Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Jay Berndt & The Orphans Team Up With J.B. Beverley & Buck Thrailkill

Damn right we have another great record coming up for pre-sale just shortly. The new artwork from Scott Bramble for the Jay Berndt & The Orphans and J.B. Beverley & Buck Thrailkill is turning out to be damn amazing. Here is the skinny on this one folks. The artwork, honors those that served and fought in the American Civil War. 100 copies will be on red vinyl and then 200 copies each in Gray and Blue.


Artwork by Scott Bramble for the new split 7" with Jay Berndt & The Orphans and J.B. Beverley and Buck Thrailkill

Willie Nelson Turns 80 And Keeps On Truckin'

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Or at least we hope a few things will continue to flourish as life continues on. Willie Nelson turns 80 today and for fans of all music genres, his mark on songwriting, live performances and country music as a whole, will forever be renowned. Congrats hoss on shaping the world around you, to be what you see fit. Having never followed convention and bucking all trends, you are hero amongst legends.

Read original post on Aquarium Drunkard

Willie_Nelson_1978
The red headed stranger on stage and doing what he knows best

"On Tuesday, Willie Nelson will turn eighty years old. If you happen to have caught him live lately, that might take you by surprise. Willie won’t be the first touring octogenarian — Ralph Stanley’s still on the road at 86; Chuck Berry, who is the same age, is still banging around St. Louis; and Yoko Ono, 80, was alive and screaming on last year’s collaboration with Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore. Even the Old Possum George Jones made the rounds right up to his death last week at the age of 81. But on-stage, Willie seems nearly ageless. His band might have lost a step in the last few years, but Willie, if anything, has only gotten better over the past decade or so. Despite (or perhaps because of) his battles with carpal tunnel, his playing has become freer, slightly more impressionistic, pushing him as near to the avant-garde as anyone who’s shared the stage with Toby Keith can reasonably get. This is not hyperbole.

willie leon russell
Shotgun Willie and a cold can of Budweiser
But what truly separates him from his peers, aged or otherwise, is the songs. When Phosphorescent released their 2009 tribute album To Willie, we declared Willie to be “a master of the human condition, a lonely and frustrated chronicler of the Great Country Virtues — whiskey, Jesus, sin, redemption, murder, love doubt — plucking great stabs of heartache and celebration like so many nylon guitar strings.” Even at his age, having played the majority of the songs on his nightly setlist for over forty years, he still seems to know this about himself, or at least about his work as a writer and performer; he’ll goof his way through “Me and Paul,” raising his eyebrows ironically at drummer Paul English as he recounts their Nixon-era exploits, but when he shifts into “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” or “I Never Cared for You,” he sells it like the heartbreak’s still fresh. As long as those songs are around, it will be.

In honor of the eightieth birthday of The World’s Greatest Living American, here’s ten of his slightly lesser-known tracks, a Willie Nelson 201.

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In 1956, Willie worked as a radio announcer in Vancouver, Washington, and sold a simple gospel song called “Family Bible” for a mere $50. Though it was his first sale, and the song became somewhat canonical in the world of country gospel, Willie’s take on it wouldn’t find a home on an album until 1971′s morality tale Yesterday’s Wine. (Oddly enough, the track would warrant an album of its own in 1980). The song itself is more of a nod to the culture of Christianity than it is an actual spiritual song. Over tasteful fiddles and pedal steel, Willie remembers the family gathering around the table to hear Bible stories and his mother’s faithful strains of “Rock of Ages.” When he finally gets to the moral — “This old world would better be / If we’d find more Bibles on the tables” – we have to wonder whether Willie’s more in favor of the Word of God or the spiritual bonds of family and memory, or whether we can even have one without the other.

Willie Nelson :: Family Bible

Kicking off with a jagged Spanish guitar run, “I Never Cared for You” is Willie’s first great kiss-off. It slides quickly into Willie’s voice, solo with reverb. “The sun was full of ice and gave no warmth at all,” Willie sings. “I never cared for you.” And just like that, a loping Mexican rhythm fills in behind him and he’s in the saddle, riding out of town with his back to Main Street. Soon enough, he’d retire from country music and leave Nashville, retreating to the hills of Austin, Texas, where he’d emerge several years later, reenergized and playing a rock and folk infused version of country music that would scare Nashville out of its platinum pants.

