About
Support Carbon Records 25th Year Projects
Since 1994, I have been running the independent record label, Carbon Records. It’s been a labor of love to which I have happily devoted much of my personal time and finances. Enabling musicians/bands to get their music out will always remain important to me and I currently have so many releases that I want to put out, but only so many resources.
Running the label for 24 years, I have now been living with Carbon for as long as I have without it. April marks the start of Carbon's 25th(!) year and I would love to celebrate that milestone with the release of many exciting efforts - a double LP compilation of guitar centric artists from around the country and world (more details below), the long overdue LP from Ian Downey is Famous (RIYL Eddy Current, etc.), a personal project called Crush the Junta (RIYL Bardo Pond, Heavy Winged, etc), legendary out-rockers Nod (VU-esque, formerly of Smells Like Records), heavy psych-primitive unit Pengo, as well as a few other things in the preliminary stages.
Your contribution to this effort will make it possible for Carbon to get these releases out the door in a timely manner, as well as continue with other projects on the horizon. Below you will find more information on each of the releases, as well as the various levels you can contribute at, along with the rewards you will receive at each level.
Crush the Junta - Crush the Junta is a trio featuring Dennis Mariano of Thunderbody, Chris Reeg of Ian Downey is Famous, The Years, Entente Cordiale, and Blood and Bone Orchestra and Joe Tunis of Tuurd, Joe+N, Entente Cordiale, SQ, Pengo, and formerly of Hilkka (he also runs Carbon Records). The three play a variety of instruments, but mainly stick to drums, synth/electronics/bass and guitar respectively. This music is usually heavy and loud rock (RIYL Heavy Winged, Bardo Pond, Grey Daturas). This new release, while still loud and heavy at times, also ventures into more varied directions.
Untitled Track from LP:
Ian Downey is Famous - Rock / art-punk outfit, sounding at times like Captain Beefheart, Wire, and Eddy Current Suppression Ring. After many recording sessions and planned releases, this will be IDIF's first full-length release.
I beat up Nietzsche from LP:
Nod - Since they first began playing together in a Rochester, NY, basement in the spring in 1990, Nod has been churning out off-beat funk/punk rock with an undercurrent of Velvets noise and chaos. Members Joe Sorriero (guitar, vocals), Tim Poland (bass), and Brian Shafer (drums), have shown an alternate-tuning free/out groove craziness on a series of 8 self-produced albums (and a smattering of other releases in various forms) spanning nearly three decades, including a bunch of releases on Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley’s Smells Like Records. The Nod guys also did some time in legendary noise/weird jazz combos Coffee and Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Nod’s latest release on Carbon, So Much Tonight, echoes early Talking Heads, and (though Nod predates them) Pavement. Call it omnipunk. While references and comparisons to other acts abound, their style never sits still long enough to be pinned down.
Go For A Ride track from LP
Pengo - "Legendary, highly volatile, psych-primitive unit from the autumnal climate of upstate New York. Fondling the same clammy flesh as Sunburned Hand of The Man and No Neck Blues Band, this band of John Schoen, Jason Finkbeiner, Nuuj and Joe Tunis marry fucked-up turntable sound with acoustic (broken folk?) instrumentation, tapes and voices to dazzling effect." - Dylan Nyoukis
Live video. Track from LP forthcoming
2LP Guitar Compilation - WOUND - Continuing the tradition of its milestone-marking compilations, Carbon is using the occasion of its 25th year to bring together an impressive roster of guitar-based artists. Showcasing the use of guitar in its many forms, this compilation consists of some of the most exciting new and established proveyors of Americana, psych, free-improv, rock, and experimental sounds.
Alexander (David Shapiro), Bill Nace, Bruce Russell (Dead C / A Handful of Dust), Campbell James Kneale, Daniel Bachman, Finkbeiner, Jon Collin, Kryssi Battalene (of Headroom, Mountain Movers, etc), Loren Connors, Michael and John Gibbons (of Bardo Pond), Michael Morley (Dead C / Gate), Rambutan (Eric Hardiman), Rat Bastard, Rob Noyes, Ryley Walker, Tashi Dorji (solo, Manas, etc), Tom Carter / Morning Scales The Mountain, Wendy Eisenberg
Risks and challenges
The plan is to get all of the releases noted above released during the summer of 2018, along with helping to fund future releases already in the works.
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