual artists from the Port City combined with a separate, serialized and locally-specific environmental message gives rise to the future promotion of other local music acts and further advocacy.

Volume I features MindsOne & DJ Iron and James Sardone (of Brickbat, Burnley Brothers, The Jimmy Nations Combo, Loose Jets).

MindsOne & DJ Iron:
Innovative lyrics, heart pounding instrumentals, precise cuts, and intense live shows are what MindsOne has been offering their listeners since 2002. In its current iteration for this project, the group consists of KON Sci and Tronic on vocals with Belgian producer DJ Iron reprising his beatmaking role. Their music embodies the spirit of independent hip hop culture and pays homage to those boom bap masters and others who came before. They have consistently delivered powerful and inspirational music over the years, and have continued to perfect their sound with each project from their debut EP, The Space Time Continuum in 2006 to 2016’s collaboration with DJ Iron on the Phaseology album.

James Sardone:
For more than a generation, James Sardone has put his own unique spin on indie rock. Hailing from the Appalachians, the musical magpie has dabbled in an expanding number of genres on a journey that stretched up the eastern seaboard from Wilmington, NC to New York and back again. What started in the late 80s as the irreverent noise of seminal post-punk trio Brickbat has given way now to electronica-infused, 80s pop-inflected solo work. In between, Sardone honed his craft, evolving in an array of projects from the country-tinged hard rock Burnley Brothers to the rockabilly sensibilities of The Jimmy Nations Combo to Loose Jets’ glammier hard rock. Like music itself, Sardone never rests, never stays in one musical space too long before branching out to his next cacoethes.

Just as clean water helps sustain life on Earth and here in the ILM, your purchase of this record fosters the work of not only hip hop, indie rock and visual artists in Wilmington but advances the advocacy of groups seeking to protect and preserve water and wildlife in the region. This water is life.

This Water is Life, Vol. I

Footprints

MindsOne & DJ Iron "Footprints"

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Ever since our forebears crawled up out of the water and drew their first breath, our – which is to say human and animal (and for that matter, plant) – experience has never strayed too far from its life-sustaining force. This water IS life. It will continue to be. But what kind of life? Threats to that water are, in turn, threats to the very life it supports.

Inspired by photography focused on water in urban landscapes against a backdrop of the evolving GenX (PFAS) water pollution problem in the Wilmington, NC/Cape Fear region, This Water is Life is a local multimedia, multi-platform project. It takes what Fort Lowell Records does best – put out and promote killer indie music of varied stripes – and fuses it with photography and other visual arts alongside river and wildlife advocacy. The goal is a virtuous circle contained within an intended series of records. Packaged together, musical and visual artists from the Port City combined with a separate, serialized and locally-specific environmental message gives rise to the future promotion of other local music acts and further advocacy.

Volume I features MindsOne & DJ Iron and James Sardone (of Brickbat, Burnley Brothers, The Jimmy Nations Combo, Loose Jets).

MindsOne & DJ Iron:
Innovative lyrics, heart pounding instrumentals, precise cuts, and intense live shows are what MindsOne has been offering their listeners since 2002. In its current iteration for this project, the group consists of KON Sci and Tronic on vocals with Belgian producer DJ Iron reprising his beatmaking role. Their music embodies the spirit of independent hip hop culture and pays homage to those boom bap masters and others who came before. They have consistently delivered powerful and inspirational music over the years, and have continued to perfect their sound with each project from their debut EP, The Space Time Continuum in 2006 to 2016’s collaboration with DJ Iron on the Phaseology album.

James Sardone:
For more than a generation, James Sardone has put his own unique spin on indie rock. Hailing from the Appalachians, the musical magpie has dabbled in an expanding number of genres on a journey that stretched up the eastern seaboard from Wilmington, NC to New York and back again. What started in the late 80s as the irreverent noise of seminal post-punk trio Brickbat has given way now to electronica-infused, 80s pop-inflected solo work. In between, Sardone honed his craft, evolving in an array of projects from the country-tinged hard rock Burnley Brothers to the rockabilly sensibilities of The Jimmy Nations Combo to Loose Jets’ glammier hard rock. Like music itself, Sardone never rests, never stays in one musical space too long before branching out to his next cacoethes.

Just as clean water helps sustain life on Earth and here in the ILM, your purchase of this record fosters the work of not only hip hop, indie rock and visual artists in Wilmington but advances the advocacy of groups seeking to protect and preserve water and wildlife in the region. This water is life.

Do This Thing

James Sardone "Do This Thing"

Though Vintage Smell is the debut album by the Phoenix based indie rock quartet KITIMOTO, the record is the result of decades of slow growth and metamorphosis. It’s akin to the kind of steady evolution band leader Jon Douglas (A Technicolor Yawn) charts in his work as a biologist: KITIMOTO may technically be a new group, but in reality it’s the latest in a long series of projects its members have tinkered with since first meeting in the Arizona DIY art-punk scene more than 15 years ago.

