Young Mothers on Fort Lowell Records

Fort Lowell, who I talked to a little while back, just released this single for Record Store day and is available on their blog. Young Mothers are from Fort Lowell's backyard in Tuscon and James randomly came across them after sticking around after a friends band and seeing them play live.
Zachary Toporek is the lead singer/songwriter force behind this single.

The A-Side 'Come on, the cross', has a real Doug Martsch vocal style that comes out in the
minor chord changes all within that major melody, harmonized into layers of optimism. Definitely pop, the vocals are the centerpiece mixed way up front, and it has all the guitar work from a Built to Spill track. Harmonic solos and Zack goes the range from falsetto to layered growl, that's the difference between their similarly heavily produced guitar, Zack allows himself a greater range of emotion and is at home equally on acoustic as he is working within this layered studio arrangement.

The B-Side James told me was one of those tracks that he'd always had in mind to record but wasn't fitting into their full length easily...that's the story of every great B-Side. 'Good Swords' is an acoustic layered fingerpicking hushed track, very much Elliott Smith style. Half whispered, pushing the vocal out and really letting go towards the end again going further than Elliott ever would, demanding your attention. One of those slow burns that completely destroys with subtlety and impressive intricate guitar.

On Fort Lowell a pale green vinyl, handnumbered with digital download card.

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!