Calvin Johnson’s Top Five Tour Essentials

In preparation for the upcoming Hive Dwellers U.S. tour, Calvin listed off the top five things he always brings with him on tour. (You know, besides clothes and instruments.)

1. An atlas.
2. A tour mug.  Everyone has to have a tour mug.  Karl Blau uses a large handmade clay mug.  Since November, Calvin has been using a corn plastic mug from Food Fight! Grocery, a vegan grocery store in Portland, OR.
3. A roll of packing tape. (Not duct tape.)  This is used to mail things home, and Calvin always grabs a roll before leaving town because it’s more expensive to buy it from some convenience store on the road.
4. A variety of paperback classics.  Typically, this can include books by D. H. Lawrence, George Elliot, and Dorothy Sayers.  The only book that Calvin knows he’s taking on this tour is Willy Vlautin’s Northline.
5. A lot of green tea.  Calvin’s favorite is Dragonwell.

The Hive Dwellers will kick off their tour on March 22nd in Boise, ID.  They will be meeting up with The Curious Mystery at the beginning of April, playing shows together between The Curious Mystery’s residency at the Ace Hotel.  The Curious Mystery’s tour will kickoff in Seattle on March 3rd, and will take them up to New York by way of SXSW on March 15th.  Catch all of the tour dates for both The Hive Dwellers and The Curious Mystery on our shows page.

Stream New Ruby Fray Track – “Mint Ice Cream”

Ruby Fray’s debut, Pith, is a haunting, strange, pulled-straight-from-the-gut statement of a record.  It’s due out on April 17th, but you’ll be able to get it from the K Mail Order Dept. a month earlier on March 17th.  Below, stream the second track from Pith, a duet between Ruby Fray mastermind, Emily Beanblossom, and Calvin Johnson entitled “Mint Ice Cream.”  It’s one of the record’s most upbeat tracks, steeped in Americana and dripping with the sweetness of the melting treat from the title.

Chain & The Gang Spring U.S. Tour!

Chain & The Gang will be heading out across the country starting at the end of March, and travelling all throughout April in promotion of their upcoming full-length, In Cool Blood (KLP241).  Katie Greer, a key member of the Gang, created this tour poster that lists all of their dates.  Get all of the details on our shows page. (Prepare for the upcoming tour with Chain & The Gang’s other LPs, Down With Liberty… Up With Chains! [KLP203] and Music’s Not For Everyone [KLP220].)

New Maxines Live Video!

Two weeks back, The Maxines released their new Drugstore 7″ here in Olympia at the Midnight Sun, where this video was captured.  This is a great example of The Maxines’ unique brand blown-out buzzy garage pop, with both Matt and Kelly screaming over the messy cacophony of their instruments.

Kendl Winter Wins Best  Record in Weekly Volcano Reader’s Poll!

Tacoma, Wash.’s Weekly Volcano had a Reader’s Poll to determine some of the best music from Olympia in 2011, and Kendl Winter’s newest LP, The Mechanics of Hovering Flight (KLP238), won best record!  Calvin Johnson also tied for the award of “Best Scenester,” while Malaikat Dan Singa won “Best Experimental Music.”  Congrats, guys!

Are you a member of the press??  If you’d like to receive our promo newsletter, send an email promo@krecs.com with your request and we’ll add you to the list!

LAKE at Dub Narcotic Studio!
For the last few weeks LAKE (have you heard their new Dub Narcotic Disco Plate? It is “Gravel” [DBN116], and it’s a chill spill) have been wandering in, out and around the Dub Narcotic Studio laying down sounds in anticipation of their upcoming album, a nebulous beast with no name or release date. But know that it is on the way! On Monday afternoon Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie (who also have a new Dub Narcotic Disco Plate on the streets, “Distorted Cymbals” [DBN122], a brainwave micro broiler) was visiting the K office and ventured downstairs to the Dub Narcotic Studio to make the LAKE recording scene. A meeting of the minds.

Chain & the Gang Tour Western States!
Another recent inhabitant of the Dub Narcotic Studio, Chain & the Gang (they breezed through Olympia recently to tidy up their new In Cool Blood [KLP240] album), are also in the news this week. Strange Victory Touring Co. recently posted dates for the Chain & the Gang March April tour of western states, some of which they have not visited since their epic U.S. tour with the Hive Dwellers in 2009. The line-up for this Chain & the Gang tour is the same as who recorded In Cool Blood, Fiona Campbell, drums, Brett Lyman, electric guitar, Chris Sutton, electric bass guitar, Katie Greer, vocals, Ian “Chain“ Svenonius, vocals.
In other exciting Ian Svenonius news, it was announced today that Make-Up will be appearing at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in May.

Lovers without Borders St. Valentine’s Day Date!
February 14 was reserved long ago by Karl Blau and his latest combo Lovers without Borders for a rendezvous with the International Pop Underground. The trio recorded four songs, body-checked by engineers Calvin Johnson and Eli Moore, for an imminent Volume in this exalted series. One of the songs recorded is a cover of a Lois song, “The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World”. There is some footage of Lovers without Borders playing the song at Dub Narcotic Studio posted to the Pink Elephants Graveyard.
You can get a taste of this northern threesome (they all live uncommonly close to the 49th parallel) by checking into their self-released cassette album Lovers without Borders, available now from the K Mail Order Dept.

