The Raleigh News Blog (New Raleigh) asked a bunch of us to write out what we’re hoping to catch at Hopscotch this year. I decided to deprive myself of a little sleep, have a beer or two and see where my fingers would take my thoughts on the subject. It was a fun assignment! Thanks to New Raleigh for asking me to do it, I was honored!

Read it here.

Other contributors: The New Raleigh writers and editors of course (Ladye Jane, Jedidiah, Stacey, Khaner, Acree Graham), Kelly Crisp (of the Rosebuds), Brad Cook (of Megafaun), Ross Grady (of WXDU/TriangleRock) and Grayson Currin (of It’s Reigning Men, Man Blossom…oh, and one of the curators of the fest).

Thanks!!

Something’s afoot at Bull City Records. Today seems to have a mission.

Hmmmmm.

About a year ago I decided my creepy little backroom had to go. You remember, it was the one that was always dark with the dirty couch, fridge and junk everywhere? Yeah, that one, the creepy one. Six months went by and I decided it was time to start on it…so I took a small box of junk out of it. Job well done. Then I took some more initiative a few weeks later and put one of the couches on the curb. Well, Record Store Day 2010 was rabidly approaching so I figured that was as good a deadline as any. After putting new bulbs into the overhead light, painting a bit and stealing some old display cases from Tre Bella, we turned it into a nice(r) little room.

Since then Rachael and I have turned it into a small, low-key art space, stocked with screen printing supplies, a few acrylic paints, and leftover jewelry and t-shirts from Tre Bella Gifts (her shop). Paul Overton, one of my building-mates and proprietor of Dudecraft, has also helped by hanging a few of his brilliant recent crafts. I’ve seen a handful of his stunning stencil projects, but with these new pieces he’s taken that idea to a whole new level. Much like you do a stencil, Paul painstakingly cuts each layer of color out of thick paper and then carefully stacks the pieces giving it a layered 4-color stencil appearance. Since it’s a mellow day at the shop today, I figured I’d post a few pictures.

Upon entering the shop…
(Notice our lovely greeter)

Django Reinhardt!

Elvis & Johnny! (and more Ramones to come soon!!)

Screen ink and some guess whossss…

Jewelry! (done by Kate, Rachael’s sister.)

Screens, emulsion, cleaners, etc.

Thanks for reading! You know where to find me 6 days a week if you need some screen stuff, music or sweet art!

New SPIDER BAGS – DOG IN THE SNOW 7″ is officially available!!!
500 pressed. 45rpm.

A: Dog in the Snow (listen)
B: Walking Walking Nowhere Nowhere

The first 100 ordered through the shop (or picked up in person) are on clear green vinyl. Don’t sleep on this one! It’s a psych twang scorcher! Email me at chaz at bullcityrecords dot com. This is way more amped up and noisier than what you’ve come to expect from these North Carolina boys. Finding themselves a little more bent and fried than usual while visiting Memphis this day, the S’Bags can thank the universe someone was there to wrap this pulsing, seismic occurrence around some recording tape.

LIMITED TIME DEAL : Pick up all three Bull City Records 7″s for $15ppd.
This includes:
(x1) Whatever Brains – Mt. Whatever 7″
(x1) Whatever Brains – Saddle Up 7″
(x1) Spider Bags – Dog in the Snow 7″ (green wax.)

Paypal to: chaz at bullcityrecords dot com

Get ‘em while they last! The Mt. Whatever 7″ is almost completely gone and I’m not planning a vinyl repress.

If you just want the one 7″, it’s $7ppd. Sorry for the high price! Paypal fees and shipping keep going up. That number basically includes $4.50 for the 7″ and $2.50 for shipping/paypal fees. Or it’s just $4.98 in person here!

Thanks!

Friday, 4/02/2010 :: SPIDER BAGS / DRY HEATHENS / TBA

Looks like it’s official, mark your calendars. Friday, April 2nd is the release party for the new SPIDER BAGS 7″ on Bull City Records! It’s gonna be happening at the good ol’ Pinhook here in Durham, NC, where the PBR tall boys flow in cheap abundance. Those lovely Dry Heathens kids will be primin’ the crowd for ‘em, whippin’ the folks into a sweet frenzy. Still working on the third band and that should be gettin announced soon.

SPIDER BAGS – DOG IN THE SNOW 7″ (BCR#04)

The two song 7″ will be available next week (with fingers crossed!) in the Bull City. I should be seeing the sleeves tomorrow, and the actual 7″s should arrive shortly after. There are 100 on green wax available and the remaining 400 are in traditional black. We’ll call it scorchin’ garage rawk black. The first 100 greenies will ONLY be for sale at the shop or through mail-order, so don’t sleep on them pretties! They should end up going pretty fast as they’re limited and well, everyone is going to want one. Right?