Willie Nelson :: I Never Cared for You

By 1973, Willie Nelson needed a hit of his own. He’d left Nashville something of a failure; Ray Price and Patsy Cline had made household names of “Night Life” and “Crazy,” respectively, but Willie had yet to score one on his own. Back in Texas, Willie penned “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” a lament for, well, lamentation. Willie, always the gentleman, tells his ex-lover that he’s writing a song about her but, not to worry, as no one would ever hear it. “Sad songs and waltzes aren’t selling this year,” he explains, a pedal steel dragging behind him. Though Shotgun Willie was a critical smash, it would be a few more years before the sad songs and waltzes on Red Headed Stranger would sell in the millions.

Willie Nelson :: Sad Songs and Waltzes

willie_nelson
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings
A hit for Roy Orbison and the opening title track from one of the few essential Christmas records in any genre, “Pretty Paper” is more a moral quandary than celebration of the season. Coming at the end of a nine-album streak of classic albums that concerned themselves as much with morality, Christian devotion, and the afterlife as they did with drinking and loving, “Pretty Paper” is one of Willie’s more complex songs. Though it moves slowly, with all the tenderness of new lovers on their first Christmas, its stroll takes it downtown, to the shopping crowds, where it tries to avoid the gaze of the beaten-down. The narrator struggles with whether or not he should stop and help, and we’re left with the laughing down the streets, muffling the cries of what’s right in front of us.

Willie Nelson :: Pretty Paper (Pretty Paper)

While still a brokedown songwriter going by his middle name of Hugh, Willie charmed Charlie Dick, Patsy Cline’s husband, over drinks at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, eventually convincing him to pitch “Crazy” to his wife. Surprisingly, Patsy hated Willie’s speak-singing style and dismissed the track; it wasn’t until her producer, Owen Bradley, re-arranged it into a ballad that she sang it, rocketing its melody up and and down the scale with gold-straw precision. Willie’s original version captures more of the song’s darkness, though, his voice sounding as if it were recorded in the alleyway between Tootsie’s and the Opry.

Willie Nelson :: Crazy

The live version of “Stay All Night (Stay A Little Longer)”, from 1978′s Willie and Family Live, showcases Willie’s fleet-fingered picking and the power-oomph of the Family Band, Willie near-rapping over the top like a newscaster — “You can’t go home if you’re going by the mill, cos the bridge washed out at the bottom of the hill.” This version, from 1973′s Shotgun Willie, finds the Family more subdued. They’re playing behind the party here, a bit weary, slightly resigned but not completely given over to the idea of staying a little longer.

Willie Nelson :: Stay All Night (Stay A Little Longer)

“Down Yonder,” a barroom-piano driven instrumental track written in 1921 by Russian-born composer L. Wolfe Gilbert, has somehow emerged as one of the most enduring tracks from Willie’s most popular album. Thanks in no small part to “Little” Sister Bobbie Nelson’s fleet-fingered piano playing, “Down Yonder” has remained a live staple in the Family’s set for thirty-plus years.
Willie Nelson :: Down Yonder

willie-nelson
Willie Nelson On Stage in the 1970's

Country music has a tendency to amplify everyday realities, which is a sterile way of saying that when country musicians sin, they sin hard. This live track from 1977 finds Willie up Whiskey River without any semblance of a paddle. Jerry Jeff keeps him in the hold until the M-O-T-H-E-R spellout at the song’s center. “M is for the pickup truck,” Willie begins, and it doesn’t get any better from there. He eventually spells out “M-R-E-A-R” (that first R being for “reverse on the pickup truck”) in what has to be one of the most bizarre, embarrassing, and hilarious moments a major star has ever allowed to be released. Still, the thumping drums, Jerry Jeff’s bark, and the clarinets honking in the background make it sound like it was one hell of a party.

Willie Nelson :: Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother (via Jerry Jeff Walker’s A Man Must Carry On)

Some songs are bigger than any one performer. Neither of these songs were written by Willie, nor are they necessarily associated more with him than with any other artist, but when the Family Band launches into spiritual mode after two and a half hours of hardcore country music, there’s no better celebration in the world. Willie’s hands are tired from having plucked away at Trigger, his face is sweaty but (always) smiling, and his one index finger is pointing heavenward in a move he stole from Billy Graham and made his own. The beer halls clap their hands and stomp their feet on wooden boards, gone off hard to the same place that audiences have been going for years. Sometimes it takes good country music to help us clap our hands again.

