Impose Magazine reviews Jeffrey Martin’s “One Go Around”

The headline at Impose Magazine today sums up Jeffrey Martin’s latest in just three words… “Very Powerful Music”.  The review goes on to go through a few tracks a bit more in depth, including “What We’re Marching Toward”, which is referred to as Martin’s “Pete Seeger moment”.

Check it out in full here.


After Jeffrey Martin released 2014’s Dogs In The Daylight, the Portland Mercury posited that he “might be the best songwriter in Portland.” No Depression called the record “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album from an emerging singer-songwriter can get.” One Go Around is the long-awaited follow-up to that record.

There’s a quiet dignity to the 12 new tracks on One Go Around, but a kind of quiet desperation as well. With subjects ranging from the shocking story of William Burroughs’ casual murder of his wife during a drunken party, to themes of love found and lost, the stories hit hard, because we know we may not be far off from them ourselves in this time of uncertainty.

The record is available now on LP, CD and digital formats, at the Fluff and Gravy Store, BandcampSpotifyiTunes and Amazon.

In addition to black vinyl there is a Limited Edition run on Red vinyl, hand-numbered to 123.

Jeffrey Martin releases New Album

Today, we are proud to announce the release of Jeffrey Martin’s One Go Around.

After Jeffrey Martin released 2014’s Dogs In The Daylight, the Portland Mercury posited that he “might be the best songwriter in Portland.” No Depression called the record “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album from an emerging singer-songwriter can get.” One Go Around is the long-awaited follow-up to that record.

There’s a quiet dignity to the 12 new tracks on One Go Around, but a kind of quiet desperation as well. With subjects ranging from the shocking story of William Burroughs’ casual murder of his wife during a drunken party, to themes of love found and lost, the stories hit hard, because we know we may not be far off from them ourselves in this time of uncertainty.

The record is available now on LP, CD and digital formats, at the Fluff and Gravy Store, BandcampSpotifyiTunes and Amazon.

In addition to black vinyl there is a Limited Edition run on Red vinyl, hand-numbered to 123.

 

 

Anna Tivel to release "Small Believer" on September 29

Small Believer is Anna Tivel’s 3rd full-length solo release. It’ finds the Portland-based songwriter hitting yet another high mark, with masterful production from Austin Nevins. The songs on Small Believer were written while Tivel was touring, but also in-between shifts at the odd waitressing job, or driving Meals on Wheels in her spare time. She has an extraordinarily keen eye for recasting the images she sees into song, so that a homeless man drawing comfort each day while sitting and watching a building go up, brick by brick, becomes the song “Riverside Hotel.” A chance conversation with a neighbor, also a waitress, who makes an empty promise becomes “Last Cigarette.” Each image or moment that burned itself into Tivel’s memories becomes a launching pad for a larger story that she spins into song.
Listen to the singles “Illinois” and “Dark Chandelier“.

The record is available for pre-order in all formats,including limited edition gold vinyl (limited to 100 hand numbered copies), black vinyl, cd, and digitally.

Parson Red Heads’ “Blurred Harmony” among Best June Releases

Paste Magazine included “Blurred Harmony” among the 5 Best Albums of June 2017, calling it “smart, lucid songwriting”. The latest album by The Parson Red Heads was produced and recorded by guitarist Sam Fowles, and is available now from the Fluff and Gravy Store, Bandcamp, or your favorite digital/retail outlet.

Blurred Harmony is the 4th studio full-length album from indie psych-folk stalwarts, The Parson Red Heads. It is the overdriven jangle of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star power-pop, the skewed psychedelics of the Paisley Underground, the bittersweet energy of New Zealand’s “Dunedin Sound” movement, and the muted twang of Cosmic Americana, all crammed into 44 minutes. It was released on June 9 via Fluff and Gravy Records (US) and You Are The Cosmos (Europe).

As the band’s frontman, Evan Way puts it, “This record is more a true part of us than any record we have made before – we put ourselves into it, made ourselves fully responsible for it. Even the themes of the songs are more personal than ever – it’s an album dealing with everything that has come before. It’s an album about nostalgia, about time, change, about the hilarious, wonderful, bittersweet, sometimes sad, always incredible experience of living. Sometimes it is about regret, or the possibility of regret. These are big topics, and to us, it is a big album, yet somehow still intimate and honest.”

