It is quickly becoming a busy year.   Badman label founder Dylan Magierek has finally finished his project called Misc.  - Happiness is Easy.  Over the last few years Magierek devoted portions of studio time
with some of the artists he has recorded to create a full length album;
The result is a moody, cohesive, instrumental heavy album -with vocals
by gifted Los Angeles poet-songwriter Daniel Ahearn lending fantastic,
stirring, ardent stories to half of the tracks.

IN STORES APRIL 7TH

GET IT NOW
Lets be friends: www.myspace.com/miscpdx WEINLAND has put the final touches on their new album, Breaks In The Sun. This new gem is packed with great songs and will be in stores on April 21st. In fact, people are already talking about it:
"I cold write an essay on why you need to own all of Weinland’s albums." - Muzzle Of Bees
"You’re going to be hearing a lot about this record in the next few months, so soak this up while you can." - Willamette WeekCHECK OUT WEINLAND'S MYSPACE to hear samples from Breaks In The Sun - and check back here in late April for presale!
Starfucker is on tour through Fall 2009 supporting a new album called Jupiter. 



Starfucker:
Less than a year after their successful debut album, this Portland,
Oregon quartet returns with eight infectious songs- pasted side by side
to deliver a non-stop indie house party. The experience of seeing
Starfucker's live performance delivers a reminder of what it is like to
be a teenager: inspired, curious, open, hungry for anything new, and
smiling uncontrollably. And this new 26 minute mini-album showcases the
dance-y upbeat tunes that they are loved for from their sold out live
performances. Included on the album is a cover version of Cyndi
Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” - which recently made it to
internet aggregator Elbows’ Top 2 of blog downloads. The 180 gm LP will
include bonus material not found on the CD. Available in April through
this badmanrecordingco.com and in stores in May 5th 2009.


Mark Mallman is putting the final touches on his next album. He's a genius and an outstanding performer that you HAVE to see live this Fall!

Badman Recording Co. has swooped in and signed Portland’s most buzzed about low-fi dance party (and NSFW band name), Starf*cker.

According to label head Dylan Magierek:
"Starfucker is currently recording their debut full length at home and a few studios in Portland. We are very excited about working with Josh [Hodges]. He is a fantastic songwriter/singer/drummer… what can’t he do?!!"

No word yet what he can’t do, or when this album is due out, but for now, let this MP3 hold you over…"

- Ezra Caraeff, Portland Mercury

featured interview: Weinland

A conversation with John Adam Weinland Shearer (March 2008)

Like Bon Jovi, the name Weinland is both a man and a man’s band. And really that’s where the similarities between the Jersey boys of Jovi and the Portland gents of Weinland come to an abrupt conclusion.

Having started as a solo act and attracted the attention of some of the local Portland press, John Adam Weinland Shearer realized he was "no longer in control" of his music, which - slowly but surely - had drawn a proper band to Shearer’s doorstep.

The group’s new album, La Lamentor, is one of the true treats of the spring. While the band Weinland offers the man Weinland plenty of support - with a rich tapestry of steel guitars, banjos, mandolins and much else - the cores of the songs would be compelling even if stripped away to Shearer and an acoustic guitar.

Shearer took some time to discuss the new Weinland record with The Red Alert, along with his relationship with the band’s esteemed co-producers (Adam Selzer and Dylan Magierek) and his former day job, in which he confronted a broken mental health system.

In reading through your press clips, it looks like the Portland music press has been almost universally supportive of Weinland from the beginning. Is there some local crank that you have yet to win over, or are they all members of the Weinland army?

Ha! The Portland music scene is dope, but not in a crank way. That’d be sweet if we had an army... except we hate war... so it would have to be an army of conscientious objectors.

I don’t know how we got so lucky with local press. I guess we’re lucky enough to live in a city where the press has great pride in its local bands (who wouldn’t with bands like Modest Mouse, The Shins, The Decemberists, M.Ward, Spoon, Chris Walla, Laura Viers, etc, etc, etc, holy shit!). The best part about the press here is their seemingly unwavering commitment to song-writing as the most important factor in selection. The first record of WEINLAND songs I put out way back in 2003, was a vinyl only, no mastering, recorded at home, iffy vocals and bad guitar sound DIY project full of hopeful songs… and local press loved it: Willamette Week said it was ’brilliant’ and the Portland Mercury gave it 4 stars. I never even sent it out.. they just found it. I don’t know how, but I’m very grateful!

A lot of luminaries are invoked in those clips as a means of comparison - Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine and so on. Are you generally comfortable with the names that get floated around, or do you often think "What the hell are they talking about?"

