“Magik Markers” (Used 4 times)

Northern-Spy Records  [FMA / home] first appeared in late 2010 when -- in one seemingly fluid motion -- the staff that revitalized ESP-Disk split off, launched a shiny new label, and whipped up a diversely talented roster that includes many FMA favorites (Bird Names, Arrington de Dionyso / Old Time Relijun, Jooklo Duo, Colin Langenus Orchestra / USAISAMonster, Eleven Twenty-Nine). With their freeform approach, I had a hunch the N-Spy staff were in tune w/ our efforts here on the Free Music Archive, and the hunch was verified when they swooped in to sign Dan Melchior the day after he debuted Catbirds & Cardinals here on our site. I became really intrigued by the label's model after talking with Colin Langenus, and hearing his excitement at having found a label with a full staff who was actually investing in his future. So when N-Spy approached us with mp3s to share -- including promo mp3s, web exclusives, and archival projects like Colin Langenus' Mass Dist, I took that as an opportunity to interview Label President Tom Abbs and learn a bit more.

FMA: You don't see a lot of new labels popping up these days, so what are the origins of Northern-Spy?

Tom Abbs: I had started working at ESP-Disk about three and a half years ago. Bernard Stollman the founder would put ads on Craigslist, and we all found our way there, really trying to revive that label. There ended up being so many management problems that we decided to move on and do our own thing. We were actually trying to bring more new sounds into that label too.

FMA: Yeah, I mean an artist like Talibam finding a home on ESP somehow made sense to me. And Barnacled, with this great record that had actually been originally recorded back in 2003...

TA: Yes, and we found it under a desk. People were sending stuff to Bernard, and he wouldn't listen to it, so it had ended up on the ground somewhere -- literally the CD-R was underneath a desk foot -- and we found it, kept playing it. I didn't know who Barnacled was, but we just loved the music, and there was an email address on the disk, so that's how that happened.

FMA: Well sometimes that's the case when labels when they're run by just one person -- I mean, how could they possibly keep up with all the submissions? But with the team who revived ESP-Disk moving on to Northern-Spy, you're working with this more traditional label model where you have in-house staff specializing in different tasks...

TA: At ESP-Disk, I had assembled a staff to do the publishing, to do the PR, a really good financial guy, so when we left ESP we had that intact. That was the core of our business plan. If it was just me, it would be much more limited in what could do, but since I had this really strong team that had worked together for a few years, it enabled us to really hit the ground running.

FMA: I was talking to Adam [Downey, Northern Spy Marketing Director / Head of A & R] the other day about how Colin Langenus from USAISAMONSTER has this great solo album that's been floating around for a while, I actually have an unmastered CD-R version of it from several months ago, and it was gonna be issued on this label that I personally love from Providence RI, the Corleone label, but I know that label's just run by one guy, who's also on the side running a restaurant and doing tons of other things. So when Northern Spy came along, it sounds like this was actually done with Corleone's blessing. And I guess the point is that artists are more comfortable with a label that has all these different arms working for them...(cont.)

WFMU returns to the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain this weekend. Tune in all day Friday and Saturday for live sets from New Pornographers, Pavement, Wire, The Fall, Sic Alps, Superchunk, Ganglians, Neu, The Clean, The Slits, Major Lazer, Diplo, Cold Cave, Condo Fucks (Yo La Tengo), Endless Boogie, Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera), Gary Numan, Van Dyke Parks, Dum Dum Girls, Liquid Liquid, Almighty Defenders (Black Lips + King Khan + Mark Sultan) and more (just added Crocodiles and Monotonix this morning!).

On WFMU's Beware of the Blog, BT lists approx. set times and writes: "We're not only uber-honored that Primavera has made WFMU their official American radio station, but also that so many incredible acts have given us their permission to carry their sets." Set times are subject to change, so be sure to follow WFMU's twitter feed for the live updates.

Like last year, many Primavera sets will be archived in high-quality mp3 here on the Free Music Archive. You can revisit highlights from last year's festival -- including Sunn 0))), Wooden Shjips, Dan Deacon, The Vaselines, The Bats, Magik Markers and many more -- over here.

When Pete Nolan sings as Spectre Folk, his voice goes through a clipped, disarming delay that turns all held notes into phased-out noises, and makes all consonants trail off and blend into the next word. His songs seem to have verses and choruses, or at least that's the assumption, until they spin off into other phrases that don't quite fit into the same boxes. Instead of moving along through verse, chorus, verse, these songs just seem to stay put, throwing verse after verse off a bridge to nowhere.

Last week, I put up Steve Gunn's set (from the same night) and claimed it was Pete Nolan's Spectre Folk. Now that our files are all in order and correctly labeled, both of their sets are available on the FMA for download. Steve Gunn's latest work, Boerum Palace, is available as of last November from Three Lobed Recordings. In addition, the revised version of last week's post is up (all the good things about the music intact).

All of Spectre Folk's tracks here on the FMA are from the recent LP Compass, blanket, lantern, mojo. The LP is put out by Arbitrary Signs (003), and is available for $12 at petenolan@hotmail.com or for complete download at www.othermusic.com. The attached music is from Spectre Folk's January 29, 2010, performance at ISSUE Project Room, and if it doesn't convince you to get the LP, then who knows what will.

A video for "Sat Around" is available here, and the Arbitrary Signs release notice (with a couple pre-reviews) is here.