Paste Magazine gave the record a rating of 8.9/10, calling the band “scholars of the back-porch jangle-pop”. The record is characterized by “smart, lucid songwriting… a fantastic soundtrack to the psychoses of your summery, sunny days.”

The Parson Red Heads release new album!

Blurred Harmony is the 4th studio full-length album from indie psych-folk stalwarts, The Parson Red Heads. It is the overdriven jangle of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star power-pop, the skewed psychedelics of the Paisley Underground, the bittersweet energy of New Zealand’s “Dunedin Sound” movement, and the muted twang of Cosmic Americana, all crammed into 44 minutes. It was released on June 9 via Fluff and Gravy Records (US) and You Are The Cosmos (Europe).

As the band’s frontman, Evan Way puts it, “This record is more a true part of us than any record we have made before – we put ourselves into it, made ourselves fully responsible for it. Even the themes of the songs are more personal than ever – it’s an album dealing with everything that has come before. It’s an album about nostalgia, about time, change, about the hilarious, wonderful, bittersweet, sometimes sad, always incredible experience of living. Sometimes it is about regret, or the possibility of regret. These are big topics, and to us, it is a big album, yet somehow still intimate and honest.”

Paste Magazine gave the record a rating of 8.9/10, calling the band “scholars of the back-porch jangle-pop”. The record is characterized by “smart, lucid songwriting… a fantastic soundtrack to the psychoses of your summery, sunny days.”

Check it out on Spotify (below) and purchase it here on Limited edition clear vinyl with blue “smoke”, black vinyl, cd, or digitally.

“Blurred Harmony” from The Parson Red Heads receives 8.9 from Paste Magazine

“Blurred Harmony” received a review of 8.9 today from Paste Magazine. The album, which will be officially released TOMORROW (6/9) is the 4th from the psych-jangle-pop band, The Parson Red Heads.

The review describes a few of the tracks:

“Opener “Please Come Save Me” flutters in a Fleetwood Mac groove, with guitarist/vocalist Evan Way and Fowles’ warbling leads orbiting Neil Young rhythmic jitters thanks to the steady thrum of drummer Brette Marie Way. The song blossoms purposefully, allowing for the Red Heads’ Americana tentacles to slither and coil around a cosmic jam that finally breaks after a minute-and-a-half with Way singing dreamily, “Days like this I remember things that I tried to forget.” As the tune chugs along, Way confronts his past with a nose toward the future in the determined line, “The future cannot tell me I’m wrong or make me sigh.” It’s heady stuff from the band, who are equally as ballyhooed for their exploratory affinities for late ‘60s psych as they are for their anthemic songcraft.”

“Sunday Song” floats on a plume of smoky leads and an easy-does-it beat, again slowly evolving from a long, trippy intro into a David Gilmour flashback that flexes and contracts at all the right moments. “Time is a Wheel” seeps feel-good harmonies and breezy, jangly rock that despite its relative non-flashiness most dutifully typifies the Red Heads’ satisfying stranglehold on stoney, county fair power-pop.

If it’s possible for the record to get any more space-y, that can be found in its final three tracks. The psychotropic “Out of Range” is a stunted trip replete with one of the album’s more intoxicating harmonic verses, with Way and Fowles singing, “Sorry I fell out of range/The part that was so strange/is I was always there.” The song is over just as it’s about to lead you into a spiraling tailspin to the benevolent foot of the Overmind, when the aptly titled “In a Dream” clears the aural cobwebs with a delightful Chris Bell homage. The song’s potent drive clears yet another trippy path to the album-ending sound collage “Nostalgia on the Lakefronts.” This is the cosmic broadcast from the band’s internal, time-fearing transmissions, and is a bizarre but fitting way to close the book on Blurred Harmony.

You can Pre-Order the record now at the Fluff and Gravy Store, Bandcamp, or your favorite digital/retail outlet.

