Luz De Vida 12" benefit compilation on Fort Lowell Records

Fort Lowell Records went and upped the stakes on their 7" single series of Tucson based bands and went all out recently for a 12"...on yellow vinyl! But the radical departure from the 45 format isn't the real story here...this is a benefit album for victims of the Tucson tragedy. It's a pretty amazing homegrown compilation of bands and a label that wanted to help. They looked at what they know how to do, and donated it to the families of the victims of a really terrible tragedy. When you pick this up from Fort Lowell Records, the proceeds are going to the Tucson Together Fund... in this case, buying a record can directly make a difference.

James got this extensive release together of local bands for the vinyl.... you've got previous Fort Lowell artists Tracy Shedd and Dead Western Plains, along with a Giant Sand track from another FL contributor, Howe Gelb. There's also tracks from heavy hitters, Calexico, Rainer and Holy Rolling Empire among others. There's even a live cover of "A Change is Gonna Come" from Chango Malo which is exclusive to this vinyl release.

Let me start right out by saying, it feels bad even talking about these tracks in any kind of way, I mean, this is such an unselfish idea from everyone involved that it's a foregone conclusion it's good...you can't possibly listen to this any other way.

The A-Side starts out with The Dead Western Plains and their heavily layered, optimistic sound, bouncing along with a Brian Wilson experimental edge. A familiar direction for this oddly named local band...I don't think I'm wrong in thinking this complex dance sound doesn't bring to mind a lonesome prairie. I keep confusing them with someone else. The Kiss & Tells have this great nostalgic '60s girl group sound, but I hear the Shangri-La's in everything these days. Big, belted vocals, backup harmony, and on vinyl, it completes the great detached layering feel, making it instantly timeless...in fact I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this was a revered Tucson band from 30 years ago.

Rainer includes a homemade, live room sounding track, with steel guitar and what sounds like an upright bass. A real south western folk sound, from the late Rainer Ptacek. Mariachi Luz de Luna, collaborators with Calexico, gets traditional on their track that might be right at home in another universe with the neo-traditional acts on Electric Cowbell. Giant Sand plays dirty using a chorus of little girls in the chorus...didn't see that one coming...aren't Howe's somber, blues vocals enough? Apparently not.

The live cover of "A Change is Gonna Come" from Chango Malo includes a horn section and is a strong contribution of the classic material. Tracy Shedd lifts the B-Side up with a Magnetic Fields sounding "Encourage Me", the unusually warbly guitar and her layered harmonic vocals reminded me a lot of some of Claudia's contributions. La Cerca is a indie guitar-pop patch of Tucson and Calexico gets introspective again with their especially Iron & Wine sounding track "Absent Afternoon". (Do they need to be compared to anyone? No. Nice going.) I'm just saying be careful with this one. Lenguas Largas is buried in swirly-shoegaze with their dreamy "Such a Thing" while Holy Rolling Empire switches gears again with a flamenco ballad on "Gabynda (Yolanda)". It's a diverse collection of the various sounds of Tucson, a reflection of the people coming together to help out neighbors. It's that simple.

This Saturday in fact, Fort Lowell is having a Record Release Benefit show at The Rialto Theatre in Tucson, AZ. The showcase will feature artists from Luz de Vida, such as Kiss & The Tells, Reno Del Mar, Mariachi Luz de Luna, HAIRSPRAYFIREANDGIRLS, Tracy Shedd, La Cerca, Golden Boots, Silverbell, Rich Hopkins, and Tom Walbank. All proceeds will go to the Tucson Together Fund, and patrons will receive $5.00 off the price of the vinyl record or digital download card of Luz de Vida when purchased at the showcase.

Get this one from Fort Lowell, giant yellow 12" vinyl, an edition of 1500 copies compiling a crazy array of sounds from the Tucson, AZ part of the country, while supporting a truly good cause.

Tracy Shedd / Wet & Reckless split on Fort Lowell Records

Google will tell you Wet & Reckless is some kind of lesser DUI charge and a lot of people seem interested in working out it's legal definition online. In this case it's a four piece out of LA and the A-Side of a split from Fort Lowell with Tracy Shedd.

Wet & Reckless is rocking a sloppy, jangly indie guitar sound all under toe of that girl group ooooo's chorus sound of decades earlier. The hint of vocal reverb and tambourine/snare combined with a Built to Spill sound of bent warbling guitar strings. It's optimistic pop punk, granted lyrically it isn't all sunshine "Fill my boots /with heavy rocks....I was built / to go down, down, down" but It sounds like a contemporary combination of that side of the country, minus the deliberate fidelity challenged sound. Their working with a kinder gentler indie sincerity...informed, I'm sure, by the sunny west coast.
But damn, does Seattle have to pay for your weather?
Do you ever even get sad?
This just sounds like the sickening idea I have of the Pacific...the sun, beaches, wax on wax off, harmonizing....well adjusted. Just don't expect me to sympathize with your happy go lucky ways. We have seasons in Brooklyn!

Tracy Shedd with "Tear it up" on the other side appropriately takes things in that mysterious noir side direction of the surf city. This is what happens at night when you have a population isolated by their cars, and little separate houses with picket fences....you get introspective...you drink...and are all alone. Maybe it's the vocal quality though that I'm reading into...a bit Sarah Dougher, or the Spinnanes delicate haunting rock sound. It's definitely at home on a lynch set, velvet curtains, singing into a lightbulb. Or it's the slow strum of the tremolo electric with harmonic mandolin working into a dreamy Mazzy Star feel.

It's a bi-polar roller-coaster ride of flipping sides. I'm always into the color vinyl FL presses, this one is blood red, and the dual sided monochromatic printed sleeves...the usual great package from the Fort of singles that is Lowell.

Interview with Fort Lowell Records part 2

Here's part 2 of my interview with James from Fort Lowell Records. We talked about the pressing of their first single from Young Mothers, the importance of color vinyl, printing locally and his love for Tuscon.
The Young Mothers single should be ready for order on April 20th, look for the review sometime before it hits Fort Lowell, but in the meantime listen for an excerpt from the A-Side 'Come on, the Cross' and I start the whole thing off with a track from Tracy Shedd, who is doing a split with the Fort very soon.

Download it here (25mb).

Interview with James from Fort Lowell Records

I Talked to James this past weekend about his brand spanking new label, Fort Lowell Records...so new, there is literally nothing to even sell yet, just a massive plan to unleash at least 3 singles onto the scene this year, from local Tuscon, AZ bands, on colored vinyl from Young Mothers, ...Music Video? and a split from Wet & Reckless and Tracy Shedd, all of which I play samples of throughout the interview, except his wife Tracy...who I'll have to get to in part 2, next Friday.

I checked out his blog and he is passionate as hell for vinyl, all the way back to experiences with indie 90's singles from Sarah, KRS. We emailed back and forth and he was kind enough to get on the phone with me and talk about the fledgling label before they even have a preorder button for their first release. The hype machine starts here.

Download it here. (22mb, 16min).

James says:

The beauty of 7inch Records lies in their economics; they are not expensive to produce and it does not cost the bands a lot of money to record music for a 7inch, thus making the cost for the customer between five to six dollars. I am personally working extremely hard to ensure that our records offer a great value to you. All records will be released on a limited run of 500 Hand Numbered Colored Vinyl, and will also include an MP3 Download for those customers that don't have a Record Player. All of the artwork will be a Two Color Offset Print, printed locally in Tucson, and NOT on a Photocopier!