News: March, 2011

PopMatters famous 20 Questions feature turns its sights on Ha Ha Tonka's drummer Lennon Bone.

Find out about his love of Steve Reich, YouTube, his gift for hand farting, his heroes and why he will never NEVER go see Marley and Me.

Read it HERE.

A couple months ago, we told you about our new distribution partnership with Misra Records, a like-minded label with moxie and some cool bands.

Well, today we've got the first fruits of our coming together: Southeast Engine's new CD Canary.

The kind words are already rolling in:

“You like The Band? Wilco? Okkervil River? Well if you like them, chances are you’ll dig Southeast Engine…It’s one of the best roots-rock albums of 2011 so far.” – Bruce Warren, WXPN, NPR

And the band is on tour.

We hope you'll agree, that this is the beginning of a fun and creative ride.

We're pretty sure that if you Google any band at SXSW this year for some video, you'll get directed to 1,001 pages of crappy images shot on cell phones by reeling drunk people.  Bad images, worse sound.  Ain't the internet grand?

HOWEVER, the good folks at the site Music Fog had some of our bands over to their shindig at the legendary food and music mecca Threadgill's and producde some QUALITY audio and video.

Check out full performances by EDDIE SPAGHETTI and HA HA TONKA.

Support well-crafted content on the interweb....

Guns and food!

Food and guns!

oh, and music.

Our Ozark heartthrobs Ha Ha Tonka get grillin' with Anthony Bourdain on an upcoming episode of No Reservations.  HERE'S a clip to get yer mouths watering.

And, if you're something of an HHT fanatic (and who wouldn't be...?) HERE'S some sweet behind the scenes pics

Miss the original airing?

Fear not, here are some dates when the episode is airing again

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations - Ozarks TRAVEL Channel Sun, Apr 3 8:00am CST
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations - Ozarks TRAVEL Channel Mon, Apr 4 7:00pm CST
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations - Ozarks TRAVEL Channel Tue, Apr 5 2:00am CST

In our continuing battle on behalf of Maggie's new album Coming Home, a record that made precious little business sense to release but we just loved so much we just HAD to, we present some ammo for you to sample.

>>Stream the ENTIRE record on Spinner.com and see if we're lying about how wonderful it is.

>>Check out this pro video shot at Crackle @ Pop Studios in Seattle of the song "Wasteland" and soak in some of the magic

Usually the artists on Bloodshot toil away in obscurity.  We like it that way, mostly.  Every once in a while, though, odd confluences in the ionsphere occur and popular culture weirdly or circuitously takes notice of us.

Last night was one such occurance when American Idol met Bloodshot and many heads were scratched.  It seems that a contestant busted out "Come Pick Me Up" from Ryan's debut solo album Heartbreaker.

The Blogosphere loved it.   Check THIS out, or THIS from the Village Voice.

Life can be weird sometimes.  So close to Steven Tyler, yet still so far....

Today is the release of Exene Cervenka's new album, The Excitement of Maybe.

It is a genuine thrill and honor to have someone of her cailber in our humble and musically-dorky little family.  She sent this note to her fans for us to post today:

"hi everyone who cares! thank you xxxso much for the positive, loving, kind comments about excitement of maybe! it means a lot to me to know you are there and that what i do brings something meaningful into your lives. i am so happy today, i worked hard (but it sure was fun!) on these songs and the recording.  so again thank you as always for listening!!! love exene"

Though not out for another few weeks, Maggie Bjorklund's new record Coming Home is already turning some heads.  Read the Seattle Weekly article HERE and you can pre-order the CD/LP.

Sometimes a record comes across our desks that, despite common sense business reasoning, we just HAVE to be a part of.  This is one of those records.  We hope you'll agree or perhaps give a try.  Tracks can be heard on the New Releases playlist--just push that little red button to the left.

One of the reasons we like what we do is that it allows us to shield ourselves from the workaday realities of geo-political strife.  We live in a happy, simple world.

However, every now and again, the connections between a nutjob despot (looking like Fred Armisen's kooky old uncle after a weeklong bender) and the world of hard working musicians scrapping to make a living collide.

Read THIS prescient interview with Jeremy from Whitey Morgan & the 78s about the effect of oil prices on the music scene.  Just some food (or gas) for thought next time you head out to (or decide to skip) a show.  It's got some simple math in it, but don't let your mind drift too much.  You can handle it.

Life on the road for these folks ain't ever easy and sometimes distant, powermad loonies make it even harder.

Eddie Spaghetti, Supersucker Brother Number One, has booked a series of FREE in store performances in conjunction with his new album Sundowner.

Eddie will be singing a few songs, meeting and greeting (as us show biz types say) and sticking around to sign whatever you might bring him (keep it clean....)

Stop on by:

March 6th at Lou's Records in Encinitas CA at 4pm

March 8th at Zia Records in Las Vegas at 7pm

March 10th at Stinkweeds in Phoenix at 6pm

March 26th at Decatur CD in Decatur GA at 2pm

April 2nd at Generation Records in NYC at 4:15 pm

April 17th at Independent Records in DENVER at 5pm

April 20th at Heavy Metal Shop in Salt Lake City at 7pm

April 21st at Record Exchange in BOISE ID at 5:30pm

April 22nd at Music Millennium in PORTLAND OR at 7pm

Catch him on his album release tour