The Null Device
Posts matching tags 'k records'
2012/5/9
K Records has a new interview with Rose Melberg of The Softies, Tiger Trap, Go Sailor and her new project, Brave Irene, in which she talks about the creative process behind her projects:
It was pretty formulaic; I’d pretty much write a song and then take it to Jen, and then we’d write her guitar part and harmony together. We’d never collaborate lyrically. One person would write, and so it was never super collaborative, but that extra guitar brought so much. Sometimes we’d actually write Jen’s part note by note by note. Like, I would point to the fret board and say, “That one!” because there was one specific note that I wanted to hear right at that time. Sometimes it took a while, because the parts were quite complicated and weird, seeing as they were just a series of notes. But I love her sense of humor about it. I know how difficult it must have been for her to deal with me trying to get these specific notes, so I appreciate that she can laugh about it now.
During the beginning of the Softies, our rule was that if we couldn’t recreate it live, we didn’t do it on the record. I hate the production end of songs, and a lot of what I do is more accidental. On the last Softies record [Holiday in Rhode Island (KLP119)], we made a conscious decision to add more things, but it was really just for fun. That continued with my solo stuff, but still I really just want the songs to be recorded.Rose mentions that, while she has been playing instruments in other people's bands recently, she is still writing songs, and hints at new Softies material. She and Jen recently played the first Softies gigs in 12 years at the Chickfactor 20th anniversary shows in the US (subtitle: “Doing It In Spite Of The Kids”), and said that they enjoyed playing together again so much that they are thinking of writing and recording more songs together.
For what it's worth, there are videos from the Brooklyn leg of the Chickfactor shows here. For those in the UK, Rose will be playing at this year's Indietracks festival.
2010/5/11
Legendary Pacific Northwest indie label K Records are launching a new, download-only singles club. From July, the K Singles Zip-Pak will give you at least two MP3s from established and new artists. The price is US$50 a year, though it's $45 if you sign up before the end of May.
2005/4/15
Following this year's rerelease of the entire Field Mice back-catalogue on CD, LTM are turning their attention to another Sarah Records band: The Orchids:
Unofficially there is a rumour about the reissue of the complete Sarah Records catalogue of The Orchids in the next autumn. Three CDs are in the plans but the track list is still in progress.
Uncharacteristically, the band appears to still be together and planning to play live in the summer; not only that, but they have 8 new songs too.
Anyway, it's good to see Sarah material being remastered and rereleased; the whole lot has, naturally, been available on various file-sharing services, though MP3s recorded from well-loved vinyl records at home tend to be of variable quality. Anyway, hopefully LTM or someone will get around to putting out some Blueboy next, and/or Even As We Speak. It'd be nice to see some of the more obscure stuff like The Sweetest Ache and Gentle Despite come out as well, though that's probably less likely.
As far as Sarah Records rereleases on other labels go, US shoegazer imprint Clairecords has a CD with most of Secret Shine's releases (which is worth getting; they're right up there with the best of the shoegazer movement of the early 1990s), and, of course, Olympia skronk merchants K Records have everything Heavenly and Talulah Gosh ever released, all on individual CDs.