Anytime someone compares WEINLAND to a genius I am happy. The thing about those comparisons is this: I am influenced by, and a huge fan of, all of those people... but in my mind don’t sound anything like them. I think maybe its because I’m so familiar with their music, and mine, that I know the difference. That and I feel like it would be crazy egotistical to think I was as amazing as those folks. The only comparison that I go "oh ya" about is the Neil Young voice comparison... and that’s not because I compare myself, or the band, to him in any way, but rather because I just got dealt those pipes. My dad and my brother both kind of sound like him (when they sing) as well. I don’t know if there’s anything I could do about it! Once I step into my high register its all feeling, baby, and that’s how it feels.

At what point did you decide that your music was calling to be expressed not via a solo bedroom project but via a full-blooded band?

It wasn’t my choice to stop being a solo bedroom project, the music just took over and did what it was going to do. The band formed one un-intentional member after another… all of us friends before band-mates. Kinda like, "Hey, I’m going to play a show tonight, you should come?," said Adam. "Cool, mind if I bring my dobro and play on something?," said future band member. "Ah… that’s cool I guess," said future non-solo act. The last instrument we added was the drums. That was the point at which I knew I was no longer in control.

La Lamentor is broken into two sets - the Adam Selzer songs and the Dylan Magierek songs. Was it clear from each song’s inception where it belonged? Or were there songs that started off headed in the Selzer direction and then wound up in the Magierek group?

Oh, cool question! We like for the records we listen to, and make, to have lots of dynamic variations. I knew I wanted to have a couple of mostly acoustic songs on this record to break up some of the really full instrumentation tracks (which include everything from dobro, to mandolin, viola, cello, accordion, lap steel, pedel steels, etc). I was a fan of Dylan’s work on the Mark Kozelek records. I was also aware of his record label (Badman). We hatched a plan to ask Dylan to record the acoustic tracks for the record with two goals in mind: 1) to facilitate our desired acoustic dynamics on the record and 2) we thought if we got his hands in the project he would be more likely to want to put out our record on Badman… both goals met positive results! Surprisingly no songs jumped from one queue to the next. We did record "God Here I Come" with both so we would have a full band version (Selzer) but of course we went with the original acoustic version for the record. Adam Selzer and Dylan are both brilliant engineers.

Speaking of Adam (who’s also been an interview "guest" on The Red Alert), you guys will be hitting the road together. For readers who Weinland on record but have never seen a live show, what can they expect? A show that is pretty faithful to the album or a different sort of listening experience?

The live show is an upper. We play sincere and often serious music, but we aren’t cryin’ over here, we are in love with playing music and enjoy every minute of it! We’ll take shots with you between songs, make fun of ourselves (and you), and do whatever we can to make sure everyone has a GOOD time. Our band is about making things better and finding hope in shared experiences. Oh, and expect some really, really quiet acoustic guitar and singing numbers right next to some full blown face throttling rock outs (add in our varied instrumentation). And, ya, we’re fairly faithful, but only to the extent that it keeps the live show fresh. If a song works great on a record one way, but kills another way live, we’ll play to kill.

There are some sad songs on La Lamentor, obviously. But does it feel good to play them? Is it an effective coping mechanism?

Ya, it feels great. For me music is healing. I write all those sad songs and they make me happy. That was my experience with great heartfelt music growing up and I want to carry on that beautiful tradition: Feeling like you’re not alone = feeling better.

The follow-up to that, I guess, is how do you avoid the numbing effect from playing an emotionally charged song night after night after night on the road?

Once a song has run its course and is no longer emotionally charged, we don’t play it anymore. Then sometime down the road, just like with any nostalgia, the emotions will come back and so will the song. If we had a huge hit and had to play it to death, I suppose we would, but I’m sure at that point the power would be coming from the audience. Half the rush that makes songs emotional is in the response from the listener.

Help is a recurring theme on the album - both the desire to help and the inability to help. The press materials helpfully suggest the root of that theme, which is your experience working in the mental health system with troubled teenagers. But I wouldn’t have picked up on that thread without the press kit. Did you consciously keep that from entering into the songs too autobiographically or specifically?

Working with mentally disturbed children has had a huge impact on my life, and therefore my songwriting, but I would write songs regardless of that experience. I write more about emotions than situations. There is definitely a theme of "helping" related issues, but that’s just me, or you?

I really like music that tells enough of a story to make it interesting, but keeps itself general enough to be applied to multiple situations (another way I can keep meaning what I’m singing time after time). At the time I was writing the songs for La Lamentor I was feeling really helpless.

I’d like to linger on that for another question, if you don’t mind. I read a story in Mother Jones a few months back about a mental health hospital in New England that was still using electroshock "therapy" on kids - much to the outrage of some, but everyone who I told about the story thought I was making it up or had my facts wrong. I’m sure you never had to deal with electric shocks (hopefully, anyway!), but what do you think the general public is missing or neglecting when it comes to how we deal with these patients as a society?

