May! May! May!

It's so close to June! Summer's coming, friends! We can feel it!

So what have we got going on here at N+B HQ to fill ya'll in on?

First thing - our weekly lathe 7" club hit a hiccup recently and a few of our titles have been delayed for a few weeks including singles by Lightfoils, The Funs, Mannequin Men, and a couple more. They'll be here shortly, however, so don't fret! Speaking of - the Disappears lathes arrived and have been shipped out. If you opted for local pick up - email us and we'll set up a time for you to grab yr copy!

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If yr in a car or hanging at home or working the retail circuit on this afternoon, tune into 88.7 WLUW to hear The Minimal Beat from 3:00 - 4:00 where Kriss will be showcasing a playlist containing tons of tracks both from current releases as well as unheard from upcoming ones, including tracks from two new releases by Futurecop! and Heartsrevolution, coming out this Summer on N+B's sister label, Pocket Transparencies.

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Onto new releases!

First up, we've got the long awaited solo cassette release by Verma member, TJ Tambellini. Recently re-located to L.A., but still very much involved in what's going on here in Chicago, TJ's new cassette, 'Cascader', is an odyssey of Klaus Schulzian synthesizers and ruminations that are perfect for those front porch/stoop Summer nights. This also acts as a nice hold over for several things going on in the Verma camp this year including a new 7" on Hozac, as well as Trouble In Mind's vinylization of 'Coltan', which we released late in '12 (copies still in the store, surprisingly - go get one!) - the LP edition should be out any day now, so keep yr eyes peeled. Oh, and of course, we'll be releasing a new LP by the Verms called 'Sunrunner' by year's end. Yes, indeed - tons going on!

BUY

Next up, we've got a fresh piece of floppy grooviness from Shapers main man, Zaid Maxwell, under his alias of Oscillator Bug. While you'll have a chance to grab one of these through the N+B webstore, you'll also be able to procure one starting tonight when OB head out on tour with The Hood Internet and Black Moth Super Rainbow. The tour will be rolling through Chicago at Metro, and it's gonna be a great show. As for this single, 'Feel Rif' is a dense 5 minute hodge podge of jittery, over caffeinated new wave that recalls the muscularity of early Devo, and the bizarre quirk of unsung heroes Klark Kent and Wazmo Nariz. A winner, for sure!

BUY

Finally, A box of White Mystery flexis floated over to us last night at The Hideout and I'm pretty stoked to see these after we've worked on them with Alex and Francis for the last month and a half. Pretty limited and no second re-presses! Pretty stoked to unveil two new flexi singles in just one week!

We've been hyped on Ms. Alex White and Francis ever since they rolled out the shag covered carpet of rock and roll a few years back and we're pretty excited to work with them on this flexi disc, featuring two tracks from their freshly dropped record, 'Telepathic'! 'Secret Garden' is an amped up ripper with a compulsively shoutable chorus that won't escape yr head for days, while 'Fun Times' mellows out while amping up the fun word play.

We've got a fairly limited amount of these on hand and we won't be re-pressing them, so you'll really want to move fast.

Comes with a full 8 page coloring book that totally rules, as well! (and we even threw in a crayon to get you started!)

BUY

In other news, we're starting to roll out some N+B swag including stickers and buttons. Keeping with our Fugazi inspired take on merchandise and keeping things strictly limited to the music, we're not going to be selling any of these extras - so you'll need to catch up with one of us around town or at a show (where our bags will be packed with such goodies) or ask us to throw a button or two into yr order when you place it through our web store. Simple, right?

What else? Ah, yes! Until the end of May, you have a chance to order a copy of the new split 7" between ONO and Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan. Limited to 100 copies on an as yet unconfirmed shade of green and packaged with a button and an 11"x17" poster, these things are pretty darn rare and we haven't even pressed them yet! Get one now or be bummed later when you've missed out! (Peep the cover art below). ONO also play Situations tonight, so get ahold of the address and get on down there!

BUY

Releases coming in the next month from Gel Set (flexi), TALsounds (cassette), Chandeliers and Deep Sleep (split cassette), and Endless Bummer and Basic Cable (split flexi).

Stay Tuned!

- N+B

How Did We Get Here!?

No clue; honestly!

LOTS of intel to hit yr eye balls with this time out, so lets dive on in!

First up - TOMORROW NIGHT, Notes and Bolts are celebrating our 1 year anniversary at The Burlington. On the bill, we'll have Oscillator Bug (Shapers shaper Zaid Maxwell), Architecture, and Chandeliers. Oscillator Bug will be gracing the N+B catalog with a shiny new flexi disc in just two short weeks in support of their upcoming tour with The Hood Internet and Black Moth Super Rainbow. Chandeliers released a 7" with us in December and a lathe 7" a couple of months back, while Architecture will be dropping their first 45 RPM outing the night of the show! We'll even do you a solid and include copies of the 7" with the price of admission when you step through the door.

RSVP here and come on out!

We'll also have tons of N+B related stuff for sale including combined packs of vinyl and cassettes, as well as a limited number of show posters - each hand numbered. The poster was designed by the brilliant and talented Jenna Caravello!

Release wise - this week is a crazy one!

First up, we've got the aforementioned Architecture 7". Available in three different variations, the A-side is a dreamy number that floats through spaces unaccessible while the B-side picks up steam by just a little bit with its ominous glare. We're stoked for this one, ya'll! Green and Black copies will be available at tomorrow night's show, but you'll have to line up on Saturday morning to grab one of the Clear copies from Reckless Records!

