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Various Artists – Coast to Coast: Recordings from the Bedroom

March 27, 2017

Our Album of the Week comes from four different artists this week, in the form of a starry compilation from the Buffalo-bred, San Francisco-based record label Joysdead. The compilation, aptly titled Coast to Coast Vol 1: Recordings from the Bedroom, features prominent local musicians from both sides of the country—Buffalo’s Alex Berkley, Roger Bryan, and Ray Fulton, and San Francisco’s Sean Mikula (formerly of Buffalo). If you couldn’t deduce from the title, the collection features tracks that forgo the crispness of high-quality production for the glorious little imperfections of self-recording. The first thing that struck me about Coast to Coast is just how interpretative the term “bedroom recording” can be. All four songwriters on the compilation contributed very different tracks, making the collection particularly listenable. To Mikula, it is a method of self-recording that involves drum machines, multi-instrumentation, and synths (much like the stylings of his Buffalo baby Besnyo), while[...]

60 Percent: Fat Wreck Chords Celebrates 25 Years

August 29, 2015

Believe it or not, Punk in Drublic is not NOFX’s best album. Actually, their best material was released between 1997 and 2006, a hot streak starting with So Long And Thanks For All The Shoes and capped off with the underrated Wolves In Wolves Clothing. Before and after this period, the band released some good albums with great songs but nothing that demonstrated the cohesion, quality, and subtle experimentation of the four studio albums and several EP’s (including The Decline and Never Trust A Hippy) released during this time. An integral part of NOFX’s history is Fat Wreck Chords, the independent punk rock label run by frontman Fat Mike and Erin Burkett, his now ex-wife. I won’t go into great detail about the label’s history, but interested parties should check out the CBC’s recent interview with Fat Mike and for a great interview with Erin Burkett head over to Damian of Fucked Up’s podcast. This year, the label[...]