New vinyl pressing! Rachel Baiman – Common Nation of Sorrow.
Produced by Rachel Baiman
Engineered by Sean Sullivan at The Tractor Shed in Goodlettsville, TN
Mixed by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording and Playback in Portland, OR
Mastered by Jon Neufeld in Portland, OR
Pre-Production Assistance by Riley Calcagno
In 2009, Gotta Groove Records set out to disrupt the vinyl record manufacturing industry. Our goals were 1. To simplify the record making process; and 2. To pursue pressing the best sounding and looking records that have ever been made.
Within our first 12 months of operating, we accomplished our first goal by launching an immersive and information-rich website. We incorporated the wisdom so graciously passed to us by veterans of the industry at that time, along with easy-to-understand pricing information, and a seamless manner to place orders through the web. We also set up a system for rapid communication with customers.
Our second goal, to produce the best sounding and looking records that have ever been made, is more easily said than done. We spent the next 10 years of our existence perfecting our craft, learning from our mistakes, and wherever possible, advancing the technology, materials, and machines we use daily. We became obsessed with quality control. As in most types of manufacturing, every day is a new adventure, and often a new learning experience. We are extremely proud of the records we produce today, and we are humbled and thankful to be allowed to press records for a new generation of listeners – Generation Wax.
So, in our ever-present pursuit of making a more perfect record, not just within our own pressing plant, but also with the hope of advancing quality and sustainability within the supply chain of the vinyl record industry at large, we are excited to announce that Gotta Groove Records is absorbing the NiPro Optics Records plating division, and will be moving the operation from California to Ohio over the course of the next several weeks. NiPro has been an instrumental partner in our success over the past seven years, and several NiPro employees will continue to be directly involved in this transition both in Ohio and in California for the foreseeable future.
We are particularly excited to begin supplying existing NiPro customers with the same or better level of service that they have been accustomed to. While there will inevitably be a brief period of potential shipping delays while we move the NiPro operation from California to Ohio, the quality of the stampers produced will not waiver, and we will be prioritizing stamper shipments for existing NiPro customers.
Also, lacquer engineers will continue to have access to blank MDC lacquers as they have been accustomed to receiving from NiPro as Gotta Groove Records assumes the U.S. distribution of MDC lacquers.
We accentuate, our goal is to use this opportunity to improve the consistency and reliability of the supply chain to the entire record making industry, not just to benefit Gotta Groove Records and its customers.
We are excited for this opportunity to simplify and improve efficiencies within the supply chain from cutting to plating to pressing.
For the latest updates, please visit www.recordplating.com.
In 2020, Rudy De Anda moved his homebase out of California for the first time. He was headed East. Somewhere in the back of the U-Haul, among the boxes and baggage, was a mostly finished record. Upon arriving in Chicago, Rudy quickly found the final pieces of his new LP, Closet Botanist. It’s due out April 28, 2023, on Colemine/Karma Chief Records.
The album was recorded in Austin, Texas at the Electric Deluxe recording studio. The space is owned and operated by Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), who helped produce and engineer Rudy’s new LP. “In the past, I’ve done most of my recording in California,” Rudy explained. “The new location changed the vibe. The band and I were 100% focused on the process.”
Rudy’s previous releases have grown synonymous with California sunshine. He was born in Los Angeles and spent most of his formative years in Long Beach. “People often tell me my music reminds them of the beach and the sun,” Rudy said of his older songs. Closet Botanist isn’t a total departure from Rudy’s beachy, psych-rock roots, but it does sound more mature. “These songs are personal to me. More than ever before, I was able to get to the point and get some things off my chest. It’s about lost love and lost friendships – it’s more visceral than any music I’ve made before.”
Most of the songs were written back in California with the help of Rudy’s previous bandmates. “Tu Mirada” was one of the first songs he wrote in Chicago. Then, a local friend helped him find “Hey Mr. Sun.” Rudy connected with Blake Rhein (Durand Jones and the Indications) during the final weeks of writing. “He showed me a song and asked if I wanted to record it. I hadn’t done that before, but I loved the song. It felt like I had found the missing piece.”
To get the sound just right, Rudy called his California bandmates to the studio. Jon Rivera played bass, Daniel Villareal laid down the drums, and Kyle Davis took care of the organ, piano, and synth leads. Adrian Quesada produced the album, and Aaron Glembowski engineered the sessions. “Adrian saw my initiative and trusted me to direct the band. He and Aaron made me feel extremely comfortable. They helped us get to where we wanted to go.” The band recorded directly to tape to channel a classic rock n’ roll sound. Rudy points to The Velvet Underground and The Kinks for direct inspiration. “I glorify those bands – I’m a 60s psych-rocker at heart.” For the seasoned listener, there’s a trail of psychedelic breadcrumbs to find throughout the track list.
Rudy dedicates the album to those who love so hard that they neglect to water their own garden. Even in a much colder climate, the closet botanist continues to grow.
RELEASE DATE: 04/28/2023 – via Colemine Records.
New Vinyl Pressing — Pale Dian – Feral Birth. A follow up from Narrow Birth the album Feral Birth explores the dark and light of existence and the thin string that holds society from spinning into chaos. Recorded during a global pandemic this album serves as an auditory emotional sample for futures to come.