The Harmed Brothers and Morehouse Barbers team up for "In The Wind" video

Way back around 2009, when The Harmed Brothers were still in their infancy, Eugene-based percussionist Adan Morehouse received a phone call from North Carolina. It was Ray Vietti on the phone, saying that they’d like him to join the band, and that they needed him immediately to hit the road with them. He had played in a band that had opened for them a few times, and had struck up a friendship with Ray and Alex Salcido. Problem was, Adam had a job that he didn’t feel comfortable leaving, and was planning on going to barbering school, so he turned them down.  2 weeks later Ray and Alex were knocking on his door, and they weren’t going away without a “yes’. Reluctantly, Adam quit his job, sold his stuff, and hit the road. In the end, the touring life proved to be too stressful for Adam, and his fear of tornadoes (made problematci by the band constantly touring the Midwest) proved to be too much for him. He ended up leaving the band and following up on his original plan. He was going to barbering school.

Fast forward to 2017… After working for other people for years, Adam and his friend Kurt Foster decide to open their own place, Morehouse Barbers, in the North Portland neighborhood of St. Johns. On March 3, the shop opened it’s doors, and of course, The Harmed Brothers were there for the grand opening to record a video. 

Check it out here!

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wTsAuOvzW8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Stream and purchase up the new album here

Track Premier | "Coming Down" from The Parson Red Heads

Blurt Magazine premiers the first US single from the upcoming Parson Red Heads album (Blurred Harmony, due June 9).
Here’s what they had to say about the album. “Blurred Harmony …is the overdriven jangle of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star power-pop, the skewed psychedelics of the Paisley Underground, the bittersweet energy of New Zealand’s “Dunedin Sound” movement, and the muted twang of Cosmic Americana, all crammed into 44 minutes.”

New Fernando Video | Oregon Music Hall of Fame Induction

Fernando-backstage-ACAM1759 1On Saturday, October 8, Fernando Viciconte will be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. To celebrate, we are releasing a special animated video that Trizz Studio (Barcelona) lovingly created for “Save Me”, the lead track off of 2015’s Leave The Radio On. The video explores the soul and essence of a young boy’s inner creative battles. The boy protagonist, is a sensitive, young child who is overwhelmed by his own imagination and the endless possibilities of self-expression. The core story is shaped with a naïve simplicity and hints at the places where inspiration evolves.

Congratulations, Fernando!

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvfKB4JKrk[/youtube]

"Make A Life" | A new single from Nick Jaina

Brutal-Lives-Cover-webCheck out the new single “Make A Life“, from Nick Jaina. It’s the lead track from the digital album, Brutal Lives, which will be released on September 16.

Brutal Lives (Fluff and Gravy Records, Sept 2016) is easily Nick Jaina’s most daring album to date. And that is saying a lot when you consider that Nick has made a career out of re-inventing himself. The 14-track album primarily features work that he originally composed for a contemporary dance piece in the summer of 2014. Though the songs were not used, Nick thought the recordings had some value in them, so he refashioned them, adding vocals, choruses and ambient sounds to give them new life.

Stylistically, the album jumps from the indie-pop standout “Make A Life”, to the haunting “Co-Creators”, to the jarring “Saw You On The Train Last Night”. And I swear, “Fell Too Much In Love” would be right at home in a John Hughes film.  Due to the unusual provenance of the recordings, almost every instrument was played and recorded by Nick himself. He gave the collection of songs the title that he proposed for the original dance piece, which was also rejected: Vies Brutales, or Brutal Lives.

This is Nick’s second release on Fluff & Gravy Records, a follow-up to 2013’s Primary Perception. It will be available digitally on September 16, and coupled with a limited-edition printing of an essay that Nick wrote for people who are new to dance, How To Enjoy Dance. 150 copies of the essay will be released in October.

