Category: Press Release

In October of 2013, 17-year old Sarah Isabella DiMuzio walked into a hidden recording studio, armed with an acoustic guitar, a banjolele, and a wistful voice that was impossible to ignore. That studio was the recording arm of Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records, and label head John Shepski and recording engineer Juniana Lanning were both immediately taken by the earnestness and immediacy of Sarah’s music. Under her stage moniker, Whim, she self-released the 4-song Small Infinity – EP via Bandcamp, catching the attention of the Portland Mercury as well as Northwest Music Scene. It also caught the attention of independent filmmakers, Sean & Matthew Kohnen, and Sarah was hired to write and record 4 additional songs for the feature film, The Funeral Guest.

At age 19, Sarah would move to Galway, Ireland, where she recorded her first full-length album, 400 Days. At the same time, she began licensing her music regularly for television (her songs have appeared in New Girl and Catfish among others). Upon moving back to the US and residing for a time in Nashville, the world of music publishing became a reliable source of income, and a career in music began to look sustainable. 

Now at the age of 22, Sarah has moved back to Portland and will be partnering with Fluff and Gravy Records for a full-length Whim album, titled Abuzz in the Abyss, to be released in the Spring of 2019. The first single is the impossibly catchy indie-pop gem, “Mouths”, to be released on November 2, 2018.

Glide Magazine has the premier of “Angels”, the second single from Hillstomp‘s forthcoming Monster Receiver LP (due October 19).

It’s “a slowburning nugget of soulful blues that makes you want to stomp your feet as much as it makes you want to sit back on the porch with a tall glass of whiskey. These fellas may hail from the Pacific Northwest, but “Angels” makes it abundantly clear that they possess a uncanny ability to conjure up the kind of spiritual reckoning present in blues and gospel of the deep South. ”

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files

“Hagler” is the first single from Hillstomp’s October 19 release, Monster Receiver, and it has been making the social media rounds this week.

Here’s what people are saying:

“Terrifyingly good” – American Standard Time

“‘Hagler’ which sounds like Lee Ranaldo getting loose in the Bayou before the song bursts into a glorious haze of momentary distortion.” – Post to Wire

“Full of piss, vinegar and whiskey” – Joy of Violent Movement

The song itself fell out of a new guitar – a used Gibson ES 135 that Henry Kammerer recently acquired. “New guitars tend to do that”, Kammerer explains. “The song sounds tough, and it needs to. Marvelous Marvin was the toughest guy from my childhood and he always stuck with me. He was just a bad ass. I’m so happy now I get to sing his name for the rest of my life.”

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files

After a few self-released records that McCue recorded while attending college in Seattle, PANGAEA marks a milestone for him. Released on Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records in the Spring of 2018, the record marks the end of his career as a Student, and the beginning of his focus on being a full-time musician. The transition actually began a year earlier, in March of 2017, when McCue competed in the Museum of Popular Culture’s Sound Off! competition for artists 21 and younger in the Pacific Northwest. Armed only with his dad’s acoustic guitar, a wispy tenor voice-box, and more than a few starkly provocative lyrics, Jason ended up impressing the competition’s judges, comprised of Seattle music industry veterans, enough to earn him first place. The prizes included a drum set, an electric guitar, a synthesizer, which he used to record PANGAEA, as well as performance slots at Bumbershoot and Timber Outdoor Music Festivals.

His September/October dates mark his first prolonged tour, and these will be the first of many more to come.

Jason McCue Tour Dates

If by some chance you’ve been asleep for the past 17 years, let me introduce you to Hillstomp. They’re a 2-man band based out of Portland, OR, comprised of Henry Hill Kammerer and John Johnson. Henry plays guitar and banjo like a hurricane, and if you close your eyes you’d swear he’s playing 2 parts at once. John Johnson beats mercilessly on his drum kit (which often contains a bucket, brake drum and broiler pan) with the fury of a demon loose from hell. But once you get past the pure ferocity of his playing, you notice that the parts are intricately crafted patterns that provide the framework for Kammerer’s guitar and banjo sorcery. Save for a couple of outlier tracks, there’s just no room for bass guitar, and no-one misses it enough to ask for it. This is folk music in its purest form – from loud and gritty, to intricate and poignant, and most importantly, always heartfelt and true.

We are proud to announce that on October 19, we’ll be releasing a brand new full-length, Monster Receiver. Recorded over the spring of 2018, the album finds the band challenging the stereotypes once again. Producer, John Shepski, and mixing engineer, John Askew (Richmond Fontaine, Laura Gibson, Wild Flag) teamed up to drive the Hillstomp sound into more experimental territory. The drums and guitar are pushed to the limit on screamers like “Hagler” and “Snake Eagle Blues”, while the gentler sounds in “I’ll Be Around” and “Dayton, Ohio” seem to stop time for a few minutes. Featuring guest appearances by Anna Tivel on violin, Erik Clampitt  (Hook & Anchor)on pedal steel, and David Lipkind (I Can Lick Any Son of a Bitch in the House) on harmonica, the record flows seamlessly between grungy folk, garage rock, and tender ballads.