Willie Nelson :: Will the Circle Be Unbroken / I’ll Fly Away

“Willie Nelson’s reggae record” seems more like a headline on The Onion than an actual reality, and, true to form, most of Countryman is a misguided joke. But the centerpiece, a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s classic “The Harder They Come,” finds the project at its height. Over the reggae backbeat and Mickey Raphael’s stuttering harmonica, Willie strums a steel-stringed acoustic while a Jamaican-accented choir coos. The result is something that pays equal tribute to both country and reggae without feeling at all contrived. words/ m garner"

Willie Nelson :: The Harder They Come

Who Is Actually Touring With Black Flag?

Curious as to what version of Black Flag is playing Muddy Roots this year out in Tennessee? Well, so are we. Found this article over on Rolling Stone about the lineup and just who may be playing in the band. I know quite a few folks dig Ron Reyes as the singer, but I always dug Henry Rollins over the rest of them. Rise Above!

Check out original article over on Rolling Stone


Pro Skater Mike Vallely managing Black Flag?
"There's a simple answer for Black Flag fans who are confused about why two different versions of the band are touring this year: it's about money, says Mike Vallely, who manages the lineup featuring founder and guitarist Greg Ginn. 

That's the version touring as Black Flag, with singer Ron Reyes and drummer Gregory Moore. Also, former band members Keith Morris, Dez Cadena, Chuck Dukowski and Bill Stevenson are performing Black Flag songs in concert this year under the name Flag.

"Keith and all the ex-band members through the years have been wanting to do Black Flag again, but they've been wanting to do it on their terms," Vallely tells Rolling Stone. "They see a shitload of money sitting there and they want it, and they want Greg to open the gates and give them the keys and let their Century City machine come in and run the show, and have Greg be their guitar player. But that's not what fucking Black Flag is about, man."

Apart from a brief reunion in 2003, the pioneering hardcore band had been largely dormant since splitting in 1986. Then, after years of releasing music on his own and with various side projects, Ginn announced in January that he was re-teaming with Reyes and Moore for a tour and a new album as Black Flag, a move that Vallely says was nearly a decade in the making. "Greg and I had been talking about doing something together since 2003," says Vallely, who is also a professional skateboarder.

That something turned out to be Good for You, a punk band with Vallely on vocals and Ginn on guitar. The group released its debut, Life Is Too Short to Not Hold a Grudge, in February on Ginn's SST Records. Good for You seemed to signal that Ginn was ready to return to punk rock, and at the same time the guitarist was working with Vallely, he was talking to Reyes about reviving Black Flag – but not just to play nostalgia sets.

"He doesn't want it to be about a reunion, or just some sort of greatest-hits act," Vallely says. "It's not Beatlemania, you know; for him it's about the music. So there has to be new music for him to even consider playing the old music."

On the other side of this is Flag. Morris, who fronted Black Flag from 1976-79, told Rolling Stone in February that convening as Flag "wasn't premeditated" and "is not in spite of anybody." The singer, who went on to play with the Circle Jerks and later Off!, said, "We're celebrating the fact that we're at the age that we're at and people still love this music. And we're still capable of playing it."

Black Flag plan to release a new album at some point this summer to coincide with a tour that will keep them on the road in North America and Europe starting in May and continuing through August. Vallely says the new songs are "definitely spirited."

"It's definitely the sort of sound that people who love Black Flag, who are Black Flag fans, will be looking for," he says. "It's not a departure from Black Flag at all. It has evolved, but Black Flag was always evolving. Greg's guitar playing is Greg's guitar playing: he has a certain tone and style.""





The Gorgeous Michelle Zwaal

Friday, April 26, 2013

Want Some Advice How To Make Your Band Rule, Listen To Phil Anselmo

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Reno Divorce Featured On JFA Tribute Album

Reno Divorce is one of the featured bands on the JFA tribute album, All In!
Need a healthy dose of punk rock in your veins? We thought so. Here is the skinny for ya. Reno Divorce is going to be one of the featured bands on the brand new JFA tribute album being released by DC Jam Records. Check out the full lineup below. Album will be available on July 18th.

