The Seattle indie label has published its first novel, The Ring Road, a Scando-crime thriller by Edward Weinman.

The Ring Road is set in Iceland after a glacial volcano awakens with a series of eruptions, ensnaring ex-cop Hobson in a bizarre murder investigation involving a road-weary homicide detective, a brutal pimp and a homicidal sheep farmer.

Weinman co-wrote the feature film A Little Trip to Heaven, starring Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, two-time Oscar-nominee Jeremy Renner and Julia Stiles.  A Little Trip to Heaven screened at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. 

The itinerant author described his novel as: “A volcanic eruption. An American tourist trapped in Iceland’s unforgiving landscape. A killer on the loose. Just a normal weekend at 66 Degrees North.”

“I can’t think of a better publisher than Knick Knack Records. The label puts out music with an edge. It has indie cred. The Ring Road’s blend of dark fantasy and irreverent tone not only mirrors Knick Knack’s musicians, but also Seattle’s gray, wet winters.

Knick Knack Records is known for publishing some of Seattle’s top indie bands, artists like The Foghorns, GravelRoad, Mystery Ship, Half Light, Proud Wonderful Me and Lonesome Shack.

The Ring Road is the first novel in the 66 Degrees North series.

Weinman’s second novel, Snowblind, about a drug-deal gone sour set in the days before Iceland’s financial collapse, is forthcoming in early 2014.

The Knick Knack Records crew gathered this past Satuday night at Knick Knack HQ in Seattle for a Holiday Kegger to celebrate the past year of new releases accomplishments, and to blow off some stream before the new year.  Proud Wonderful Me and GravelRoad both performed great sets for the gathering of family, friends, and crew.

here are a few photos from the event:

GravelRoad video and black and white photo by Jason Neuerburg

"Holland’s very own Roadburn Festival has become Europe’s leading underground festival for psychedelic, avant-garde, doom or any other variation of leftfield sonic pleasures that push the boundaries of music.

Originally a spin-off of the Roadburn website, the Roadburn Festival has emerged as an event in its own right. It brings together bands, fans & media from around the world. Despite it’s international acclaim, Roadburn Festival retains an underground vibe and ethics, but with seriously big-league production values."

Mystery Ship II is the featured album of the Day on Roadburn.com

http://www.roadburn.com/2013/11/album-day-mystery-ship-ep-ii/

Fresh off the road following their fall US tour Mystery Ship releases the single 'Bridgeburner/Chinatown' a 7 inch double AA side vinyl record.

Released by Knick Knack Records, November 2013

includes digital download 

Not slowing down a bit since their recent tour and EP that was released on Knick Knack Records in July they return with this incredible electrified double AA side ripper 'Chinatown/Bridgeburner'.

Recorded and produced by Gordon Raphael (The Strokes, Regina Spektor) and Mystery Ship at Fastback Studios in Seattle

Vinyl lacquer cutting by Jeff Powell at Ardent Studios in Memphis TN, Art and Layout by Adam Burke (KKR-013)

Bridgeburner

Chinatown

"The pure moods distilled into self-accompanied chord melodies have a transportive quality. There's a fear in me that despite the all-encompassing archival nature of the internet, music like this is at risk of being lost. So I'm glad Wohl is out there, still making it heard."

-Noise in the Zen Arcade

http://inthezenarcade.blogspot.com/2013/11/michael-wohl-home-recordings-v-i-2013.html?m=1

http://www.bigtakeover.com/news/video-premiere-feel-better-fast-by-half-light

These days, if one is an obscure music enthusiast with an aversion to the mainstream and also perceptive to the goings-on in the scenes to which one’s personal musical tastes subscribe, one easily sees independent record labels popping up all over the place. Many of the very same labels one first noticed the year before, however, are for whatever reason nowhere to be found this year, and certainly won’t be around the following one. Most of them are short-lived ventures; here one minute, gone the next. There are a myriad of different reasons why that happens, of course. But what it comes down, quite simply, to is this: only the individuals who own and operate their record labels properly are successful…to the extent that small outfits on the margins of the music world can be, at any rate. By properly I mean that one must run a superior label, first and foremost, by conscientiously striving to keep balanced the scales upon which art and commerce sit.

The Obelisk recently gave this very in-depth review of the new Mystery Ship record and here's a bit of what they had to say:

"Mystery Ship revels in a swath of classic heavy rock and blues influences. One might also see them as taking cues from the European retro-minded jetset, acts like Graveyard and Kadavar, but as they display in the smoothly executed jam/build on the closing “Wild Eyes,” they have a sensibility of their own to work within, and a recording job from Jack Endino results in a sound that’s wholly natural, but not reaching for any kind of heavy ’70s lo-fi analog-ism...Anyone with this much boogie in them is going to have a hard time keeping still for very long." 

http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2013/09/23/mystery-ship-ep-ii-review/

The music blog Nada Mucho recently caught up with with Knick Knack Records artists, Half Light prior to their appearance at Durge Fest (at Barboza).

Below is an excerpt from the interview conducted by Matt Ashworth:

NadaMucho.com: What is Half Light and why should anyone care?
Dayna Loeffler: Half Light is a Seattle based psychedelic pop band that writes textural, dreamy sound-scaped type songs. We’re too old to keep up with the “Flavor of the Month” and therefore will never be eligible for soundtrack placement on any The OC type series or any Fast and Furious franchise “films,” but we’ve been playing together for a good chunk so we understand how to interact with one another, how to ebb and flow.

NM: What can people expect from your show tonight at Barboza?
DL: We’re too old for any trapeze acts, even if we have some great ideas on paper. So, probably just a lush 45 minutes of guitar-driven, textural, vibey rock songs. Barb can’t be there to play cello but our friend Amanda will sit in on violin for three songs. It’s sounding real nice.

click here for the full text

"If gauzy, impressionistic dream pop in the vein of Mazzy Star is your idea of summer music, then look no further then Seattle’s Half Light. This is summer music like a sunny sky that’s streaked with storm clouds. The song [Emerald City] appears on the band’s full-length Things To Figure Out."

-The Delete Bin

click here for the full text