Archive for the 'Labels' Category

We Heart Arts & ACOSM Records Doing The Good Stuff


May 3, 2008
foggy ruins of time

Labels Music Video


Is that Shelby Sifers hiding behind that sign?

We Heart Arts is a truly wonderful organization that every Lo-Fi musician or anyone who believes in the power of creativity should get behind. It is non-profit and seeks to raise money for kid’s creative arts programs across the globe. Here are their tenants:

i. Creative arts teaches young people the value of lifelong active personal expressionism
ii. Creative arts teaches young people to question the world they live in
iii. Creative arts teaches young people that thinking outside of the box is an important mental function in life
iv. Creative arts teaches young people to engage in a social network of proactive young people invested in a community built on meaningful, sustained ideas and expressionism
v. Creative arts open up a world of opportunities for young people to grow and help others through arts therapy
vi. Creative arts can open up an avenue of communication for children with learning difficulties
vii. Creative arts can help children process and work through traumatic experiences
viii. Creative arts can provide peer interaction and a sense of community, independence and feelings of control

I for one agree whole-heartedly with these and in today’s world it is a whole lot harder to express yourself freely in the public sphere and kids shouldn’t be ashamed of what they create and love to do.

So if you want to support We Heart Arts in some way now is your chance. Write about it, make posters and take photos, make videos talking about it and buy the digital splits featuring so far Shelby Sifers, Eyes For Volume, Secret Owl Society and Fire Island, AK!

Here your chance to use your creativity to make a difference, and not just awareness either, but the more people take part the more things get done. Go!

My video for We Heart Arts:

In conjunction with We Heart Arts, ACOSM Records is a label that ya’ll are going to hear a lot about in the near future. Also started by Tony Cannings, he says this about ACOSM’s ideals; “Music is about passion, drive and the need to free you creatively from the monotony of everyday life. It’s about being flag bearers of a new cultural revolution, about having a voice and knowing how to use it, sometimes the quietest of voices can make the loudest noise!”

With recent closures or hiatuses of labels like Pop Monster and Valiant Death, we need labels like ACOSM to take up the new mantle of supporting the unbridled creativity of the Lo-Fi world. Like I said, big things will be happening soon, just you wait. But for now check out the likes of Lauren Elle and Everyone Except Me who are already on ACOSM getting the whole thing started.

Mp3s:
Lauren Elle-“I Wish My Heart Was A Stone”
Everyone Except Me-“50,000 Screaming Adolescents Can’t Be Wrong”

Links:
We Heart Arts on Myspace!
Buy The Digital Splits Here!
ACSOM Records
ACOSM Records on Myspace!
Lauren Elle on Myspace!
Everyone Except Me on Myspace!

Ghosts Never Die And Neither Will You!


February 20, 2008
foggy ruins of time

Collective Family Labels

I’m not sure if everyone knows, but Isaac of Blanketarms, Isaac Arms, The Spooky Ghosts, and the man behind the beloved Pop Monster Collective has called it quits. While I am deeply saddened we all do what we need to do and I’m just happy Isaac is letting the legacy live on by allowing us to post the entire discography onto CLLCT.com (or as much as possible). Today I personally put up Blanketarms’s masterful double album Sweet & Sour along with their side of the activist-minded One Small Fist split. I also put up Isaac’s solo record that I won’t shut up about. Russ of Tinyfolk is also working on uploading more material and if any of you have something that we might not have let us know!

I like to talk about how I got into lo-fi music a lot lately (or at least the events behind it) and I just remember Blanketarms being one of the first bands I listened to. The first song I heard was “Heartbreaker,” the version off of their tour CD-R (anyone have the entire disc?). I was transformed completely and utterly forever. I never heard something so raw, so honest and so unexpected. From that moment I had to find more. I was freshman in college and I was vulnerable and open and I wanted to consume everything lo-fi; luckily Pop Monster Collective was right around the corner. I immediately started snatching up records from Blanketarms, Tinyfolk, Real Live Tigers, Super Famicom, Jon Crocker; you name it I was listening to it. And not just Pop Monster either, but I would follow myspace top 8s to get to any artists that sounded like the perfect fit.

It wasn’t just about listening to all these wonderful artists, but it was about the spirit of DIY and how it didn’t matter if your guitar was a twenty-five dollar toy guitar, if it was broken, or if it was a thousand bucks. You could record your songs on cassettes using headphones, using iPod mics, or even the recording device that comes with windows; it didn’t matter. For the first time in my life I knew that if I made music someone would listen because in this community everyone was willing to give you a chance.

I mean I can honestly say that my entire train of thought was effectively altered forever because of Blanketarms, Pop Monster Collective, and all of you fine folks out there doing what you love no matter what. I grew up in place where most people had ZERO passion and suddenly discovering so many people who cared deeply about what they were doing inspired me to become a more driven and confident person.

So what I do is for all of you. I want to make Isaac proud, Pop Monster proud and all of you proud of what I do, you do, what we did, what we do and what we will do. We are all artists and no matter what, we always will be.

The legacy of Pop Monster Collective will never die and I suggest for those uninitiated check out every artist that was a part of that family.

Mp3s:
Blanketarms-“Heartbreaker (Unripe Version)”
Isaac Arms-“Us Vs. Stuff”
Real Live Tigers-“No Regrets”
Tinyfolk-“Dear Apollo”
Rambling Nicholas Heron-“Only This And Nothing More”
The Spooky Ghosts-“Ghoul’s Night Out”
Super Famicom-“I Evaporate”
LA Beard Club-“ Harder Than It Has to Be”

Links:
The Pop Monster Collective site
Pop Monster on myspace
CLLCT.com where the legacy lives on!

Blanketarms-”Ya Basta!”

Get up and out of bed and in your car and off to work

Complain cuz greatness passed and you’re just stuck with common jerks

So you’ve been lost so long just like a cog it’s not the end

And it won’t kill you to destroy yourself and start again

But I refuse to believe that no one gives a shit

And I think we, we watch ourselves sink

Just because we’re used to it

You know how nacho cheese it gets real stiff when you let it sit

Well I think your eyes are pale

And your soul is stale cuz you don’t do shit

Just ride a bike or read a book or send a letter home

Or build a new friendship cuz we weren’t meant to be alone

But I refuse to believe that no one gives a shit

And I think we, we watch ourselves sink

Just because we’ve given up

But enough is enough