Jonny 2 Bags
East Bay Ray
Agression
Mike Watt & The Missingmen
The Faction
The Bots
Frontside Five
Dirty Filthy Mugs
Downtown Brown
Reno Divorce
Rudy Schwartz Project
McRad
The Lonesome Ones
Minus-One
Just Because
Scarcity of Tanks
Dave Bedore w/ Kevin Staab
The Plain Dealers
Alan Bishop

Want To Hear And Support Real Country Music? Read On...

Check out original post on Saving Country Music

There’s been much talk so far this year about how the women of country are outpacing the men when it comes to the quality of music, and we’ve talked about possible reasons why that is. But we haven’t talked about some of the men that if simply given a chance, could shoot an immediate injection of substance into the country music format. They just need similar chances to their female counterparts.

It’s not that the men of country have any less talent. One of the problems is that many talented country men are making their way to Americana, tired of beating their heads against Music Row’s walls, and not wanting to be lumped in with the laundry list arena rock or country rap currently plaguing the mainstream male country ranks. If country music can’t facilitate the rise of their careers, country will lose their talent to other avenues.

A lack of talent has never been country music’s problem, it’s been recognizing that talent and allowing it to thrive by expressing its originality and creativity. Here are seven men that right now could enter into prominent positions in the country format and immediately make it better.


Sturgill Simpson

If you wanted one name, one man to watch in country music in 2013, that name would be Sturgill Simpson. Poised to take the country music world by storm (or at least the independent side of things), Sturgill’s debut solo album High Top Mountain is going to blow the doors off of country music when it’s released on June 11th. Sturg is already making waves out there on the road opening for Dwight Yoakam, and has one of the best management and booking teams behind him. Everything is in place. The next question is, will country music pay attention?




Will Hoge




The truth is you’re already hearing Will Hoge on mainstream country radio, you’re just hearing his songs being sung by others. Hoge is one of those songwriters that has been right on the brink of breaking through for 15 years, but has always just been one important puzzle piece away. Eli Young Band had a #1 hit last year with Will’s song “Even If It Breaks Your Heart,” and at the time the songwriter didn’t even have a publishing deal. Recently Lady Antebellum recorded his song “Better Off Now.”

Will is now signed to BMG Nashville as a songwriter, and has been signed as a performer to Atlantic Records and Rykodisc in the past. Though Will has struggled to find the exact right opportunity to take his music to the next level, he is a battle-tested performer, a proven songwriter with commercially-viable material, and an artist the industry is familiar with that could immediately step in amongst country music’s mainstream men and bring more substance to the format, open up new themes, and hopefully challenge other male performers and writers to release more formidable material.


Whitey Morgan

Whitey Morgan and his band The 78′s are the authentic, modern-day extension of country music’s true Outlaw country movement. It doesn’t get more hard country and honky tonk than this. Music Row’s batch of fake Outlaws will only be able to go so far before the American public wakes up to the fact they’ve been sold a bill of goods. Whitey Morgan is country music’s “new Outlaw” for the long haul.




Evan Felker & the Turnpike Troubadours

With Evan Felker and the Turnpike Troubadours, the question is not if, but when. You may not be able to find a better example of a songwriter that can bring true country substance yet still find appeal with the masses. Like Hootie taking Old Crow’s “Wagon Wheel” to #1, Felker songs like “Every Girl” “7 & 7″ and “Good Lord, Lorrie” are just screaming to be cut by a bigger name, letting the rest of the world know what a treasure the Texoma region has in this young and exciting band. The hardest thing for a Red Dirt / Texas country band to do is make that transition from regional stars to national recognition, and to do it without streaking their hair with highlights or releasing songs with obviously aims at radio success. The next couple of years are very critical for this band, but if Nashville had any sense, they’d hop on the Turnpike Troubadours bandwagon now.




John Fullbright

A former Turnpike Troubadour himself, and a former member of the Mike McClure band, John Fullbright became a serious force in the music world when he released his critically-acclaimed From The Ground Up album last year that rose all the way to winning the young man from Bearden, Oklahoma a Grammy nomination for Best Americana Album. Isn’t it just like Americana to snatch up all of country’s promising male talent? But with the strength of his songs, John Fullbright could find a home in both country and Americana if he wished. At only 25-years-old (it’s his birthday today), the sky’s the limit for this emerging talent.