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files.

Daytrotter has jumped onto the Year-End List frenzy with their Best of 2017 Folk/Americana list, and it features none other than out own Mike Coykendall. The track “All That I Wanted” from his 2015 album, Half Past, Present Pending was recorded over a recent visit from Coykendall to the Daytrotter studios. Give it a listen!

This morning (11/17/17), The Parson Red Heads are releasing a new single, “TV Surprise”, recorded during their Blurred Harmony sessions. Accompanying this single is an announcement that the album will be released in a digital Expanded Edition on 12/8 via Fluff and Gravy Records, featuring 2 bonus tracks – “TV Surprise” and “It’s Hard For Me To Say”.

Here’s how Evan Way describes the new single…

“TV Surprise” is a song that’s been around for probably 10 years at least, maybe more. It’s got a real Felt / Feelies vibe to it that I really like – those are two bands that we were just starting to get into around the time I wrote the song, so it’s no surprise that was coming through. The abstract feel of the lyrics is the thing that ended up making it not a perfect fit for inclusion on the Blurred Harmony album sequence, but Danny (O’Hanlon, who mixed the record), did a really great job creatively mixing the song – he added a lot of the textures that make this recording of the song have such a cool atmosphere and mood.

Fun fact – the ambient sound drone that opens the song is a combination of a Casio Keyboard, vacuum cleaner, bass guitar, and Evan’s 5 year old son George recorded into my Tascam 4-tracker and slowed down.

Today, we are proud to announce the release of Jeffrey Martin’s One Go Around.

After Jeffrey Martin released 2014’s Dogs In The Daylight, the Portland Mercury posited that he “might be the best songwriter in Portland.” No Depression called the record “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album from an emerging singer-songwriter can get.” One Go Around is the long-awaited follow-up to that record.

There’s a quiet dignity to the 12 new tracks on One Go Around, but a kind of quiet desperation as well. With subjects ranging from the shocking story of William Burroughs’ casual murder of his wife during a drunken party, to themes of love found and lost, the stories hit hard, because we know we may not be far off from them ourselves in this time of uncertainty.

The record is available now on LP, CD and digital formats, at the Fluff and Gravy Store, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

In addition to black vinyl there is a Limited Edition run on Red vinyl, hand-numbered to 123.

Anna Tivel’s fourth studio album ‘Small Believer’ is a collection of patchwork stories drawn from conversations with strangers, on the road, in restaurants, bars, and rest stops. Produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell), the songs float on a raft of electric guitar, pump organ, and sparse bass and drums.

‘Small Believer’ is spacious and honest, a lyric-driven exploration of the things that move within us. Tivel takes great care with every syllable and every story, chipping away until what remains is blindingly true and deeply affecting.

The record is available now cd and digital formats.

Limited edition gold vinyl, hand-numbered to 100 and classic black vinyl will be available in November 2017 (pre-order now and receive the digital download).

Small Believer is Anna Tivel’s 3rd full-length solo release. It’ finds the Portland-based songwriter hitting yet another high mark, with masterful production from Austin Nevins. The songs on Small Believer were written while Tivel was touring, but also in-between shifts at the odd waitressing job, or driving Meals on Wheels in her spare time. She has an extraordinarily keen eye for recasting the images she sees into song, so that a homeless man drawing comfort each day while sitting and watching a building go up, brick by brick, becomes the song “Riverside Hotel.” A chance conversation with a neighbor, also a waitress, who makes an empty promise becomes “Last Cigarette.” Each image or moment that burned itself into Tivel’s memories becomes a launching pad for a larger story that she spins into song.
Listen to the singles “Illinois” and “Dark Chandelier“.

The record is available for pre-order in all formats,including limited edition gold vinyl (limited to 100 hand numbered copies), black vinyl, cd, and digitally.

Blurred Harmony is the 4th studio full-length album from indie psych-folk stalwarts, The Parson Red Heads. It is the overdriven jangle of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star power-pop, the skewed psychedelics of the Paisley Underground, the bittersweet energy of New Zealand’s “Dunedin Sound” movement, and the muted twang of Cosmic Americana, all crammed into 44 minutes. It was released on June 9 via Fluff and Gravy Records (US) and You Are The Cosmos (Europe).

As the band’s frontman, Evan Way puts it, “This record is more a true part of us than any record we have made before – we put ourselves into it, made ourselves fully responsible for it. Even the themes of the songs are more personal than ever – it’s an album dealing with everything that has come before. It’s an album about nostalgia, about time, change, about the hilarious, wonderful, bittersweet, sometimes sad, always incredible experience of living. Sometimes it is about regret, or the possibility of regret. These are big topics, and to us, it is a big album, yet somehow still intimate and honest.”

