This morning, Glide Magazine, premiered the second single from Luther Russell’s upcoming LP, Medium Cool. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Today Glide is excited to premiere “Talking To Myself”, which captures exactly what makes Luther Russell such a compelling artist. The song is a jangly power pop tune that brings to mind – perhaps not surprisingly – Big Star. Russell crafts a song that is about as catchy as it gets but also doesn’t slack on showing off a little guitar mastery. It also takes us back to a time when rock bands actually made compelling music that balanced emotion and songwriting prowess. Russell has definitely earned his credentials as a songwriter and musician, and with “Talking To Myself” it’s clear he has seamlessly continuing what has already been a fruitful and productive career. 

Check out the full article here!

The album is slated to be released on February 22, on Limited Edition color Vinyl, Black Vinyl, Silver CD, and digitally. Pre-order your copy here!!

Billboard Magazine has premiered the title track from Anna Tivel’s upcoming LP, The Question.

“It feels like this similar thread between the songs is sort of grappling with trying to figure out the meaning of a bigger thing and struggling with that — just the humanness of spending a whole lifetime struggling to figure it out when maybe it’s figuring out the struggle is the thing that actually gives it meaning,” Tivel tells Billboard. And much of what she writes about on the 10-track set was inspired by being on the road, “driving around and listening to the news for hours and taking in people’s stories and how everything that’s going on is affecting people in different parts of the country.”

The Question’s title track, meanwhile, came from a specific encounter during Tivel’s travels. “It’s about being in New York and looking up into a window and seeing a man putting on makeup and a wig,” Tivel recalls. “There’s a lot of people I know and friends of friends who are transgender, transitioning or just struggling, and having the president sort of waffling backwards on any progress that’s been made with that. I started writing this (song) as a poem that night and put it to chords later back at home.”

The record will be available on April 19 in LP, CD and digital formats. In in addition to standard Black Vinyl, the LP will be available as a Limited-Edition Marble Yellow version, limited to 150 copies. You can pre-order the record here.

On February 22, Luther Russell with release a new solo LP,  Medium Cool. The record was recorded and mixed to tape in a short blast with the help of some old friends: Co-producer Jason Hiller (bass), Derek Brownof The Eels, (drums), Danny De La Matyr (harmonies) and Liam Hayes of Plush.

“With these songs, I thought I could maybe capture the essence of growing up in the San Fernando Valley during the heyday of rock ’n’ roll radio,” explains Russell. It’s unmistakably there in the drag strip reverie of “Corvette Summer,” in the kinetic multi-city shout-out “Have You Heard?” and the shredding solos of “Can’t Be Sad.” Along for the drive are echoes of the slightly off-kilter power pop that emerged from Memphis’ Ardent Studios in the 1970s. You can hear it in tracks such as the slamming opener “Deep Feelings,” the downcast jangler “Talkin’ to Myself” and a tube-frying plea to the downer of the party, “Sad Lady.” Makes sense, since Luther’s been working there regularly with Jody Stephens of Big Star in their duo Those Pretty Wrongs.

Medium Cool is heralded by a 7″ single — out November 16, 2018 on Fluff & Gravy —containing “The Sound of Rock & Roll” and the flip side, “Saturday’s Child,” which didn’t make the album, but for Luther, is a clue to the spirit of the record. “It’s about the power of youth and beauty. An ingenue hits the club scene. Everyone competes to light her cigarette. She’s a star.”

Pre-orders are available via https://fluffandgravy.com/store/luther-russell-medium-cool/

Medium Cool track listing:
Side 1:
Deep Feelings
Can’t Be Sad
The Sound of Rock & Roll
Corvette Summer
At Your Feet

Side 2:
Have You Heard?
Sad Lady
Talkin’ to Myself
Blue Balloon
Can’t Turn Away

7” Single:
A: The Sound of Rock & Roll
B: Saturday’s Child

Once again, it seems that the Holidays are upon us. The days are shorter, the winds colder, and the drinks stronger. Here’s what we’ve got in store for you this season:

Online Holiday Sale: Head to the Fluff and Gravy Store to get all of your holiday shopping done in once convenient place! Use the coupon code, “holiday”, to get 25% off every in-stock item! (excludes pre-releases) Order before December 17 to ensure delivery by Christmas!

Holiday Pop-Up Shop: If you are in Portland, get on down to the FnG Headquarters (611 N Tillamook) on December 15 for our Pop-Up store. There will be huge discounts on every in-stock item, complimentary beer and wine, and door prizes for everyone.

Holiday Concert: After the Pop-Up Shop, head up the street to The White Eagle for our 2nd Annual Holiday Concert. This year will feature performances from Anna Tivel, Jeffrey Martin, Nick Jaina, Catherine Feeny, Jamie Stillway, Whim, and Vacilando. There will be raffles! There will be tater tots! We’ll have most of our holiday shop with us so you can get your shopping done too! The event is a benefit for Portland Homeless Family Solutions.