Leroy Virgil & Hellbound Glory

Leroy and Hellbound Glory on the Rebel Soul Tour with Kid Rock
If you’re wondering where our generation’s Keith Whitley or Chris Ledoux is, look no further. Though Leroy will probably never play Nashville’s game, he’s got country music’s most formidable song catalog just waiting to be cherry picked and matched up with top-tier talent. In the meantime, Leroy and his band Hellbound Glory could be playing sold-out big club/theater shows and headlining grassroots festivals.

Virgil and Hellbound Glory are fresh off opening for Kid Rock on a nationwide arena tour and signing with the prestigious Agency Group for booking. It may be only a matter of months before we stop complaining of why Hellbound Glory isn’t bigger, and start proclaiming that they’ve made it. Time may be running out to get on board with Leroy Virgil at the ground level and enjoy the rise.



Dirty River Boys

If country music was looking for its rough equivalent of Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, and other acoustic string bands that are all the rage right now, look no further than El Paso, TX’s Dirty River Boys. Way more than just Americana’s version of a boy band, The Dirty River Boys have a grit and authenticity to them many of these other bands so woefully lack. Yet the Dirty River Boys can still can engage large crowds in sincere singalongs that tap into that sense of camaraderie that many music fans are looking for these days.



Monday, April 22, 2013

Awesome Split 7" Record with Jay Berndt and J.B. Beverley In The Works


Well, we might as well let the cat out of the bag about another one of the great releases that is coming out through Rusty Knuckles Music this summer. Read the below post from Jay Berndt's email blast:

"We're also working on a split 7" with our friends JB Beverley (The Bad Habits, The Murder Junkies) & Buck Thrailkill on Rusty Knuckles Records sometime in July 2013. We're teaming up again with my old friend, tattoo artist and "Sad Bastard Songs" cover artist, Scott Bramble of Mercury Tattoo. Since JB is from Virginia & we're from Rhode Island, and Scott does amazing Civil War paintings... We have some awesome cover art on deck for this. Here's some work in progress shots."

Is the south rising again or is a battlefield about to happen

Ulysses S. Grant being drawn up by Scott Bramble


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Flat Tires Release New Audio Sample For Split 7" Record With History Repeated

Wanna hear a killer track for the perfect sing along and throwing beer to at the next Flat Tires show? Wait no longer. Let the good those Summer Time tunes flow and get yer asses out to their shows, as the Flat Tires are hitting stages with a fury.

The brand new split 7" is on pre-order and shares the vinyl with none other than History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue. These are already moving fast, after one day on pre-sale, so reserve your copy now.

Both of the the bands have also granted us exclusive content to be used as bonus material that will only be on the vinyl and no where as a digital download. Trust us, after hearing what transpires, buying the vinyl is worth these extra tracks.

Have a listen...



Crazy eye Clint of the Flat Tires diggin' the new split 7" artwork, done up by Rusty Knuckles

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Record Store Day At Rusty Knuckles Music

It makes us damn proud to be able to offer up for sale, two amazing new vinyl records. Up first is the brand new Carolina Still 12" vinyl record on translucent Red, Green and Blue featuring twelve tracks of some the best Americana music you will hear in all of 2013. Have a listen and order your copy now...

Carolina Still - The Color Of Rust on CD and 12" vinyl

Carolina Still - The Color Of Rust on 12" vinyl in translucent Red, Green & Blue

Now if you want to get onto the rowdier side of life, the Flat Tires have layed down another barn burner of a track called Summer Time. The Flat Tires are teaming up with legendary DC hardcore front man John Stabb of Government Issue with a track from his new band called History Repeated. Their track is entitled The Sound and is a tasty slab of Post Punk that will leave you clamoring for more. 

Order your copy now

Flat Tires split 7" with History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue

Flat Tires split 7" with History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue

Flat Tires split 7" with History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue on 5 colors of vinyl

William Elliot Whitmore, Bares His Soul

From the very first song that I ever saw William Elliot Whitmore perform, I was hooked. It wasn't about how great of a guitar phenom he was, or what kind of gear he was using. Those details are just ancillary towards the performance he brings to the stage.

