Mystery Ship fall 2012 West Coast Tour
Mystery Ship announce their 2012 West Coast tour in support of their most recent release on Knick Knack Records
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Mystery Ship announce their 2012 West Coast tour in support of their most recent release on Knick Knack Records
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Lonesome Shack take the time out of their US tour to sit down with jambands.com writer Brian Robbins for this interview:
“What are, ‘Canned beans spread on a tortilla in a convenience store parking lot’?”
If you’re ever on Jeopardy and – under the category of “Musical Food” – the clue is “What groove-propelled bluesmen fortify themselves with before embarking on a set of time-traveling, dimension-straddling blues,” then slap your buzzer, look ol’ Alex Trebek right square in the eye, and lay that opening sentence on him.
If there’s any problem with that answer-in-the-form-of-a-question, then you just have Mr. Trebek call me, as I know this pearl of wisdom to be a fact, Jack. At least, in the case of Lonesome Shack– who do as much groove-propelled time traveling and dimension straddling as anyone I’ve ever met.
While I was waiting to meet up with Lonesome Shack for their set at a little pub called Guthrie’s in Lewiston, ME, my cellphone rang – it was Shack’s singer/guitarist Ben Todd.
“Are you in the area?” he wanted to know.
“Yeah,” I answered. “We’re parked alongside the sidewalk, looking right at Guthrie’s sign. How about you guys?”
“We’re just finishing up eating … we’re here in town, too.”
“Did you have something good?” I asked. I knew Todd and drummer Kristian Garrard had driven through from Winooski, VT on that unseasonably cold spring day – a trip that deserved meatloaf and mashed potatoes, at least.
“Umm …” Ben Todd paused, then chuckled. “Beans out of a can, spread on tortillas. It’s, uh, that kind of a trip. We’ll see you in a few minutes, okay?”
In a way, it only served to solidify my early impression of Lonesome Shack: nobody plays music like this because of its marketability – they play it because it’s in them and needs to come out.
When Todd and Garrard (and, when he’s available, bassist Luke Bergman) go deep in a set – transporting themselves and everyone around them to some mystical place where WWII has just ended and country blues has not only gotten electrified, but picked up some world rhythms, as well – they’re not putting on an act.
That’s just what Lonesome Shack does.
Something happens as Lonesome Shack prepares to play. It’s subtle, at first: no one notices the colors of the room begin to fade when Kristian tightens down the wingnut on his big crash cymbal with the horrid-looking rip in its guts. And although the air inside Guthrie’s is smoke-free and lightly infused with cool food smells from the kitchen area, there’s a smokiness – felt, not smelled – when Ben hauls his Tiesco out of the case and plugs it in. Kristian drapes a t-shirt across his snare; Ben trades off his watch cap for a well-beaten wide-brimmed hat. The room is almost completely black and white now. Lewiston, ME in 2012 has become Avalon, MS a long time ago. (Along with some other place and time that nobody has experienced yet.) Lonesome Shack begins their set.
My wife pointed out the WA plate on the Subaru that pulled up in front of Guthrie’s: “What do you think?”
“Gotta be them,” I said. Lewiston – followed by an appearance in Belfast, ME the following day at the Free Range Festival – was the eastern end of a big cross-country circle Garrard and Todd were making from Seattle and back. They were hop-scotching from show-to-show, playing mostly small clubs like Guthrie’s. (Garrard told me the most successful show on the eastbound leg was a last-minute gig at a record shop in Rapid City, SD – on Record Store Day. “It was cool,” Kristian said. “Everybody seemed to be loving it and we sold a bunch of records.”)
Sure enough, it was the two Lonesome Shackers that climbed out of the Subaru; they resembled the photos I’d seen of them, anyway. Their handshakes were solid, but they weren’t what you call loud men – Garrard, in fact, comes across as quite shy. It’s almost hard to believe that these are the two groove monsters who created the music on 2010’s greasy raunchfest Slidin’ Boa.
Ben Todd thought they had a few minutes to hang out and chat before they needed to set up their minimalist gear – a stripped-to-the-bones drum set and both guitar and mic driven through the same small amp.
“What time do you guys start?” I asked. They’d be opening a three-band bill, with fellow Seattleans The Curious Mystery and Maine’s own Arborea following them. The two of them shrugged in unison. Garrard grinned.
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “Somebody will probably tell us.”
Continue reading"110 proof Seattle blues from Gravel Road who have just released their third album (mostly on vinyl) via Knick Knack Records. Knick Knack owner Joe Johnson even swings in to give us a state of the music industry update."