Anna Tivel’s latest single, Fenceline, has been added to NPR’s Heavy Rotation!

“Ever since Elliott Smith broke out in the late ’90s, Portland, Ore. has been a hotbed for indie folk troubadours. Laura Veirs, M. Ward, Laura Gibson, and, most recently, Haley Heynderickx have all found inspiration on the banks of the Willamette River. But Anna Tivel is perhaps the most underrated of them all. She’s long been adept at writing arresting but sparse songs, anchored by vivid storytelling lyrics that showcase her uncanny ability to paint landscapes with words. Her latest single, “Fenceline,” is no exception. The song is the first track released from Tivel’s forthcoming album, The Question, due out April 2019. But with this record, her superb compositions have been elevated to new heights. With the help of producer and multi-instrumentalist Shane Leonard and engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens), Tivel has crafted a truly goosebump-inducing soundscape.”

The digital single is available now on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else. The full length LP will be released April 19, 2019 and can be pre-ordered via the Fluff and Gravy store, including Limited Edition color vinyl.

We are excited to announce that Jeffrey Martin will be headed back to the UK in a couple days where he’ll be opening a some shows for the great Courtney Marie Andrews, and playing a few solo as well. Tickets on sale right now and all over!

Nov 30 – Coggeshall, UK West St. Vineyard
Dec 1 – Eastbourne, UK Printers Playhouse
Dec 2 – London, UK Green Note
**Dec 4 – Birmingham, UK
**Dec 5 – Bristol, UK Colston Hall
**Dec 6 – Oxford, UK St. Barnabas Church
**Dec 7 – Pocklington, UK Pocklington Arts
**Dec 8 – Perth, UK Perth Theatre
Dec 9 – Sheffield, UK Yellow Arch Studios (with Frogbelly and Rad Orchestra)

(** supporting Courtney Marie Andrews)

Rolling Stone Magazine shared Anna Tivel’s new single, Fenceline, and had the following to say.

It’s easy enough to write a song that imagines a world without borders; much harder to write a song that takes on the present dark, harsh contemporary complexities and realities of borders and immigration. By avoiding any sweeping statements and sticking exclusively to rendering her narrator’s plight in vivid imagery, Tivel’s song does just that. But when a moment of revelation does arrive, it’s less inspiring than devastating: “Down here at the border,” Tivel sings to a swelling set of strings and dark piano chords, “I’m just an animal.”

The digital single is available now on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else. The full length LP will be released April 19, 2019 and can be pre-ordered via the Fluff and Gravy store, including Limited Edition color vinyl.

On April 19, 2019, Anna Tivel will be releasing her 4th solo album with Fluff and Gravy Records, titled The Question. That’s a long way off, so we decided to release the first single, “Fenceline”, today, premiered by Folk Alley.

“Fenceline” focuses on the impulse humans have had across generations and societies, to build walls in an effort to keep unwanted people out. Tivel found herself wondering: What is at the core of this need to construct barriers between ourselves and others?

“I heard an interview awhile back with a border guard,” she says. “He was in charge of a two-mile stretch of old fence and every morning he would walk along the fence line and find wire cutters and holes. He talked about the people he met, the people he helped through and those he had to send back, what their lives were like, what they were hoping for, what they were scared of. It was right after the election and it felt so good to hear someone talk about how deeply complex borders issues are, how security is important but so is humanity.”

Contemplating walls, fences, and gates brought her to the story of St. Peter at Heaven’s gate, only letting the chosen through. “Some people believe that you arrive at the entrance to Heaven and have to prove that you belong there,” she says. “Even in death we’re drawn to the idea of some kind of great wall.”

Give the track a listen (below) and then pre-order the record here. You’ll get a download of “Fenceline” immediately.

Whim will be releasing a new record in early Summer of 2019 with Fluff and Gravy Records, but we just couldn’t wait to get the lead single out to you. “Mouths”is first and foremost a callout song— a song Sarah wrote to call herself out for taking the silent observer position in too many situations where being vocal is imperative. In the days of social media where fake news and political opinions abound, it’s easy to feel like you simultaneously have a voice, and that it’s impossible for you to ever be heard over the clamoring masses. It becomes an existential pitfall when you either say nothing, or you say something and it turns out to be ignored.

The parallels to our current social and political climate were too great to ignore, and although we have not yet even finished recording the LP, we felt like this track needed to be public sooner rather than later. Paste Magazine premiered the track here as their Daily Dose and we will be officially releasing the track digitally on November 2, 4 days before the mid-term elections.

Give it a listen, and spread the word. “We are the people who SHOUT!”

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

Son of the Velvet Rat will be touring the West Coast in October.

“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!