Many folks just go through the motions, when putting their songs onto the loud speaker. William bares his soul. Not just for a song, but for the duration of time that he controls the pulpit. Pick up his albums and check out more of his work.


Will Twitter #Music Be The New Source Of Discovery?

In the coming weeks the new twitter #music is going to ignite quite a few things. Will it reinvigorate a music industry that is constantly morphing, not hardly. What it will do though is allow for a constant searching of new music and testing the waters on bands that are fresh to the ears. That indeed is a great option. 

A colleague once said over lunch one day, that there aren't any new great bands. It is exactly the inverse. There is so much great music and everyone now has an equal voice when it comes to leveraging social media. The difficulty is that it is just a bit harder to find the music you want to enjoy with the amount of viable options. Twitter will now be a great source for promoting your music so get ta steppin'. The world is waiting for the next great band to be heard.

Read the post on Wired.com

Our selection of music that was suggested via twitter #music
"At first glance, Twitter’s entry into the music business today may be a bit of a head-scratcher. The service had barely launched before people were questioning why Twitter would even want its own music app. But really, it’s simple: Twitter Music is all about getting you to spend more quality time with Twitter. It’s about everybody’s favorite buzzword: engagement.
The app itself works by showing you what’s popular on Twitter, what new artists are emerging, the things people you follow are listening to, and suggestions based on your activity. It also lets you play tracks themselves right in the app–full tracks if you have a Rdio or Spotify account, or 30 second iTunes previews if you don’t. The bottom line of all this is that it’s a place for you to go and find new artists and then (and here’s the part that matters for Twitter) follow and promote them.

Much of the logic behind Twitter Music is based on what the company has learned about the things people already do there, according to an industry source familiar with the launch. People love to follow celebrities on Twitter, and especially musicians. The company notes explicitly in its blog post announcing Twitter Music, “Many of the most-followed accounts on Twitter are musicians, and half of all users follow at least one musician.” (In fact, almost all of the top ten most-followed users are musicians.) Another behavior the company has picked up on is that people often talk to each other about music. They tweet about songs they like, they link to artists, they retweet the things their favorite pop stars say. Twitter wanted to do something to enhance that experience. It thinks Twitter Music will do that–for users, artists, and ultimately the company itself.

It’s a smart play to get more musicians to become more active on Twitter. Let’s say you are Lady Gaga. When your new single drops, you can now use Twitter Music to send it out to every one of your 36 million followers–and they can play it without even leaving Twitter, thanks to Twitter Cards. Her followers can retweet that, effectively amplifying your 36 million strong following by an order of magnitude. Because website can embed tweets, complete with media, news organization and bloggers can take the original Tweet and drop it in a story so people can play the track all across the Web. And if enough people Tweet it, that song hits the Popular tracks page. Which means even more people hear it. It’s an upward spiral You can also imagine what happens to the obscure artist if a Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber tweets one of their new tracks. It’s got amazing viral possibilities that are great for artists, which means they’re more likely to be active on Twitter. And as it turns out, musicians are one of Twitter’s more vital assets.

You can see some evidence of that in the new account sign up process. For years, one of the company’s biggest problems was the “now what” dilemma people faced after creating an account. It meant people signed up, and then abandoned. To keep you coming back it has to get you connected with people you find interesting. It turns out we tend to find musicians pretty interesting. So one way Twitter found to lick that “now what” problem is to hook you up with a friendly neighborhood rock star when you create an account. Today when someone signs up for Twitter, after filling out a profile, it prompts them to follow five suggested users, and those suggestions tend to overwhelmingly be musicians. When Wired created a new account to test the user suggestions, we were hit again and again with suggestions for Usher, Pink, Demy Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, and Victoria Justice. (I had to look that last one up.)

You also can bet that it’s going to take what it learns from Twitter Music to improve existing users’ who to follow suggestions. Feed it just a little preference data, and Twitter’s going to be able to extrapolate from that and make other relevant suggestions based on the things everyone else is feeding it.

And finally, there’s potential for this to just plain work as a way to help you find new music. It’s already abundantly clear how important social is to music discovery. The social aspects of Rdio and Spotify are some of their strongest features. Facebook has become, by way of those two services, something akin to a pop chart of your friends favorite songs. Likewise, Ping’s poor social implementation explains why it never went anywhere.

