Blog

February 1, 2022
Why The Spotify Boycott Might Actually Help Indie Artists
Why The Spotify Boycott Might Actually Help Indie Artists

Because of the Spotify boycotts happening right now, 2022 might end up being a better year for indie artists that continue using the platform.

By Nolan Erck
March 24, 2021
The Kevin Seconds 60th Birthday Video!

Kevin Seconds is a dear friend. Because we're still dealing with this pandemic nonsense (stupid Covid), a party couldn't be had. So instead, about 100 of Kevin's friends and family from the punk rock scene sent in an amazing collection of videos wishing him well on his birthday. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to kiss Kevin for being the generally rad human that he is. Happy 60th birthday, Kevin!

August 5, 2019
Record Digging in San Luis Obispo

Record shopping in San Luis Obispo was a first for me. Friends pointed me toward 2 stores worth visiting, Boo Boo Records and Cheap Thrills Records.

July 17, 2019
Digging at Dimple Records One Last Time

We lost the Tower Records chain a couple years ago, and I waited too long during their liquidation sales to get anything good. Sadly we’re losing Dimple Records now as well. At least this time I jumped on the sales quicker; last week Tony and I hit literally every Dimple Records in the Sacramento area and raided the vinyl bins.

February 15, 2019
The Lemonheads 101

The Lemonheads released a new album last week, their second collection of cover songs, “Varshons 2”  (we’ll get to a proper review of that album soon - promise). Yes, I’d rather this be an album of originals but a covers album is better than no Lemonheads at all, and maybe this is a sign of more Lemonheads originals coming soon. We can cross our fingers while wishing for more, and enjoy a perfectly good set of new Lemonheads interpretations of other songs. Besides, they’re touring in support of said covers album. So really, we’re getting all the benefits as if this were a set of originals - let’s run with it.

July 15, 2018
The Two Times I Met Steve Soto

Steve Soto from The Adolescents (and a hundred other bands) passed away last week. I didn't know him well but we have several dear friends in common; I've got various CDs of his in my collection, and saw him live in a few different projects over the years. Personally I've only had two very small interactions with the man.

By Nolan Erck
July 8, 2018
Five Underrated Material Issue Songs

Material Issue are already a criminally underrated band — everyone knows that. We’ll save the spewing about how they should be huge (but instead are a long time best kept secret for those of us that remember them) and instead just focus on 5 of their deep cuts that really should be well known singalong tracks for the masses.  “Valerie Loves Me”, “What Girls Want”, “Diane” — the band knew how to make a big pop song. And some became their singles.  Others are equally amazing, yet buried on the albums. In no particular order…

March 11, 2018
12 Tips For Your First Tour As An Indie Musician

There’s this great community called Balanced Breakfast; it’s a San Francisco monthly meetup for musicians to talk about various facets of the music industry.  Last week in the Balanced Breakfast Facebook Group, someone asked this question:

“Does anyone have advice for someone trying to book their first tour? I’d like to do a west coast tour (Santa Cruz, LA, maybe Portland and Seattle) but don’t really have any connections in those areas. Thanks!”

And my answer got some positive feedback so I thought I'd share it here for others. In no particular order...

February 17, 2018
2017 Holiday Mix CD

It’s been 15 years in a row now that these have gone out.  I have no plans to ever stop.  CD players will continue to fade away; I’ll keep making them until CDs are vintage and retro and I’ll keep making them after that too.

December 28, 2017
12 Best Albums of 2017

It's that time of year again when we all post our "best of" lists and show everyone what they missed over the last 12 months...