Paste Magazine gave the record a rating of 8.9/10, calling the band “scholars of the back-porch jangle-pop”. The record is characterized by “smart, lucid songwriting… a fantastic soundtrack to the psychoses of your summery, sunny days.”

Check it out on Spotify (below) and purchase it here on Limited edition clear vinyl with blue “smoke”, black vinyl, cd, or digitally.

Way back around 2009, when The Harmed Brothers were still in their infancy, Eugene-based percussionist Adan Morehouse received a phone call from North Carolina. It was Ray Vietti on the phone, saying that they’d like him to join the band, and that they needed him immediately to hit the road with them. He had played in a band that had opened for them a few times, and had struck up a friendship with Ray and Alex Salcido. Problem was, Adam had a job that he didn’t feel comfortable leaving, and was planning on going to barbering school, so he turned them down.  2 weeks later Ray and Alex were knocking on his door, and they weren’t going away without a “yes’. Reluctantly, Adam quit his job, sold his stuff, and hit the road. In the end, the touring life proved to be too stressful for Adam, and his fear of tornadoes (made problematci by the band constantly touring the Midwest) proved to be too much for him. He ended up leaving the band and following up on his original plan. He was going to barbering school.

Fast forward to 2017… After working for other people for years, Adam and his friend Kurt Foster decide to open their own place, Morehouse Barbers, in the North Portland neighborhood of St. Johns. On March 3, the shop opened it’s doors, and of course, The Harmed Brothers were there for the grand opening to record a video. 

Check it out here!

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wTsAuOvzW8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Stream and purchase up the new album here

On Saturday, October 8, Fernando Viciconte will be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. To celebrate, we are releasing a special animated video that Trizz Studio (Barcelona) lovingly created for “Save Me”, the lead track off of 2015’s Leave The Radio On. The video explores the soul and essence of a young boy’s inner creative battles. The boy protagonist, is a sensitive, young child who is overwhelmed by his own imagination and the endless possibilities of self-expression. The core story is shaped with a naïve simplicity and hints at the places where inspiration evolves.

Congratulations, Fernando!

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQvfKB4JKrk[/youtube]

Check out the new single “Make A Life“, from Nick Jaina. It’s the lead track from the digital album, Brutal Lives, which will be released on September 16.

Brutal Lives (Fluff and Gravy Records, Sept 2016) is easily Nick Jaina’s most daring album to date. And that is saying a lot when you consider that Nick has made a career out of re-inventing himself. The 14-track album primarily features work that he originally composed for a contemporary dance piece in the summer of 2014. Though the songs were not used, Nick thought the recordings had some value in them, so he refashioned them, adding vocals, choruses and ambient sounds to give them new life.

Stylistically, the album jumps from the indie-pop standout “Make A Life”, to the haunting “Co-Creators”, to the jarring “Saw You On The Train Last Night”. And I swear, “Fell Too Much In Love” would be right at home in a John Hughes film.  Due to the unusual provenance of the recordings, almost every instrument was played and recorded by Nick himself. He gave the collection of songs the title that he proposed for the original dance piece, which was also rejected: Vies Brutales, or Brutal Lives.

This is Nick’s second release on Fluff & Gravy Records, a follow-up to 2013’s Primary Perception. It will be available digitally on September 16, and coupled with a limited-edition printing of an essay that Nick wrote for people who are new to dance, How To Enjoy Dance. 150 copies of the essay will be released in October.

It’s hard to believe, but this November will mark  the 5th anniversary of the first official Fluff and Gravy release!  To celebrate, we will be hosting a series of 4 concerts, over 3 days, featuring 13 bands (11 Fluff and Gravy artists + guests).  Venues will include The Star Theater, Dante’s, and Fluff and Gravy Studios. In addition to the concert series, we will be releasing “5 Years of Gravy” – a compilation cd featuring unreleased tracks from our artists recorded throughout our 5 year history. The cd will be included in the price for a weekend pass ($35)

Keep your eyes peeled over the course of the next 2 months, as we will be releasing tracks from the cd and a pair of “Legacy Videos” for classic singles.

Check out the FULL 3-DAY LINEUP!

FRIDAY, 11/11, 8pm (STAR THEATER)

Hillstomp
Cedar Teeth
Mike Coykendall

SATURDAY, 11/12, 1pm (house show)

The Evangenitals
Catherine Feeny and Chris Johnedis

SATURDAY, 11/12, 8pm (DANTE’S)

Richmond Fontaine
Vacilando
Nick Jaina
Jeffrey Martin

SUNDAY, 11/13, 8pm (STAR THEATER)

Fernando Viciconte
The Hill Dogs
Dan Stuart (of Green on Red) with Thomas Heyman
Kevin Lee Florence

GET YOUR TICKETS!

The ticket link for the festival can be accessed here.

Thank you so much for making the last 5 years possible, We can’t wait to begin our next 5. Hope to see you in Portland this November!