Well, this year's harvest time is finally done. Just finished up turning the last of the debris into bubble hash, so if this following post doesn't make much sense, blame it on that. I'm in a cloud.
This is going to be some kinda Not Not Fun mega-post. As I’ve said before, sometimes I start digging into these things & am amazed how one thing leads to another. Then soon I find myself entangled in a web of connectivity.
Established record labels like Rough Trade or Warp Records once started out as small DIY companies. The Los Angeles based labels Not Not Fun Records & 100% Silk are the DIY of today.
This past February Not Not Fun celebrated a decade of releasing music. Since 2004 Britt & Amanda Brown have released, produced, & composed music that is linked to an intuitive way of making music. The Browns are not slaves to musical trends. Their driving force seems to be sheer creativity. Their various musical projects are all over the genre & style map. They just go down to the basement, calls some friends, Amanda grabs a mic, hits record & says whatever she feels like saying. They don't care who does or doesn't 'get' their form of expression. They show no real regard for how their music will be received. They don't try to convey some sort of profound message & they sure aren't trying to change any lives. They just want to have fun.
The Brown's label specializes in lesser-known bands, mostly in L.A., making limited runs of vinyl records & cassette tapes. Drawing from rock, experimental, psychedelic, dub, noise, & house influences, the label has become home to many of the best Los Angeles indie musicians & artists. On NNF & Amanda’s other label 100% Silk, they have featured artists such as Peaking Lights, Maria Minerva, Ital, Dylan Ettinger, Sun Araw, High Wolf, & more. They have gained international fame for compositions that share one unifying intention: to expand the mind of each new listener. Britt & Amanda, co-founders, co-owners, & soul-mates have not only recorded & distributed many performers, but they have also themselves been in the groups Weirdo/Begeirdo, Robedoor, Topaz Rags, Barrabarracuda, Quintana Roo, Pocahaunted, & LA Vampires.
Here is a wide cross-section & scatter-shot presentation of some of their own personal musical creations.
The short-lived (2004-2005) Weirdo/Begeirdo were Britt Brown, & Amanda Holzer with various help from the likes of Claire Evans, Meagan Yellott, & Molly Rodgveller. Their full-length album So I'm Dude in This Equation delighted almost everyone who heard it, except music critics, who seemed mostly universally pissed off: "Sloppily destroyed & bored insider pun-pop". SIDiTE was recorded entirely on toy instruments that build to a truly frenetic climax.
Side A –
Sike
Currin & Joel Used to Live Downtown
Total Genius
Machine Gun Sounds
Hello Hi
Scrutin’s Eyes
Side B –
Saint Saint Marks
Is that Giovanni Ribisi
Our West is One
Put a Hat on Yr Love (Hate)
Love is a Violent Poison
Limited edition of 300 on pink marbled vinyl with a hand sewn sleeve.
Robedoor are the duo of Alex & Britt Brown (no relation). Their band's name is apparently derived from the practice of smoking Robitussin-soaked Doritos through a bong, which gives a good idea as to the hallucinogenic music the duo produce. A prolific band with more than 60 records, CDRs, & tapes that shuffle between doom, drone, psych, tribal stomp, & primal electronica. In their early releases their sound replicates the tiny suffocating rooms where the music was made. The music gradually progressed to a fuller & more exploratory sound with the addition of drummer M. Geddes Gengras. His subsequent departure forced the band to evolve once again, to streamline their sound.
Tracklist –
Untitled 1
Untitled 2
Untitled 3
Tracklist –
Ruined Raptures
Stained Glass
Scared Scared
Dreamed Redeemer
Amanda Brown & her friend Bethany Cosentino (of Best Coast) formed the duo Pocahaunted in 2005. The group released over a dozen albums, a few EPs/singles, & several split releases. They prefer vinyl & cassette formats over compact disc. Their releases often have handmade/hand-painted artwork often done by Brown herself. The group toured heavily after their inception. Cosentino left for New York to focus on her sunshine pop project Best Coast in 2009, necessitating a lineup overhaul for Pocahaunted which included the addition of husband Britt on guitar, Diva Dompe (of Blackblack) on bass guitar & vocals, Leyna Noel Tilbor (of Psychic Reality) on keyboards & vocals, & M. Geddes Gengras on drums. The band re-emerged in 2009 with a more upbeat, funk/rock based sound, while retaining dubby bass lines & an overall tribal sound.