Backed by bassist Zane Gillum, drummer Cavan Noone, and guitarist Jason P. Woodbury, KITIMOTO finds Douglas reaching deep into his songbook, gathering up compositions he’s woodshedded since the early 2000s in the Chicago rock scene, and pairing them with newly written works. The resulting record is one that collapses time, drawing on ‘60s counterculture, classic ‘70s singer/songwriter work, ’80s alterna-pop, ‘90s indie rock, and a wealth of naturalistic and vividly comic imagery drawn from various moments in Douglas’ own autobiography.

Recorded live to two-inch tape in late 2020 and early 2021 at Oracle Recording at Rancho Linda Vista by producer Austin Z. Owen (Los Puchos, Slow Moses), Vintage Smell was mastered by Brian J. Sulpizio, known for his work with Ryley Walker and Health & Beauty—of which Douglas was once a member. Located in the remote desert town of Oracle, the studio sits at the heart of a ranch established in 1910, which eventually became home to an intentional community founded in 1968 by artist Charles Littler. In its original dude ranch incarnation, it hosted stars like George Sanders, Gary Cooper, and Rita Hayworth, and was the place Andy Warhol chose to shoot his X-rated western, Lonesome Cowboys, which baffled the locals.

On songs like “Mexico” and “How Do You Keep,” dueling guitars lock into heated conversation Television-style, veering into “indie jam” territory, while “Time Saved” finds the foursome chugging on Blue Album-style crunch rock. Elsewhere, Douglas indulges his soft side with the country soul ballad “Get Out Alive” and the vivid psychedelic pop of “Semaphore,” which leans into samba rhythms and Mellotron swirls.

Though hardly a “desert rock” album in the traditional sense, the remote space of Rancho Linda Vista proved the perfect place to capture these songs, which range from the charging punk of “Bats!”, which implores the listener to “pray to the sand,” Though hardly a “desert rock” album in the traditional sense, the remote space of Rancho Linda Vista proved the perfect place to capture these songs, which range from the charging punk of “Bats!”, which implores the listener to “pray to the sand,” to the future facing “Seventy,” its fuzzy guitars nodding to the band’s combined love for Pavement and oversized riffs.

Throughout it all, Douglas facilitates between low key cool and singing these songs like his life depends on them, folding his oblique wordplay into hooky melodies over intricate rhythms and easy grooves alike. It's a testament to the gradual pace of evolution. Douglas and KITIMOTO may have only spent a few weekends in the desert recording, but these songs carry the weight of years spent shaping and refining.

Vintage Smell

Bats!

KITIMOTO - "Bats!"

Lauds’ debut full-length Imitation Life is a lush, aural tapestry of blissed-out guitars against a backdrop of rhythmic tension woven by the five-piece, Wilmington, NC-based band. The lyrics of the 10 tracks ping-pong between anxious introspection and the search for fleeting bits of contentment in life, like the best empathetic, reflective autumnal rock of the second Brit invasion era. On songs like Wasted Hours, 24 and Rust, the elegantly anguished vocals wash over the listener like the waters of Cape Fear and the Atlantic Ocean that dominate the Wilmington landscape, evoking the “post-surf stupor” that songwriters J. Holt Evans lll and Mckay Glasgow feel after a day riding its waves.

Imitation Life

Lauds - "24"

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

This Water is Life, Vol. II

So Regular

Haji P. - "So Regular"

infinitikiss is an ever-evolving musical and visual recording project conceptualized by Nic Jenkins, featuring a revolving ensemble of curious and experimental artists, musicians, and performers. The core material for this album came from live improvisations that were recorded to cassette tapes, which originally served as backing tracks for live solo performances and with rotating ensembles (circa 2015-2020), in and around Charleston + Columbia, SC. Since then, the tapes have since become a kind of sample library of colors & shapes that have served a variety of sound collage / design situations, as well as fodder for other strange + beautiful collaborations.  'ambient music' is infinitikiss' first full length release with Fort Lowell Records.

ambient music

in the same vibration that pothos green grows

infinitikiss - "in the same vibration that pothos green grows"

Band & The Beat is Tracy and James Tritten (of Tracy Shedd; Teen-Beat and New Granada Records); a husband-wife dream pop duo, featuring synthesizers and a drum machine, from Raleigh NC.

"21" and "Buoy" were recorded at Fort Lowell Studios between September and October 2015.  Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering, Boston MA.  Assistant Mastering Engineer: Maria Rice.

Band & The Beat "21"

Simply, moyamoya are a band. They began in a dank warehouse in 2009 as a collaborative project between veteran musicians, meticulously crafting a handful of songs that became their debut self-titled record. The freshman offering grabs your attention from its first wavering guitar riff and holds you hostage until the final ambient resolve.