New vinyl pressing! After Belgian electro-samba wunderkinds Antena split at the end of 1985, singer Isabelle Antena immediately shed her cold wave crown for a sophisticated pop princess tiara. On 1986’s Martin Hayles-produced En Cavale, echos of Madonna and city pop abound, with a lipstick stain of L80s Euro dance and spilled cosmopolitan’s worth of bossa nova stirred in for good measure. This elegant second chapter of a French pop diva has been expanded to include Antena’s shelved Island Records demo, adjacent B-sides and rarities, plus an expansive essay and previously unpublished photographs.
Courtesy of Numero Group.
New vinyl pressing! The word “Babble” brings two things to mind: A person pouring out their thoughts with reckless abandon, or a gentle sound coming from water cascading over rocks as it flows past. In the case of this reissue from Kendra Morris, Babble is a sublime melding of these two meanings.
We all have that secondary thought bubble that pops up when we should be concentrating on what’s in front of us. Reflections of our deepest pain, excitement in new love, or subconscious anxiety slink into our psyche and fuel distractions. Kendra takes those inner dialogues and winds them into lilting lyrics and fervent tones then feeds them into you. Questions like “Why do you care?” in Le Snitch, remind us that bullies don’t stop existing after high school while the newly added, and album finale, Ride On, a tribute to her late brother, soothe us with the knowledge that you don’t stop existing just because you’ve left this earth. The ability Kendra has to take trepidation, desire, and insecurities and turn them into comfort and make you want to get up and move with them is a gift in itself. The progression of Twist and Burn, to Woman to Avalanche takes us from the mystical feelings of new love to the self-doubt that creeps in and then to the repetitive rut a relationship can turn into, even if it’s filled with love. The journey through human emotion is accomplished through Kendra’s songs, bringing us, the listeners, into Kendra’s enchanted world of pain and strength, feeling renewed on the other side.
The original release of Babble in 2016 came in the form of a self-released EP. A fan cult favorite; it has now grown to include three additional tracks: Playing Games, Dial Back and Ride On. With the support of Karma Chief Records (A division of Colemine Records), Babble is getting the official release it deserves.
Along with the new tracks comes new artwork. The original vinyl of this EP was released with a black and gold cover, sans artwork, unless you were one of the successful 50 to snag a copy with a one of a kind self portrait collage, meticulously created by Kendra. Now with a modified lightning bolt cover honoring the original, this newly expanded gatefold comes with a select few of those original collage pieces digitally recreated and combined to give the viewer a chance to search for Kendra, hidden amongst the chaos as she would have it.
An artist in every sense of the word, Kendra Morris is devoted to her crafts, and compelled to keep granting us a window into her mind.
Courtesy of Colemine Records.
New vinyl pressing! Breaking from the strange monotony and abnormal norms that took hold during two years of pandemic life, Hammock returns with Love in the Void, an album that looks to the future, seizes the present, and unabashedly relishes the experiences and bonds that bring meaning to our days. Known for crafting orchestral works of stirring cinematic ambience, on “Love in the Void” the Nashville-based duo of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson bring guitar-forward, heart-pounding urgency to songs that shout through and shatter the static of complacency.
New Vinyl Pressing! Beach Fossils – Clash The Truth 10th Anniversary!
Beach Fossils’ sophomore album is modern post-punk triumph that’s left a lasting impression on the music scene it was born out of. After releasing their self-titled debut and the beloved EP, What a Pleasure, songwriter, and composer Dustin Payseur began recording dissonant and introspective demos reflecting on his southern upbringing and young adulthood in New York. The tracks that would eventually make up Clash the Truth involved Payseur taking his songwriting in a new direction, employing jagged instrumentals, existential lyrics, and socially conscious subject matter.
Courtesy of Bayonet Records.
New vinyl pressing! The third full-length from Overcoats, Winner takes place in the kind of New York City spaces meant for unencumbered dreaming: fire escapes and rooftops, downtown late at night, the majestic Manhattan skyline as glimpsed from the George Washington Bridge. But in paying homage to the city that formed them, singer/songwriters Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell set their storytelling against a sonic backdrop more reminiscent of wide-open landscapes—an unbridled and euphoric sound that evokes the wild rush of hitting the road with your closest confidant, with no particular destination in mind.
Produced by two-time Grammy-winner Daniel Tashian (a co-producer on Kacey Musgraves’s widely acclaimed Golden Hour), Winner marks an evolution of the graceful musicality first displayed on Overcoats’ debut album YOUNG (a 2017 release that earned praise from outlets like the New York Times and NPR Music, who placed it at #4 on its best-of-the-year list). As a bold departure from YOUNG’s sparse electronic pop and the atmospheric indie-rock of The Fight (a 2020 release that nabbed them a Breakthrough Artist nomination from the American Association of Independent Music), the album encompasses a warm and luminous sound sculpted from a tightly curated mix of elements: earthy guitar tones, elegantly rugged textures, the duo’s signature heavenly harmonies.
Available April 7, 2023.
New vinyl pressing from The Rectangle Shades from Knoxville, Tennessee. Grab one today!