Sunday, December 18, 2011

3-Way Singles Club, Volume 8 is cleared for take-off!

Featuring an alternate, exclusive version of The People's Temple's sunburnt "Jim Jones," which originally appeared on the Make You Understand 7-inch EP on HoZac Records, 3-Way Singles Club Volume Nine is the blasting cap on the musical stick of dynamite that ITAV attempted to contain in 2011!  Click on the pretty picture or the link below it to immerse yourself in three breathtaking tracks from the aforementioned, Jackpine Snag, and Nocturnal Aviators In Action!

(by the way, we're offering this volume for free/pay-what-you-will until Christmas day!)




3-Way Singles Club, Volume Eight hits the streets in the waning hours of 2011, while people claw for the latest gadgets and gizmos at big-box stores across the country -- the annual Christmas frenzy.  Of all the 3-Way Singles released this year, this one takes me back to the simple, pleasurable experience of buying  Minneapolis-based record label Amphetamine Reptile's compilations at Traverse City's independent record shop (now a Coldstone Creamery), New Moon Records.  At that time (early 1990s), I lived at home, and I bought these noisy AmRep comps on CD -- partly because I wasn't hip enough to collect vinyl, and partly because I still lived at my parents' house and it was easier to smuggle something called "Dope, Guns, And F@#king In The Streets, Volumes 4-7" into the house in the lightweight, portable CD format.

In those days, I plied a schizophrenic musical groove that included Quicksilver Messenger Service, Bongwater, Robert Johnson, fIREHOSE, and The Jesus Lizard.  Those AmRep discs bristled with tracks by bands called "Lubricated Goat" and "Jonestown." They were menacing and musical -- songs often threatened to jump the rails, but the surprisingly melodic tracks by the likes of Hammerhead, Unsane, the Boredoms, Brainiac, and my beloved Superchunk were a gateway between the free-wheeling psychedelia that was opening my mind and the punk and metal that was harnessing my youthful disgust.

(If anyone sees "Dope, Guns, And F@#king In The Streets, Vol. 1-3" -- the pink one -- on CD, grab it -- I'll trade you something cool for it.)

Enough about that.  Something about the blistering psyche-rock and bedrock-shaking groovy riffs of the three songs laid out before you by The Jackpine Snag, The People's Temple, and Nocturnal Aviators... something about the melting pot of blues, garage rock, and punk that ties these three very different songs together... something about the dirty tones and layered guitars and propulsive rhythms... it all grabs and it won't let go.  It just digs under your skin and shakes you by the musculoskeletal structure.  And that's alright.

As an aside, what is it about Lansing Michigan that produces so many vocalists that can channel Gary Floyd (of The Dicks)?  Must be something in the water up there.  Something I would drink by the gallon.

Nostalgia is an important element in music.  Music exists out of time.  It has a way of triggering our senses: hearing (obviously), taste, touch, and smell.  It accesses our memories and our wishes and our animal natures too.  Can we have nostalgia for the future?  That's not an oxymoron, for music.  I credit these songs for having a cellular familiarity, a sense memory that makes me feel like they've been pounding around in my head for years after just a couple listens.

2011 has been a banner year for It Takes A Village To Make Records: we've released more songs this year than any other year so far!  We're in talks with a couple artists about our first-ever vinyl releases next year, and we've established the Independent Musicians Fund.  The IMF is the recipient of every cent you spend on the 3-Way Singles Club (after the fees that Bandcamp and PayPal collect), and it feeds right back into the underground scene.  We're growing the fund right now, and hope to start distributing funds to qualified applicants by next May -- about one year after we launched this monthly series of digital 3-artist singles!  That's exciting, and we thank everyone who has listened, linked a song to a blog or Facebook page, or purchased a single.  We hope you've had a great year too, and we look forward to bringing more great independent music to you in 2012!

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