Imagine that Deep Purple and Sly and the Family Stone had a love child that grew up in New Orleans listening to Ray Charles, Black Sabbath and Booker T.  That love child would be the Sugar Free Allstars.  With their diverse musical influences and unusual instrumentation, this funky organ/drum duo from Oklahoma City can be hard to classify. The music blends New Orleans funk, Memphis soul and Hammond organ-drenched gospel, wrapped in a colorful rock and roll package.   Add to the mix a touch of pop songwriting sensibilities, humor and a high-energy live show and you’ve got the Sugar Free Allstars.

Chris “Boom!” Wiser (Hammond B-3 organ, lead vocals, saxophone) and Rob “Dr. Rock” Martin (drums, backing vocals) make up the dynamic duo of Sugar Free Allstars.  As Wiser multi tasks the outfit covering bass lines on the B-3 and cranking out soulful sax solos, Martin lays down a rock-solid beat that keeps the heads bopping and hips shaking.    The connection and fire between the two musicians is obvious in their live performance. “We try to provide a good mix of humor and a tight performance,” explains Wiser. “Even in our kids’ shows, it’s meant to be a rock and roll party for all ages.”

We are pumped to have pressed SFA’s first-ever vinyl release — the Record Collection 7 inch.  Hit them up at one of their many live shows to grab a copy (they are almost always touring somewhere).

Grit, elemental rhythm, tight-as-a-drumhead playing, and a profound depth of feeling: these are the promises of a great soul band…and St. Paul & The Broken Bones deliver on those promises.
Half The City is the compelling full-length Single Lock/Thirty Tigers debut of the Birmingham, Alabama-based sextet, who have already created a maelstrom of interest with their roof-raising live shows and self-released four-song 2012 EP. Produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes, and recorded and mixed in the storied R&B mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the album harkens back to the region’s classic soul roots while extending the form with electrifying potency.

Nashville’s Plowboy Records is pleased to announce the signing of Chuck Mead and the release of his new record Free State Serenade. A wild ride of hillbilly blues and honky-tonk, Mead, best known for his work as frontman for BR549, wrote the album based on the stories, legends, crimes and lonesome open roads of his childhood and formative years in Kansas. Recorded with his longtime band The Grassy Knoll Boys, Free State Serenade was co-produced with Joe Pisapia (kd Lang, Ben Folds Five) and features special guests BR549’s Don Herron and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Critter Fuqua.

Free State Serenade jumps from jaunty mountain airs like “Neosho Valley Sue,” with BR5-49’s Don Herron lending his fiddle to what Mead calls a “coming of age ditty,” to “Sittin’ On Top Of The Bottom” – a whip-smart ode to “Sittin’ On Top Of The World.” Reaching into the dark lore of Kansas history, “The Devil By Their Side” is a chugging rock n’ roll number about William Quantrill’s murderous 1863 Civil War raid on Lawrence, Kansas.

AMIGO consists of band members Slade Baird (guitar,vocals), Adam Phillips (drums, vocals) and Thomas Alverson (bass guitar). The 11 original tracks are a masterful blend of Americana, blues, honky-tonk and rock and roll, with tasty layers of pedal steel guitars, horns, pianos and organs.  It is not easy to label this band with one genre of music. From the pedal steel driven opening track “Where Have All the Bad Times Gone?” to the toe tapping, Fogerty inflected closing track “Good Luck,” the band’s new album  Might Could will appeal to fans of bands such as Wilco, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Band and early Whiskeytown.

Might Could was recorded and mixed by Scott Solter (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice) at Baucom Road Studio.  Dave Harris (Hootie & The Blowfish, Southern Culture on The Skids) mastered the album at Studio B in Charlotte, NC.   The recording features a plethora of talent aside from the original trio, including: Mark Baran (bass guitar); Whit Wright (pedal steel guitar); Aaron Phillips (tenor saxophone); Ashley Proctor (vocals, handclaps); Courtney Watkins (alto saxophone);  Courtney Wyatt (trumpet); Greg Ellis (guitar); and Jay Shirley (Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, and piano).

It’s part record club, part music journal.  The new Singles Club and its first installment is available now.  Issue #1 is by Daniel Bachman.

Singles Club consists of a series of limited edition 7″ records released quarterly and delivered straight to your door. Side A features track recorded exclusively for the club. Side B features a narrative composition with the artist. You’ll even get a Singles Club 45 box that you can fill up as new issues roll in. All limited to 250 copies. When they’re out, they’re out. (So check it out as soon as you can).

Geryon is a musical endeavor that takes an alternative approach to death metal. Using only bass guitar and drums, Nick McMaster & Lev Weinstein weave a debut 12″ that builds on their past work together (Krallice, Astomatous, Hymn) while founding something all together new. Throughout this four track, 26 minute album, Geryon delivers intricate, abrasive death metal with a touch melody. Music that is as thick and lush as anything composed using more conventional metal instrumentation.  Available now from Gilead Media.

Scarcity was recorded Live in Concert at Audio Rebel’s Quintavant, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil July 2nd 2013.  Available on deluxe 180 gram vinyl with a tip-on jacket in an extremely limited quantity.  Easiest option for ordering is through Catalytic Sound – grab it while it lasts!

The Austin TX based Paper Moons coupling has been crafting incredibly sincere indie folk songs since 2007. No Love is their second full length offering since 2008, following their last release New Tales. This record is 10 new songs of simply astounding beauty and songwriting craftsmanship. Subtle vocals wisp through layered guitars and simple, but perfectly placed drumming.  After seeing a Fall 2013 digital release on legendary emo label Deep Elm, Stormchasers LTD is overjoyed to give these songs a proper vinyl release.

Recorded in northern California in 1984 and released in a micro edition by the Creative Sound imprint in January of the following year, Journey to the Light is a true lost gem of private issue New Age music, an album that is more spoken about than heard and deserves to be recognized alongside established classics of the genre. For too long it has languished out of print and been nearly impossible to come by, occasionally popping up in private auctions only to be snatched up by savvy collectors.

Performed with processed electric guitar, zither, voice, and field recordings, it is unabashedly beautiful music- two sidelong pieces that feel as though they may have always existed, hanging in the air like a morning fog over the Pacific. For as archetypal to the genre as Banning’s compositions might appear to be, it would be remiss not to comment on their singular nature, on what sets them apart from those works to which one would be inclined to compare them. Indeed, Banning’s music has a seriousness and intensity that was absent from much of the New Age scene as it existed in the early ’80s.

Available soon from Students of Decay.