They disbanded in August 2010.
"The Olsen twins of drone" as Pocohaunted was sometimes called are not one of my favorite bands, but I am including here a split release that they did with Robedoor.
CD1 Tracklist –
Plague of Settlers – R
Roman Nose – P
Crow Scout – P
Spectral Outpost – R
CD2 Tracklist –
Ancestress Moon – R
Warmest Knives – P
Razed Terrain – R
Hunted Gathering – R&P
As Topaz Rags, Eagle Rock’s most reclusive comedown crew creep back into the black-light for their vinyl debut with a pair of loosely focused excursions into cold soul music & post-beatnik jazz shadow-play. This is the soundtrack to the after-after party deep in some forgotten L.A. grotto. The 4am smoke clouds are a rallying moment to collect oneself in the calm æther before trying to make sense of what may be when that sun comes up. Topaz Rags provide some brief respite from the cruel & harsh reality of morning
Side A –
Tarot Harem
Side B –
Black Honey
Black vinyl singles in hand-silkscreened, photocopied, & die-cut sleeves with topless nature nymph/burnout artwork. Limited dition of 250. First 78 copies come with a different tarot card from a 1970s Aleister Crowley Thoth deck illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.
California Ash is Topaz Rags 2-sided elegy for the Golden State’s darkest ghosts, the rich hills full of fire the day after the kool-aid. Back-alley bass lines plod under smoky piano shadows, drums stalk a straight line in a house with the power out, a trumpet moans from a warped 78 spinning in the basement. Wasted, grey, DIY drug jazz lost somewhere between Bohren & Der Club of Gore & some half-destroyed pre-digital Portishead demo. Gold-on-white pro-dubbed cassettes in spray-painted cases with doomed hippie chick portrait cover photo bedecked with a hand-cut shred of neon palm tree fabric. Limited to an edition of 100.
Side A –
Untitled
Side B –
Untitled
Barrabarracuda is a classic pop-punk turned doom-skuzz band.
Tracklist –
Koresh Crush
For What its Worthless
Texarkanachrist
Maya Miller on the Cutting Room Floor
Give Me Shelter
Neon stenciled CDRs in black plastic cases with full-color wrap-around collage cover (artwork by Amanda Brown) affixed with beaded safety pins & a hand numbered insert, limited edition of 120.
From Various Artists - Thrash Sabbatical (12" & 2x7"), an elaborate box-set of vinyl, pairing Thurston Moore with a selection of Los Angeles acts. The box set includes amazing art designed/curated by Britt & Amanda Brown. (feat Thurston Moore / Men Who Can't Love / Barrabarracuda / Kevin Shields). On one split 7" Barrabarracuda here features Grace of Foot Village & Amanda of Pochahaunted on drums & vocals, plus Britt of Robedoor on guitar, & Nichole of Child Pornography on keyboard.
Since the demise of Pocahaunted, Amanda’s musical outpourings have been mostly confined to LA Vampires. On So Unreal, LA Vampires is Amanda Brown – vocals, tape manipulation, & keyboards & Britt Brown – bass with Matrix Metals providing the beats. Limited edition of 600.
Side A –
Make Me Over
How Would U Know
Don’t Dance Alone
Side B –
Berlin Baby
Still Goin’ Down
So Unreal
Side A –
Bone is Bloodstone
In the Desert
Searching
Vous
Side B –
Looking In
Eulogy
No No No
Enjoy,
NØ