As a band, moyamoya are complex. To start, the trio brings together over 50 years of experience playing with bands of every imaginable genre. But much of that experience went for naught as one of the band’s first decisions was to switch instruments. Richard Dudley, for years a bassist, plays guitar. Scott Madgett, a guitarist, switched to drums and Brennan Hamill, also a guitarist, picked up keys and bass to round out the sound. This lead to an explorative approach to song crafting, each member feeling their way through the music rather than sticking to the well-worn paths their instruments would normally be limited to.

To add further complexity, the band abandoned all the usual tenants of their craft. At times intentionally, and at others, purely intuitively. First, they dropped the singer. moyamoya is instrumental. Not necessarily by decision but, rather by default. And while the absence of a front-man may be note-worthy at first, it only takes a few measures before you realize that any singer would be irrelevant.

The band, while playing, only settles in any groove long enough to get your head bobbing before jerking you, without warning, to a new time signature or tempo change. By constantly bending and blending genres, they create a truly unique form of audio alchemy. Fluctuating between tightly executed math rock, walls of ear-splitting distorted sludge and extended textural ambience, moyamoya will keep you guessing.

moyamoya’s recordings provide unexpected offerings from an unexpected band; music that you can focus in on to hear all its many intricacies and then pull out from to hear the power and depth.

Ded Mel 25

Ded Mel 25 (Navigateur Edit)

moyamoya "Ded Mel 25 (Navigateur Edit)"

...music video? grew out of the collaborative and vibrant music scene in Tucson, AZ, where the desert heat melts styles and genres together in creative ways. Voted Tucson’s best electronic band for five years running, …music video? strives to blur the line that separates noise from pop. Songwriter/keyboardist Paul Jenkins, producer Wes McCanse and multi-instrumentalist J. Lugo Miller blend melodies with electronic beats, controlled chaos, and the best of countless genres.  They have self-released two critically-acclaimed albums (2004’s Fireproof Your TV, and 2007’s Now That My TV Has Wings I'll Never Be Lonely), been a featured band on NPR, and performed an official showcase at the 2009 SXSW festival.  

"I'm Afraid Of Everything" b/w "feelgooddesperation" is a glimpse into ...music video?'s future, where the alluring voice of Paul Jenkins and a bangin' backbeat relax on a bed of lush noise. "I'm Afraid Of Everything" hearkens back to a time when recorded music could only be heard with a needle on a record, where guitar chords wept, and where a slow jam could break someone's heart. It's an all-out groove, complete with harmonies and wah-wah that shimmers with the reflected light of a disco ball. "feelgooddesperation" is a remix/collaboration that juxtaposes the aptly-titled instrumental ...music video? track "postrockfeelgoodsongofthemillenium" with the mournful lyrics of fellow Tucson band Musica Obscura's "Desperation."  Piano and shifting, energetic noise blend with soulful vocals to create a haunting yet uplifting soundtrack for this new decade.

“I'm Afraid of Everything” shows the way Jenkins, McCanse, and Miller transfer the desert heat into cool harmonies and rhythms. If I'm Afraid of Everything is any indication, ...music video? is headed fast toward a prominent place on permanent playlists everywhere--- both the one inside your head and the ones outside.


Previous Press Accolades for …music video?
"...music video? stands out in a crowded field of electro-pop groups with their strong sense of melody, flawless production and surprisingly fresh use of synths and samples" - NPR

"...music video?... sounds a bit like Sparklehorse doing a Bowie cover." - Tucson Weekly

"The honesty and humor preserved on this recording are very human and very real." - Nada Mucho


I'm Afraid of Everything

...music video? "I'm Afraid Of Everything"

There's a reason that people are still wistful for the golden days of dream pop. Each year, music fans hold out hope for a new My Bloody Valentine record. They think that The Sundays might emerge from wherever they're hiding. These are the type of bands that NME used to champion on a weekly basis. Dream pop got it's name for a reason. The wash of sound can feel like the last moment of being awake before sleep sets in. That sort of ethereal, effects-driven, introspective music is the sort of thing fairweatherfriend do exceptionally well.
 
“You and I...” has a feel that would make anyone wondering when Ride will get back together happy for a little over five minutes.  The layered vocals of “Fairweather Friend” over guitars play in concentric circles around each other, reflecting the uncertainty of the song’s narrator.  These are songs that recall a time when indie rock songs could be anthemic and pretty — before it was even called indie rock, in fact — while still seeming modern enough to not seem dated. If you were still making mixtapes, these would be the songs in the middle of the second side, full of emotion and heart. The dream of being understood, of being known. That’s what these songs are about.

Somehow, fairweatherfriend have created a record that reflects their dream while sounding like yours.
 