Yet if you look at your friends’ streams on Rdio or Spotify or Facebook, what you see is more or less a firehose of tracks. You get the bad with the good, the stuff they’re just listening to in the background, the stuff they play for their kids to keep them happy in the back of the van, the stuff they may listen to once and decide they don’t like. Because Twitter Music looks at the things people are actively Tweeting about, it’s a pretty safe assumption that this is music they are actively excited about. Which in turn gets other people to go check it out and, just maybe, follow a new artist.

Music discovery lets Twitter be in the music industry without competing with the music industry. It lets it continue to be a media company that doesn’t actually make media. It’s becoming increasingly obvious with everything Twitter does that it wants to be the place where you interact with media. It already is our second screen. It’s where you talk about the shows you watch with hashtags. You hear tracks from your favorite artists. You see preview clips of TV shows, and even the lead paragraph of stories you may want to read. Twitter is the second screen wonderland where media goes to explode–or at least that’s the idea. And Twitter Music is another cog in that machine. Sure, it’s insane, but it’s insane in the best possible way.

All of which makes Twitter Music smart on a number of levels. It encourages musicians to get on board. It has tools to drive people to be more active and engaged. It gives it yet more power as the go-to second screen provider. It has potential to be a killer a new music discovery tool. And, honestly, it’s also just pretty fun."

Feature On Traffic Ent. From New York Times

Ever get that shit eatin' grin after you have made a great decision? Sure ya have. C'mon, we are all guilty of it and for me personally, I couldn't wipe that smile off my face for a few hours tonite thinking on who we are getting our vinyl records distributed through now.

Earlier this year we inked a deal with Traffic Ent. out of the Boston area. They are primarily known for their hip hop and electronic music, but are growing the rock, punk and underground country roster. I have the utmost confidence in their sales and overall investment in Rusty Knuckles as a label to bring us into their network. 

Great work fellas and awesome feature in the New York Times. Huge shout out to Lou, Adam and Jimmy White for making all of this happen.

Link to the article on the New York Times

Article about Traffic Entertainment, who is our vinyl distributor
"MALDEN, MASS. — In a large — but not quite large enough — warehouse here earlier this month, a young man was shrink-wrapping a set of chess pieces by hand. On the other side of the room, another young man was taking those packages and placing them, along with four vinyl LPs, a sticker sheet and a booklet, into a larger box, creating a somewhat ornate treatment for a deluxe edition of “Liquid Swords,” the 1995 debut album by Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA.
 

That album went gold in its day but is better remembered as a favorite of connoisseurs. Now some of those same connoisseurs are the minds and hands behind the record label Get On Down, which since 2010 has primarily specialized in deluxe reissues of hip-hop albums, and which has been slowly redefining the role and shape of the reissue in the digital age. 

The reissue market, more than the market for new music, tests what it means to be a fan and consumer of music when music itself has declining value — look hard enough, and almost any album one might want exists online, either legally and cheap, or illegally and free. 

Given that, a traditional reissue campaign — cramming together previously available material in bulk, and selling it at a premium to die-hards — seems conceptually dead in the water. A logical response to that is to unearth previously unheard material and sell that, but Get On Down takes a different approach. 

A reissue of MF Doom’s “Operation: Doomsday,” including a lunchbox and trading cards.
“We’re trying to make that emotional connection,” said Matt Welch, one of the label’s owners, in his office at the warehouse. Music, he insists, still has real worth — just maybe not the same kind it’s always had. “The energy, the connection associated to that music, that imagery has such a value that can be projected onto myriad different things,” he continued. “And it’s all still coming from this thing that’s supposedly losing value. We see it as the value’s still there, it just has to be applied to something different.” 

What that’s meant is a series of totemic items that begin with a classic hip-hop album, but turn into full souvenir/fetish item experiences, made either for Get On Down or in partnership with another label. For MF Doom’s “Operation: Doomsday,” there was a lunchbox with trading cards. For Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...,” there was a piano lacquer box atop which rested a copy of the album on cassette, colloquially known as the Purple Tape. Nas and Ghostface Killah received gold-disc treatment, and the Pharcyde got an elaborate record box including 7-inch singles from its first album. For Ol’ Dirty Bastard, there was a wallet; for the Fat Boys, a pizza box. 