Well, electroshock therapy is still used. It’s used after all other treatments for "depression" have been ruled out as viable options and a patient is showing severely suicidal tendencies. No one can tell you why electroshock therapy works, but its effectiveness has been proven (first tested I believe in the late 1950’s around the same time that trans-orbital lobotomies were performed as outpatient treatment).

I’ve seen a lot of things that most people wouldn’t dream up (my justification for that belief is the absence of my experiences from popular ’mental health’ thrillers – which makes me angry by the way). I think the general public misses one main truth when talking about, or trying to figure out what to do with our vulnerable populations: We are all people trying our best to survive in a very difficult world. We have beautiful people with success and millions of dollars purposely taking their lives and, as a tabloid nation, we feel for the difficult circumstances which led to their downfall. Then we have unattractive, poor, and dirty gentleman getting arrested for sleeping on the streets because they’re too mentally ill to hold a job. Handing out spare change isn’t the solution to this discrepancy... compassion is. Everyone should consider learning more about the vulnerable populations in their communities and what they can do to help; we will all benefit from this behavior.

"In This The End" puts a sort of surprise capper on the album - it’s more abrupt than one may expect. Was it always written as such a short track, or had there been more to it at some point?

Another good one! I’ve been kicking around that riff and that lyric for a couple of years. I like it. A short, sweet, and amicable goodbye to a lover you’ve lived with. We just thought it would be a neat little bow at the end of the record.

Obviously Portland has a pretty tight-knit music scene, ranging from local luminaries to major players on the national stage. From your own experience, and from talking to all your peers and friends, what do you think is the key for a band to lift themselves from local relevance onto the national radar?

Shit! I don’t know! Maybe I’ll be able to tell you in a year, or maybe I’ll still be looking for the answer to that question myself.

We all work hard and we all try and take the right steps, but this is an unclear path on which we walk.

The requisite dumb question for the closer: If Weinland was joined on stage by Scott Weiland, what song do you think would make for a scorching duet?

If Scott Weiland got on stage I would be scared. Then I would ask him what "Half the Man" was about… then we would just kill "Don’t Stop Me Now" by Queen!

— Interview by Adam McKibbin

www.weinlandmusic.com

Former Film School member Nyles Lannon has been busy since his debut album Chemical Friends made many "Best Of" lists 3 years ago. During his nearly non-stop U.S. and European tours supporting both his debut and Film School's (Beggars Banquet) first album, he painstakingly worked on his second solo album, but it wasn't until he finally took a break from touring that he was able to truly devote himself. A feverish desire to build something greater than his standout debut ruled him throughout the making of the album, and Pressure took on a deep, epic character. It represents a true evolution for the artist.

As Lannon tells us,"Pressure doesn't have a light at the end of the tunnel." It's lyrical content is steeped in dark thought: denial, guilt, temptation, regret. Lannon choreographs his swirling emotions into a series of well-crafted, intelligent pop songs that twist and morph, weaving memorable melodies with electronic flare and soulful guitar playing. From the irresistible catchiness of "Next Obsession," the bluesy drone of "Slipping" or the country shuffle of "Well Groomed Man," Pressure constantly shifts and redefines itself. And with the final song, "River," Lannon delicately lures us out to space and leaves us hanging among the stars.

Lannon took his 'folktronic' past and turned it on its head. This is Chemical Friends with legs and arms and hair on its chest. At times intimate and subdued, at others billowing to triumphant peaks, Lannon has perfected his potion of folky, electronically-enhanced space rock. But despite the diversity of form, Lannon, like on his debut, proves that melody is king. It's his classic melodies that really set him apart from the pack. Pressure is immediately mind-blowing and is beckoning you to enter its labyrinth corridors.

Nyles Lannon will be touring the U.S. throughout fall 2007 thru winter 2008. Tour dates are up at badmanrecordingco.com or myspace.com/nlannon

Reviews
"The tasteful mix of electronic elements and folk bordering on Americana that this San Franciscan puts together is stirring and eye-popping, like tempest-tossed tree tops whipping around in the winter wind. The swelling of organ sounds coupled with buzzing electronics and syncopated rhythms cascade through the whole of this of sweetly understated folktronic pop. Crystal clear production augments the depth of instrumentation that this guy pulls off, and dreamy ribbons of reverbed guitar are chopped up by gritty, chunky rhythmic strumming. While glorious and pillowy, the music itself isn't the only treasure on this record. There's a breadth of emotion in the lyrics that doesn't require a screaming performance to get your attention... we find here the kind of intimate vocal delivery you might expect on an Elliott Smith album. Let yourself be led through the beautifully atypical swells and spare parts of this folk/electronic hybrid." - CD Baby (highlight album)

Previous Press:
"Best Folktronica Artist - 2005" - SF Weekly

"Best Album of 2004" - SF Bay Guardian, Radio X Frankfurt, Grooves Magazine, Scorched Earth, Stinkweeds...