---

Recording Engineer: James George Tucson, AZ
Recording Assistant: Ryan Sunderman Tucson, AZ
Mixing: Steven LEE Tracy Glow in the Dark Studios; Atlanta, GA
Audio Mastering: Adam Boose Cauliflower Audio; Cleveland, OH
Vinyl Lacquers/Mastering: JJ Golden Golden Recording; Ventura, CA
Design & Layout: Andrew Ling itshailing.com; Tucson, AZ
B-side Design: clamdiggin clamdiggin.com
Images: (front) Mark Newhouse, (inside) Sarah Trainor,
(back) Moriah Newhouse
Cover Church: Mission San Xavier del Bac  

RIYL: Adorable, The Dears, The Depreciation Guild, Starflyer 59, Wild Nothing, and Verve 


You and I

fairweatherfriend "You and I"

Moved by the horrific Memorial Day murder of George Perry Floyd Jr. at the hands of four Minneapolis Police officers, Fort Lowell Records presents GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter. The project, focused on Wilmington, North Carolina, is a response to the racial injustice continuously displayed by law enforcement across the United States of America.  Friends of the formerly Tucson, Arizona-based label involved with GROW have donated their own talents to allow 100% of the sales from the record to endow the New Hanover County NAACP with working capital to help Fort Lowell’s newly adopted local community.  GROW is an effort to help address the dire effects of racism in America.

GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Comfortable Town

Summer Set "Comfortable Town"

Death Kit is a band formed in response. To a Los Angeles indie rock scene too witheringly lazy to pursue the potential and precision of electronica. To a dance music culture that’s chained to its laptops and bereft of its original sex and violence. To the cigarette-jeaned maw in their neighborhood of Echo Park who don’t take a certain joy in the craven niceness and seasonless daze of their hometown at the end of the world.

First formed in the top floor of a 1920’s studio apartment in Koreatown populated by end-times Christians and an unnerving cast of constantly-dying fellow tenants, August Brown jacked the title of a Susan Sontag novel and began producing sleek, melancholy, pop-damaged disco as Death Kit in 2008. The rules were such: immediate melodies; gender-curious vocals; acidic lyrics about paying for sex and faking love; a relentless four-on-the-floor kick and arrangements that clawed at the edges of dancefloor sugar, creepy ambience and outright noise. Kompakt Records, LCD Soundsystem, My Bloody Valentine and HEALTH/DISCO allusions followed, more-or-less accurately.

Friends filled the live instrument gaps, including guitarist/vocalist Terry Case and bassist Jessica Gelt. August played drums and sang for their first show at Silver Lake’s Club Spaceland in October of 2009 and the next ten after. Indie kids got weirded out by the laptop; dance kids flinched at the blatant hooks and violent guitars. And then they didn’t.

Death Kit worked alongside collaborators including Tom Biller (Kanye West, Liars, Warpaint), Dave Cooley (Silversun Pickups, J. Dilla, These New Puritans) and Lucian Walker (pick a major pop singer in L.A.). They cut a video for their first single “I Can Make You Love Me” with director John Christopher Pina (Kanye, John Legend, Common), starring a depressed werewolf. Chad Matheny soon took over on drums, followed by second guitarist Whitney Blank, and now Death Kit pair the crush of a limber five-piece rock band with the swirl and thrum of live electronica. Death Kit has played alongside Rough Trade’s Pantha Du Prince, Domino’s Max Tundra, Warp’s PVT, Cascine’s Evan Voytas and many more. Outlets including L.A.’s tastemaking radio station 89.9 KCRW, Buzzbands.la, L.A. Record, Rawkblog.net, Angeleno Magazine, Beatcrave.com, Style Section L.A., Passion of the Weiss and others have said very kind things.

“Devadasi” is Death Kit’s first single for Fort Lowell Records. There are shards of Liquid Liquid, Arvo Part, Sade and Basic Channel in it. A “devadasi” is a young woman conscripted into prostitution in the service of a Hindu deity. The B-side is a remix of “I Can Make You Love Me” by Fort Lowell peers and Tucsonan fellow-travelers …music video?.

Yes, August has a day job some of you may be familiar with, and he briefly played guitar for Fort Lowell’s Tracy Shedd when he was a teenager. Yes, Jessica and Whitney are in another Fort Lowell band, Wet & Reckless. No, you have not seen or heard anything like this in Los Angeles, or anywhere.


Previous Press Accolades for Death Kit

"What does the best synthpop song of the year sound like? Press play and find out." - Rawkblog.net

““Forlorn yet effective lyrics paired with firm, romantic guitar chords and earth shattering synth lines in songs such as “Devadasi” and “I Can Make You Love Me” made melancholy shockingly danceable.” - Beatcrave.com

“The bedroom answer to Friendly Fires. There’s subterfuge beneath Death Kit’s sheen. Is this the next great stalker anthem?” - Buzzbands.la

 

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