Five Years of Gravy – A Celebration

fngteaserflyerIt’s hard to believe, but this November will mark  the 5th anniversary of the first official Fluff and Gravy release!  To celebrate, we will be hosting a series of 4 concerts, over 3 days, featuring 13 bands (11 Fluff and Gravy artists + guests).  Venues will include The Star Theater, Dante’s, and Fluff and Gravy Studios. In addition to the concert series, we will be releasing “5 Years of Gravy” – a compilation cd featuring unreleased tracks from our artists recorded throughout our 5 year history. The cd will be included in the price for a weekend pass ($35)

Keep your eyes peeled over the course of the next 2 months, as we will be releasing tracks from the cd and a pair of “Legacy Videos” for classic singles.

 

Check out the FULL 3-DAY LINEUP!

FRIDAY, 11/11, 8pm (STAR THEATER)

Hillstomp
Cedar Teeth
Mike Coykendall

SATURDAY, 11/12, 1pm (house show)

The Evangenitals
Catherine Feeny and Chris Johnedis

SATURDAY, 11/12, 8pm (DANTE’S)

Richmond Fontaine
Vacilando
Nick Jaina
Jeffrey Martin

SUNDAY, 11/13, 8pm (STAR THEATER)

Fernando Viciconte
The Hill Dogs
Dan Stuart (of Green on Red) with Thomas Heyman
Kevin Lee Florence

GET YOUR TICKETS!

The ticket link for the festival can be accessed here.

Thank you so much for making the last 5 years possible, We can’t wait to begin our next 5. Hope to see you in Portland this November!

Anna Tivel's "Heroes Waking Up" now available

anna-0148One listen to her world-weary yet somehow bouyant songs and it’s clear – Anna Tivel has spent her share of quality hours behind the wheel of a Dodge Caravan, repeating lines over and over until the words fall in time with the windshield wipers, or until the gas light comes on.

Heroes Waking Up, Anna Tivel’s third full-length album, was be released on May 20, 2016. It is the result of a year spent living and writing in a friend’s garage and on the road. The eleven song recording winds through a dusky darkness of hopeful strangers, shadowed struggle, quiet love, and flying dreams. Produced by guitar magician Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell, The Mountain Goats), Tivel’s faded-photographic songwriting swells above a soundscape meticulously crafted by Nevins on guitar, lap steel, banjo, and pump organ. He is joined by Sam Howard (Ruth Moody) on bass, Ian Krist (Blind Pilot) on vibraphone, Robin Macmillan on percussion, and Jeffrey Martin and Moorea Masa singing harmonies. Throw in some violin and octave violin from Anna herself and the final effect is a sweeping, dream-like exploration of Tivel’s raw imagery and powerful storytelling.

Give a listen to the record here, and then buy it.

Here’s what some folks are saying about it:

Digipak 4P 1CD“There is not a single song on here that is easily forgettable, much less filler”. – No Depression

“Anna Tivel writes songs that demand the full attention of the listener, and it isn’t hard to give her that because her singing and writing seem to take power over you” – Glide Magazine

“Heroes Waking Up” is a kind of consecration of artistic identity – Music Won’t Save You

“Each song on this album seems to simultaneously sing of sorrow and celebration. That even in the direst of circumstances, life is a still a beautiful thing. The most accurate connection that I could draw to this album is the writing of John Steinbeck.” – Northwest Music Scene

 

 

Fernando releases official video for "Save Me"

Fernando-backstage-ACAM1759 1As Fernando’s 2015 release, Leave the Radio On, was coming together one thing was clear early on in the process. This was going to be a different record for the Argentine-born troubador, best known for his velvety voice and tex-mex, country-tinged rock and roll laments. The 5 years that had passed since 2010’s widely heralded True Instigator had been filled with health problems (a misdiagnosed hiatal hernia that nearly cost him his voice), causing Fernando to all but disappear from the public eye.  Convinced to return to the studio by his friend Peter Buck,  Leave The Radio On would mark a rebirth of sorts for Fernando, and he wanted the record to reflect that.

 In Fernando’s words, “‘Save Me’ is the opening track, and we intentionally chose to make the mix dissonant and disconcerting to let folks know that this record was going to signify a new direction for us. My co-producer on the record Mike Coykendall is on the drum kit and it was one of the last songs that we recorded for the record.”