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Knick Knack Records collaborator and spiritual advisor Angel Djambazov is a panelist with one and only Mack Daddy,Seattle's legendary Sir Mix-A-Lot
at the Seattle Interactive Conference on May 25, 2012
Continue readingMystery Ship performed a the celebration of The Blue Moon Tavern's 78th Anniversary on April 14, 2012
here are a few photos from the show:
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"Lonesome Shack is one of Seattle’s hidden gems, their dirtiness swept under the mod-Ikea rug of sound-alike Americana"
-Abbey Simmons, Sound On The Sound
Continue reading"Michael Wohl, who is a member of Seattle’s Mystery Ship, played a solo set at the Blue Moon during Back Beat Seattle’s February show. Mystery Ship bandmate Alex Hagenah joined Wohl for one song, but other than that it was all up to Wohl. His performance was excellent bluesmanship."
-Dagmar, Back Beat Seattle
click here for the full article and photos
Continue readingKnick Knack Records owner Joe Johnson is a guest on Seattle Sounds (KIRO Radio 97.3)
with host Josh Kerns and Seattle Weekly music editor Chris Kornelis:
..."meet the guy starting a new Seattle-based record label that thinks he can actually change the way bands do business."
http://mynorthwest.com/?nid=577&a=39540&p=64&n=Seattle+Sounds
right around the 20 minute mark is where Joe talks about Knick Knack Records.
Two new local labels are on the rise, thanks to an artist-centric, handcrafted approach
Here are excerpts from a recent interview that Knick Knack Records owner, Joe Johnson had done with Seattle Weekly writer Dave Lake:
"Across town, Joe Johnson had a similar idea: What if he could create an online record store that was as enjoyable to shop at as the brick-and-mortar mom-and-pop stores he loved that were rapidly going out of business? To do that, he created Knick Knack Records, a digital record store (and label) which sells not only new releases from artists like the Black Keys and T-Model Ford but also a hand-picked selection of used LPs. He hopes soon to expand to tickets, T-shirts, books, and more. "I'm curating a particular niche of music that I think will appeal to a certain segment," he says of the endeavor—"people who like rock & roll."
After learning the ropes as an intern at local label Sarathan, Johnson (who spends his days as a web-merchandise planner for a large retail clothing brand) decided to launch a record label in whatever bits of free time he could muster. His experience as an accountant and a warehouse manager for several large e-commerce companies prepared him for starting Knick Knack as a label, but after studying the economics he decided to launch an online specialty shop alongside it. "It's tough to generate enough revenue to keep yourself afloat as a label," he says. "Your competition is Warner Bros. and Sub Pop and much bigger organizations who have so many more resources."
Johnson's goal is to cut out as many middlemen as possible from the process, and he hopes his hand-picked selections and passion for vinyl will encourage record buyers to shop with him instead of giant e-tailers like Amazon, which he says does a crummy job of fulfilling vinyl orders. "They ship vinyl in boxes that were made for books," he says, "and it comes to you fucked-up."
Though the Knick Knack web store got off the ground first, last September the label released the LP To the Stars on the Wings of a Pig from Seattle's the Foghorns. Johnson said he has at least half a dozen releases lined up through the first half of 2012, including a new record from psychedelic blues band GravelRoad. Bandleader Bart Cameron said they decided to make the record with Johnson after his web store sold an impressive amount of their previous albums.
The artist-friendly approaches of Fin and Knick Knack have made bands eager to align with them. Though neither label signs bands to a traditional multi-album record deal involving book-length contracts, the handshake arrangements benefit both parties, particularly as each begins to operate on a larger scale and establish their identities. Cameron says Johnson has stayed out of the way of their creative process: "All I've gotten in terms of critique was shocking enthusiasm."
Both labels are beginning to get noticed. Fin has released a radio-only 12 single by J. Pinder that's seeing traction on college charts, with a full-length yet to come. In March, the label will release a single by the Walkabouts, who have been generating airplay on KEXP. And, most rewarding for Fulghum, his records have garnered praise from tastemaking music blogs with a penchant for vinyl, like Philadelphia's The Styrofoam Drone.
While Fulghum is able to devote most of his energy to Fin, Johnson doesn't yet have that luxury at Knick Knack. "My goal in 2012 is to quit my day job," says Johnson, who hopes that Knick Knack's continued success can make that a reality. And with most indie labels operating on what he calls "the old model," he thinks he is well-positioned to succeed.
"If you manufacture it yourself and sell it directly to the customer, your margin is so much bigger," Johnson says. "With a handful of bands, we can do what a larger label [can] do.""
Continue readingOn January 26, 2012 GravelRoad will celebrate the release of 'Psychedelta' with a performance at The Tractor Tavern with Kinski and Angelo Spencer
here are some photos from the album release show:
click here for additional photos
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