Karl Blau behind the mixing board at Dub Narcotic Studio

Arrington de Dionyso In Europe!
The other evening Arrington de Dionyso, fresh from his west coast tour with Larkin Grimm, was busy recording Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets at Dub Narcotic Studio. This was not a session for the new Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets album (recording for which begins later this spring) but as background distortion and loops for the Arrington de Dionyso tour of Europe, starting  this week. Somewheres along the way in his recent travels Arrington acquired a cassette tape-delay device that he has decided to utilize in his solo shows. Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets were recruited to record said background tapes (in lieu of their being invited to tour Europe as his backing band). To see the entire Arrington de Dionyso European tour itinerary, visit the Shows page.

Pine Hill Haints Deluxe Black Owl Radio Garments!

Jamie and Katie of Pine Hill Haints have a clubhouse in downtown Florence, Alabama called Black Owl Radio. It is used for meet-ups with like minded folks, a few random hoe-downs happen there, and they have a full color silk screen studio. They’ve begun a series of ver special Pine Hill Haints shirts that are available now from the K Mail Order Dept. There are three different designs, Bat Pumpkin, Evening Star, and Wolf Crest, available in size range from youth to XXL. Get in, for realz.

The K Mail Order Dept. New K Arrivals!
Magic boxes arrived from our distributor the other week. A peek inside reveals several K releases that have been unavailable on vinyl for a long time. Here are three of particular interest to weird-outs everywhere. Dunt forget that all K titles are available as digital downloadables from the K Mail Order Dept. (at a much lower price than all those other digital music emporiums).

Talulah Gosh Backwash [KLP044]
A compilation of every known recording by Talulah Gosh including their difficult to discover flexi-disc and BBC sessions. Members of Talulah Gosh went on to play in Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap.

Hornet Leg Blood Trilogy 7″ EP [IPU116]
The main band of K maincog Chris Sutton (who also plays in Chain & the Gang, Dub Narcotic Sound System, C.O.C.O., Spider & the Webs), this debut Hornet Leg EP is a volume in our International Pop Underground series and was recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio with Calvin Johnson.

Angelo Spencer et L’Orchidee d’Hawaii “Music Is My Sweat” [IPU121]
A collaboration between Angelo Spencer and the French band L’Orchidee d’Hawaii, recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio by Karl Blau.

Happy Valentines Day!

20% Off Everything In the Shop

Through Feb 14th

  CHECKOUT CODE: HEART

XOXO

And P.S. Here’s our top five K albums of LOVE!

Tender Forever – The Soft And The Hardcore

The Softies – It’s Love

Kimya Dawson - Remember That I Love You

Beat Happening -You Turn Me On

LAKE – Giving & Receiving

Kendl Winter – “Shades of Green”

Fresh off a year of constant touring, Kendl Winter recorded The Mechanics of Hovering Flight , a record burrowed in country tradition, organic folk, and the upbeat twang of bluegrass.  Kendl’s fascination with the hummingbird’s contradiction of motionless and flight comes to the fore in these recordings of dreams and stories.

You can listen to the first single off of Kendl’s new album – “Shades of Green” 

The Mechanics of Hovering Flight, in all of its glory, is available now from the K Mail Order Dept.

The Pine Hill Haints will be hitting the road next week, travelling mostly around the southeast of the United States.  Check out the dates below!  All of our dates (including these) are listed with additional info on our website… http://krecs.com/shows/ 

“Normally when a reviewer says a band “does not let any genre define them,” they mean simply that no single genre properly describes the band. When I say it with regard to the Pine Hill Haints…it means that the Haints have managed to weld a recognizable style from these genres with the style and precision of a band with a much larger profile.”  -Pitchfork

Until Next Time…

What!?  Jeremy Jay is in town?  That means its time to go bowling!

And so we all trekked up to Westside Lanes (some of us with our own fancy shoes–nice kicks Calvin and Mariella) and had some old-fashioned American fun, complete with fried food and victory.  Many people claim that they work with cool folks, but I think our group is the best. Here are the resulting photos.  Enjoy!Calvin has excellent form, yes?

Our K Interns!  Eric & Dani.

 The Jeremy Jay Band–Nick, George and Jeremy bowl it out.

 Mariella Luz and family.

 Calvin, Jeremy and George, and an Olympia Beer.

Jeremy Jay in it to win it.

 Miko is the real K Darling!  With Danielle.

The two Joels bowl as one!

This is the face you make after you bowl a TURKEY.  Oh, yes.

Joel & Reid – Captains of team success!  (BTW Joel is like this all the time…)

 THANK YOU JUDY BAUMANN FOR THE POLAROID PICTURES!  Everyone, if you don’t know Judy, she’s amazing.  Check out her new website judithbaumann.com and bask in her coolness!

Joel Brazzel (mail wizard) and Sarah Cass (Production Manager)

She’s choosing more Justin Timberlake…Promotions Director Danielle Ruse.

Eric, our dear Calvin Johnson, and Dani.

Oh man, the love!

Joel Davenport-Cass, and a delicious french fry.

Jeremy and Joel, hangin’ tough.

MIKO!!!

Reid and Danielle, too cool for their shoes.

JUDY!!!! (and Calvin’s bicycle helmet.  Safety first!)

Joel + Sarah = HEARTS

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

We leave you with a little sample of Joel gettin’ down.  He’s the man with the moves.