"One of the Best of 2004" - Paste Magazine, Creative Loafing, KUSF, WNCW, WPRB, WUSC, Orlando Weekly...

THE INNOCENCE MISSION RETURNS WITH WE WALKED IN SONG
TO BE RELEASED ON BADMAN RECORDING CO. ON MARCH 20, 2007


PORTLAND, OR-On March 20, 2007, Badman Recording Co. will release We Wallked In Song, the ninth studio recording from the Lancaster, PA-based trio, THE INNOCENCE MISSION.

The band formed in 1988 and centered around the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Don and Karen Peris. They released three highly acclaimed records on A&M, one on RCA and developed a devoted following. They also contributed to recordings by Natalie Merchant, Emmylou Harris, and 16 Horsepower. Their music was featured on the soundtrack for "Empire Records" and on the popular TV show Party of Five. In 2004 they released Now The Day Is Over, a collection of recordings for children which was praised by NPR, Parent Magazine, Performing Songwriter and more. Their last release of original material, Befriended, received 5 stars in MOJO and was chosen by NPR as "Top 10 Album Of the Year for 2003."

We Walked in Song is already being hailed as one of their strongest works, though for songwriter Karen Peris there was great personal loss in the beginning stages of creating the album. Badman's Dylan Magierek explains, "Sometime after the passing of her father, Karen began to write as a way of coping with this great loss, which was compounded with the loss of her mother. The result is some of the most beautiful and heartfelt material I have heard from the band."

The 11 original songs were recorded and mixed by Don Peris at his home studio in Lancaster. It features Karen on vocals, guitars, pump and Hammond organs, and piano; Don on backing vocals, guitars, drums and Hammond organ; and Mike Bitts on upright and electric bass guitars.

The band plans on touring the East Coast in the spring of 2007.

Badman Recording Co. is an independent label and production company based in Portland, Oregon. Their catalog includes releases from Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek, My Morning Jacket, Hayden, and many other talented artists.


www.badmanrecordingco.com/
www.theinnocencemission.com

Hello, Oh man...the Badman offices are looking clean, organized and smelling of Carpet Fresh(tm) and brand, smackin' new jewel cases. Let us tell you about these new jewel cases: ****NEW RELEASES**** Summer at Shatter Creek -- "All The Answers" We can't say enough about this record. The immediate, multi-layered sounds and vocals take you to someplace warm and comfy. In fact, the LA Times -- or otherwise called Daily Purveyor of All Things Warm and Comfy -- had this to say: Buzz Bands April 7, 2005 Cold comfort. A name that sounds both comforting and ominous, Summer at Shatter Creek, the musical identity of local singer-songwriter Craig Gurwich, conjures a vision of uneasy calm that meshes nicely with the dense, melancholy pop of his new album..." - LA TIMES Find someone special and drop the needle on this one: http://www.badmanrecordingco.com/bands/default.aspx?productDetail=answers -- Don't Call It A Tribute: "Friends and Lovers -- Songs of Bread" So, what do you call it when you get a bunch of superstars to record some of the most amazing soft rock songs of all time? Anything but a damn tribute. Yes, we've got Call and Response, Erlend Oye (Kings of Convenience), Josh Rouse (we love that new record of his), Cake, members of The Posies, Paula Frazer and many, many more. But, why oh why sweet jesus...do people still call it a tribute: "This tribute does it right by showcasing the songs and reminding fans what was so good about Bread to begin with. It makes each one of them shine that much brighter on their own. Great tribute. Pick this up immediately." - cdreviews.com This masterpiece of non-tributeness is in your local, friendly record store, but you can buy directly from us: http://www.badmanrecordingco.com/bands/default.aspx?productDetail=bread -- James William Hindle Okay, for all the friggin' O.C. kids who think they discovered mellow beard folk rock this past year, we've been full-tilt on mellow beard folk rock for years with our favorite "O.G." mellow beard folk rock guy, James William Hindle. Well, we've got another release due out in June with JWH once again being supported by members of Vetiver, Currituck Co and Espers. The new album will be available through our site May 1st and in stores June 21st. And hey Sub Pop....WE'LL challenge you to a bowling match -- winner lays official claim to mellow beard folk rock. Put on your dancing shoes! ****TOURS**** (For our British readers...we apologize in advance for any strain that Mallman might have placed on already tense Anglo-American relations during his current tour of the islands...but if you're in Winchester tonite...check him out!) April 22, 2005  Winchester  The Railway w/Chuck Prophet  ill lit April 28, 2005  LA, CA  Spaceland, w/Viva Voce (of the O.C. fame) and more