The video, directed by Thorin Nielson and produced by Tim Scotten, beautifully portrays the tension and angst that permeate the track.

Check out the full album here

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWmLOISJHbM&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Today, We Celebrate Richmond Fontaine

 

Along with our partners Decor Records in Europe, Fluff and Gravy Records is excited to announce that a new record from Richmond Fontaine, titled You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To, is available today.  This Richmond Fontaine’s tenth full-length studio record, and it will be the seminal alt-country band’s swan song.

As songwriter Willy Vlautin puts it, “We all wanted to make one more record after The High Country. Dave moving with his family to Denmark stopped us for a long while, but we were dead set on one more. I wrote You Can’t Go Back… to give an end piece for all the characters who inhabited the world of RF over the years. Throughout the new record are hints of past RF albums and nods to past locations that the characters had found themselves in, and always they’re drifting and searching, hoping for a decent place to land. In the end they try to go back home where they were when RF first began. It’s where the characters started and now where they’ll end.”

“RF has had a great 20+ year run and these guys are my best pals so it’s a tough decision but the right one. We’ll tour this record for as long as we can and then we’ll a have a knock down drag-out party, wake up with a hangover, and move on.”

Fontaine_outside420x250Here is what the media is saying:

“Every song is like a mini Coen Brothers movie… Dramatic and poetic, you’ll sorely miss Richmond Fontaine when they’re gone” –Q Magazine

“9/10” “as good as anything he’s ever written” – UNCUT
“the band’s final reading approaches perfection; an Americana capstone” – Pop Matters

 

 
The record is available in digital/cd/lp formats atiTunes, Amazon, Fluff and Gravy Records, or at your favorite record store.

Dan Stuart releases new album with Twin Tones

DanStuartTwinTones840x500Along with his partner in crime, Chuck ProphetDan Stuart led Green on Red to the forefront of the Americana movement from the early 80’s through mid 90’s, before Dan disappeared from the music business in 1995. In 2010 he fled to Mexico and began writing under the pseudonym “Marlowe Billings”. 2012 saw the release of a new record, The Disappearance of Marlowe Billings, to be followed by a false memoir of the same title.  Both were explorations of the events that had led to his unraveling, his early days leading the erratically magnificent Green on Red and his later years as a kept man and occasional screenwriter who wandered the streets of NYC and Barcelona looking for opium dens that no longer existed and regrets that always will. The world took notice and he was back in the game but somehow all the rules had changed. Now, shunning his Americana roots, Stuart wanted retribution, songs that still had a taste of danger and intrigue, what use to be called rock ‘n’ roll. Recording alone in a concrete bunker in Oaxaca, with only the help of a banda engineer keeping time with a 30 peso little black egg shaker, Marlowe’s Revenge was born. He would later bring on Twin Tones (Mexico City) as his backing band, and the match couldn’t be more perfect.

DanStuartCoverWebToday, Fluff and Gravy Records is proud to release Marlowe’s Revenge, digitally, ahead of our 2/19 physical release (LP/CD). You can grab a download at iTunes, stream it at Spotify or Bandcamp, or can order directly from the Fluff and Gravy store (LP/CD/mp3/FLAC). The CD contains a beautiful 12 page booklet, and the LP includes a color insert.

Here’s what the media is saying:

“this “wonderfully sleazy chunk of dirty, dangerous rock ’n’ roll gets Stuart firmly back in the game” – Q Magazine

“8/10” – Uncut

Dan will be touring Europe from February – April, and has plans for US dates in April/May. Keep up to date here.

Fluff and Gravy Records HOLIDAY SALE – Up to 50% off

2015HolidaySaleFrom now until December 31, you can shop the Fluff and Gravy Store for huge discounts on LPs, CDs and T-shirts from your favorite artists, including Fernando, Jeffrey Martin, Hillstomp, Catherine Feeny, and The Harmed Brothers. Everything in the store is 25-50%! All t-shirts are just $10!

Best of all, there is only one flat shipping charge ($3.50 for US) whether you order one record or 20, so be sure to stock up!

 

Order HERE by December 15 in order to ensure Holiday delivery