The Foghorns stop in at NWCZ Radio in Tacoma, WA for an interview promoting their latest album 'To The Stars On The Wings Of A Pig'.

MIDWESTERN ROOTS IN SEATTLE’S NEW LABEL

The return to vinyl has taken the musician-dominated town of Seattle by storm. With major labels gearing up to put pop stars onto vintage equipment, an online vinyl store with Midwestern roots has emerged as a leader... by banking on the Midwest

Knick Knack records began selling classic collector vinyl in 2010, with mint condition LPs from The Stooges, The Black Keys, The Ramones, Black Sabbath and the like. A chance meeting with a transplanted Midwesterner turned a successful online store into a unique record label.

In fall 2011, Knick Knack Records encouraged Wisconsinites cum Seattle anti-folksters The Foghorns to release their seventh album on vinyl. Blue vinyl, no less.

The Foghorns have built a following in Wisconsin, Seattle, and, strangely enough, Iceland and Scotland, with their unique take on traditional folk, country and rock. Their seventh album, on gleaming blue vinyl, has already received strong reviews. Here’s what Seattle press has to say:

From Reverb Magazine, author Chris Kornelius (blogs.seattleweekly.com)

“Pig is one of the most substantially listenable local albums of the year; easy to access, and hard to put down. It's soothing and comforting in the right ways, without being excessive or cheap. Its subtleties - hints of organ and accordion -- are smooth, but smart. Easy listening doesn't have to mean easily forgotten.”

From Ball of Wax, author Jon Rooney (www.ballofwax.org)

“Get a little closer and the songs on To the Stars on the Wings of a Pig, the band’s latest LP, reveal themselves to be funny, bitter little laments about the hell that is other people and, quite frankly, ourselves. Despite the context clues of traditional instrumentation and standard folk song structures, the Foghorns craft savvy, biting reproaches more in line with Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street” or Lou Reed’s SallyCan’tDance than a knee-slapping hootenanny... To the Stars on the Wings of a Pig is a quietly stunning piece of work and, on beautiful blue vinyl, an album worth having on hand for whenever the mood strikes.”

As for how a few displaced Midwesterners are managing to make a profit selling vinyl while larger labels struggle, Joe Johnson, founder of Knick Knack has a theory: “I sell stuff I actually listen to.”

  To The Stars On The Wings of A Pig was released in the fall of 2011 by Knick Knack Records, on blue vinyl, cd, and digital

Please Don't Leave Scream More Than Jesus Wedding Bells Crocodile

 Goodbye Waltz, Hello Blasphemous Chorus: Seattle’s alt country songsters discover retro rock and roll

In 2009, The Foghorns waltzed their way onto the Seattle scene with what sounded like a spectacular meltdown of woozy short stories set to jangly guitar. The band, who somehow made it to Seattle via Wisconsin, Brooklyn and Iceland, set sweet melodies behind the lines “Give me two more minutes before the truth... ah honey please put down the 80 proof.”

Blending genres like a high school kid blends drinks, Paul Constant of The Stranger described them as “definitely the best country band in Seattle that can also whip up a catchy synthesizer riff at a moment's notice.”

Where does a peripatetic tribe of misfits go from there? Surprisingly, away from country music.

Yes, The Foghorns, who cut out a niche doing literary country songs about the bittersweet moments in romance have moved on. Kind of.

Their new album, To the Stars..., begins as an almost continuation of A Diamond as Big as the Motel Six. “Please don’t you leave me now,” follows exactly from the above-quoted tune 80 Proof. And then comes the French. And a choir.

Suddenly the band is telling us naughty jokes. “Little girls, oh how they do protest, they roll their eyes and pray you see their little blessings” a choir sings, while an accordion drones.

The band compares an erection to the rising of Jesus Christ. Not just in a passing verse, but as a refrain: “Jesus died, and came back alive, and so has my tired dingaling.”

This is not country music. And these are not short stories. The Foghorns have dropped their storytelling for choruses and refrains. Gone are the waltzes, in favor of driving beats and overdriven electric guitars.

The result is a dynamic, utterly unique, strangely vintage sounding bar album. It sounds like something Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen might have done when they were young and amused.

For fans of The Foghorns, there is enough of the old style to pull you along, and there is the one bittersweet closer that encapsulates the A Diamond sound, Northern Lights. For those who thought of The Foghorns as a curiosity, or as holding down the country fort in Seattle, To the Stars on the Wings of a Pig is a very welcome contribution. A rock album that can hold its own with the best from around the country and from the last four decades.

Good friend of Knick Knack Records, Nick Lindsay produced this video for the Lonesome Shack song 'Was It My Will'.  Recorded live at the Comet Tavern.

For Conor Byrne Pub's Motown Records Night, The Foghorns played Papa Was a Rolling Stone, perhaps the best song ever, by The Temptations.

For Conor Byrne Pub's Chess Records Tribute night, The Foghorns perform the Etta James song Tuff Mary

This is Lullaby with our new bass player Kevin Cluppert, played at Conor Byrne in Ballard May 15, 2010, dedicated to Mr. Aaron Torphy.