The two tracks themselves were recorded at Goner Records in Memphis, TN in one sunny, slurred afternoon with a friend behind a recorder as the boys were stared down by one bored soul from the corner on his lunch break. You try and play in a composed manner while Jack Yarber stares at ya from behind a sandwich, I dare you. The songs are loose, noisy and a bit fried. Their normal twangy garage crash is augmented here by swirling feedback, dust-raisin’ stomps and an electric psychedelic agitation splitting through the air. Dan and Gregg are joined on this recording by their friends Joey Simpson (2nd guitar) and former Afghan Whig, Paul Buchignani (drums).

500 7″s pressed, each with a download slip! Get ‘em while they last!
4/02/10 – Spider Bags / Dry Heathens @ the Pinhook, Durham, NC.

This is the working cover for the upcoming Whatever Brains 7″ – Saddle Up. The pink was an accidental tint added from Rich’s phone for some reason, so don’t get too excited over that just yet. I kind of like it though. It should show as a black and white image printed on white card stock. We’ll see how it turns out in the end.

That being said, the 7″ is at the plant getting pressed up as we speak. I should hopefully see the test presses soon and as soon as those show up, it means just a couple weeks until the finished product is in our hands. Get ready! This 7″ surprisingly makes the last one seem kind of thin and slow at times, yikes! I didn’t even think that was possible! Really happy with the way this one turned out and hopefully you guys will dig it too!

We’re pressing 500 again. 100 will be on white vinyl for pre-orders.
I’ll start the pre-orders as soon as I know when I’ll be receiving the finished product.

Less than 100 of the debut 7″ (Mt. Whatever) left! Not planning on repressing those any time soon, so get them while they’re around to be got!

New track “What Happened to All the Destructionaires” added to myspace.

Posted some new stuff to the stock lists.
Check ‘em out if you’re sitting at work bored – NEW STOCK

After I finish reminiscing with Mudhoney’s Since We’ve Become Translucent (2002), I’ll toss some reviews up here. There’s been some great stuff released this month (and in the last few for that matter), and I’ve been meaning to touch on some of them. Outside of listening to the new Woods or Oh Sees LPs, there must be some other stuff that makes it into the player, right?

We’ll see! Two big things of note – modern psych is charging full steam ahead lately and bands that have existed on major labels for the last decade are happily defecting back to the indies. What used to be reserved for either giant major label promotion campaigns or little underground, limited-run labels is now seeing more attention through the minors like Tomlab, Thrill Jockey, Jagjaguwar, Matador, Shrimper, etc. There’s a convergence from both ends happening in the middle-ground somewhere as good, well crafted, thoughtful music returns to the airwaves (and iPods) with the help of the sweat and perseverance of the indies. Another exciting turn of events in the ever-shifting independent music realm!

Back to Translucent and gecko cage cleaning for now….

Just started up the New Stock lists again. I’m gonna try and update the page every day that I get new stock in rather than just once a week…or…never. Some days it’ll be a tiny update and some days it’ll be more exciting.

Follow this link – http://www.bullcityrecords.com/newstock.html

Or access it from the main page of the store’s webpage. The link is in the right-hand column under the picture.

Thanks!!!
Also posting the link to twitter and facebook when I do larger updates, if you’re following there.

By now, despite my reluctance to post anything about it here, most of you know that Bull City Records released its first 7″ in January. The release has been doing very well on its own steam and I’ve been extremely excited to be a part of it. Actually, I was flattered to even be given the masters to send off to the pressing plant – I thought for sure that they’d realize the weight of what they had and move on quickly to bigger things. Before the release hit the streets, I awkwardly asked if I’d be able to do the next one. Much to my surprise they agreed yet again! Following the second 7″, which we should see in a couple months, I’m hoping they will have been snagged up by a larger label and on to the next tier where they belong.

If you have not taken a second to see the Whatever Brains in all their live glory, I suggest you do so. I’ve got a handful of live video shots that I need to upload to youtube. If you have not heard them, I suggest you march on over to their myspace page and give it a spin.

The point of this post is to announce that our beloved Brains have been given a shot at the bigger leagues. My rep at Matador asked the other week if I’d like for them to try and sell some. All I have to do now is fill out a W9 form and send ‘em a batch of thirty! With this batch on the road, it means we’ve been able to move about 250 of the 7″s just in the first two months. It has been very exciting to watch the progress – we’ve been learning as we go along. Let’s not get too excited though, Matador is still able to return them if they don’t sell…so it’s best not to jinx their generous offer. But c’mon, this band is the biggest thing to come out of the Triangle in years.

Here’s Grayson’s write-up and Bryan Reed’s review.

The Scan blog has been revived and is back to doing a marvelous job of documenting the local happenings again.
Just thought I’d give another little update on the state of things around here!