“Me and you know it as a music box set,” Mr. Welch said. “A 20-year-old kid sees it as a life style thing.” 

But also the hip-hop audience is aging into maturity and craves shelf items that speak to their passions. For each of these projects, the music is at the center but is perhaps not the raison d’être. “If there wasn’t any music on the Raekwon cassette, how long would it be before anyone noticed?” Mr. Welch wondered. 

A Get On Down Record Store Day exclusive featuring two flexi-discs with old-school rap songs that use the Roland TR-909 drum machine.
Get On Down is owned by Mr. Welch, Joe Mansfield and Adam DeFalco. (The three also own Traffic, a distributor that shares the warehouse and that does robust business in vinyl.) The label has become something of a home for refugees from Boston’s hip-hop scene — Mr. Mansfield produced the first album by Ed O.G. and da Bulldogs, and George Andrinopoulos, the label’s general manager, is better known as the D.J. and producer 7L, who’s released music with the rappers Inspectah Deck and Esoteric (He also released an excellent rarities mixtape with Mr. Welch several years ago.) 
Most contemporary specialty reissue houses like the Numero Group or Now-Again excavate and lavish attention on unloved, often unknown corners of music history. Sometimes Get On Down — which makes limited quantities of its issuings — focuses on rarities, but primarily it’s interested in repackaging moments. Mr. Welch likened the projects to Criterion Collection DVDs, or limited edition sneaker releases, retail experiences that energize a dedicated and passionate fan base. Mr. Mansfield said the company is planning expansions into music-themed merchandise. 

Even though Get On Down often releases items with little advance warning — the label is fiercely secretive about future projects — they frequently sell out quickly. (Some items are sold at retail, some are sold exclusively on the label’s Web site, getondown.com.) 

The model is still relatively untested, meaning that even pricing strategies haven’t been fully codified. One afternoon early this month, several employees were gathered around a computer in the warehouse trying to divine the magic price for the deluxe version of “Twelve Reasons to Die,” a collaboration between Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge, which was limited to 100 copies. $124.98? $149.98? A more concise version of the set — limited to 400 copies — was already locked in at $59.98, but the topline was anyone’s guess. They settled on $139.98, thinking that would ensure healthy demand for both sets, though a couple of hours later, when Mr. Welch checked the first sales numbers, as many people had bought the expensive one as the cheaper one. 

Get On Down’s coming projects include the GZA chess box, which is one of the label’s special products made for Record Store Day (on Saturday), a marketing initiative that aims to keep fans of music going into stores, and keep stores that sell music in business; a box set of the independent hip-hop group Non Phixion; and a coffee-table book about drum machines by Mr. Mansfield. There are also several other projects in various stages of completion, as the label is beginning to field calls from a wider range of artists looking for what Mr. Welch calls “the Cadillac treatment.” 

“The litmus test for any release is, ‘Would we buy this or not?’ ” Mr. Welch said. “We’re kind of creating the ultimate fan experience for ourselves, like, ‘How dope would it be if we could...?’ And then we try to do that.”"

Friday, April 19, 2013

Ashes & Angels Studio Sessions, With Fifth On The Floor

"Behind the scenes of the album's recording with Producer Shooter Jennings. Commentary by Fifth On The Floor and Shooter, with guest vocals on "Wine" by Rachel Brooke."

I Tell Ya Folks, It's Harder Than It Looks...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sneak Peak At New Flat Tires Split 7" Vinyl Record

Sometimes ya just gotta shock the system and shake things up. We wanted to dome something really different and interesting, in the art style, on the new split 7" coming up with the Flat Tires and History Repeated (featuring John Stabb of Government Issue). This record will be screen printed on heavyweight paper in two colors. We will also be making it über limited edition by printing it in 5 colors of vinyl and limited to 500 copies. Pre-sales will be live on Friday afternoon.


Flat Tires new split 7" vinyl art for screen print with History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue
Flat Tires new split 7" vinyl art for screen print with History Repeated, featuring John Stabb of Government Issue

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Fidlar Equals The Love Of Cheap Beer

Nothing is better than finding some new tunes that are flat out infectious. Thank you Fidlar for making the background music of the day. Stoked and Broke is our favorite jam on this album!

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