Next up, we've got the second installment in our ongoing flexi disc series, this time out, featuring garage post punks, Radar Eyes. Following hot on the heels of a pair of 7"s and an LP on the almighty Hozac, 'Dreaming of Giants' is a frowning slice of goodness that you'll want in yr collection, no doubt! Regular sleeved copies are limited to 150 and will be available at Permanent, Reckless, and elsewhere, while the sealed, transparent enveloped versions are limited to 100 and available this Saturday exclusively at Saki Records!

Speaking of exclusives - if you haven't been hipping yr self to our weekly lathe 7" club - you might want to make the jump before the series gets too in depth for you to catch up with. Lathe #9, featuring The Funs, is up until Friday. Lathe #8, a mystery release that we NOW know features garage stompers, Le Tour, was released in conjunction with Reckless and will be available at the Wicker Park store on Saturday morning for those who ordered copies.

Finally, we're going to veer away from the turntable friendly stuff for just a bit to talk about a new series we're starting up.

Introducing the Notes and Bolts Digital series - a new monthly series we're undertaking involving the antiquated medium of the 3.5" floppy disk.

Why floppies, you ask? How much did you pay for yr cassette deck? An external USB floppy disk drive can be purchased for a paltry ten bucks and to make matters easier, the music contained inside can be put directly into yr iTunes. Can't do that with a cassette, can you?

Priced at $3 a piece, each copy also contains a link to download the music in other locales in the event that you don't wanna shill out the nominal sum for the means on which to play it naturally.

For our first outting, we're featuring a set of ambient compositions from Yrramus + Ommetry, a duo that includes Metallic Ghosts/spf420 head honcho, Chaz Allen. This first release comes in an edition of 46.

As a side note - if any of you reading this are in San Francisco on Saturday, head on over to White Mystery's 4/20 Psychedelic Meltdown where they'll be celebrating their own anniversary while also unveiling their newest long player, Telepathic, as well as the flexi disc that we've been working with them on, which will be packaged with a swanky coloring book!

Until next time, friends!

Episode 100! Disappears Lathe 7"! Limitedddddd

Two updates in one week!?

Today, we celebrated the airing of N+B's 100th podcast episode. Pretty crazy stuff! It only took us 11 months to do it, but it felt like we've only been doing it for three weeks! We've had some rad guests on - some of whom, we've gone on to release vinyl and tapes and flexis and lathes for.

Episode 100's guests: 3/4 of Chicago drone krauters, Disappears, are the latest recipients in our weekly lathe 7" series. The jams they chose for the record - a pairing of rejected commercial jingles for two unnamed beer and cheese megacorps - don't sound like what the group are currently doing; but they're still compulsively listenable and if nothing else, really interesting documents of an untapped direction the band may have taken commercially if more daring hands had been involved in their selection.

We posted the 7" for sale at a couple minutes past noon and ALREADY, it's moved over half of its 100 copies. If you've been on the fence about this today, you might want to think fast and not sleep because you may very well wake up tomorrow morning preparing yrself to scour eBay for when someone inevitably flips one of these for five times the current $7 going rate.

Grab it here!

And, hey! While yr there, why not latch onto a subscription for a month or two? We've got some good ones coming up in the lathe series in the next two months including Lightfoils, The Funs, The Bingers, Mannequin Men, Population, and onward!

So cheap!

Finally, one last thing about the podcast - we recently took to creating an archive for all of the past aired episodes, so that any one of them could be accessed at any time. Due to space issues with the host we use, we were having to delete many of them to make room for new ones. Well, no more! Behold the archive! Getting all of it re-uploaded proved to be a nearly 40 hour project, but we're pretty sure it was worth it (though forgive us for the lower quality fidelity on many of the earlier ones. Learning curve, you know?)

More exciting Disappears news on the way, soon!

- N+B

"We're doing stuff, Lori. Things..."

LOTS going on over here at N+B HQ.

To kick it off - we're now on lathe 7" #5 in our weekly series where we correspond our Wednesday episode guests with short run single sided 7"s that are made to order. Until Wednesday, you have the chance to grab a new jammer from noise-poppers, BIGCOLOUR. It's a stunner of a track and we're elated to have our hand in seeing it brought to wax..erm, polycarbonate plastic, as it were.

Grab a copy here - you've got until NOON on Wednesday and then it'll be replaced by something else: http://notesandbolts.bigcartel.com/product/limited-lathe-cut-7

Speaking of that 'something else' - our upcoming 100th episode of the Notes and Bolts show, on Wednesday, features Chicago titans, Disappears, and we'll be featuring a lathe 7" from them in correspondence, featuring a couple of tracks that are quite unique, given their already vast oeuvre. Following hot on the heels of that, we'll be featuring a lathe to correspond with episode 101 two days later, on Friday, featuring shoegazers, Lightfoils. 

If all of this weekly 7" activity is too much for you to keep up with, well, we've got you covered there, too. Behold, our monthly subscription service! For one low price, you get a batch of four 7"s delivered to yr door to cover one calendar month. Pretty great, right? http://notesandbolts.bigcartel.com/product/lathe-cut-7-1-month-subscription

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We have a slew of shows coming up - the first is on April 9th, and is the second installment of our ongoing monthly series showcasing Chicago drone/ambient/shoegaze, called Divergent Interest. This time out, we've got Brett Naucke (Catholic Tapes), POTIONS (Teen River), and the aforementioned Lightfoils. We'll also have an opener, of course, from Scott Cortez, of Astrobrite and loveliescrushing fame, who is our resident artist. 

After that, we'll be celebrating the 1 year anniversary of Notes and Bolts with another show at the Burlington, this time featuring Architecture, and Chandeliers. Also doubling as a release show for Architecture's new 7" single, where we'll have copies on hand in black, green, and clear varieties; this'll definitely be a night not to miss!

Following on a week later, we'll be having a second anniversary show at The Empty Bottle, featuring Oscillator Bug, Population, and another guest who we're getting final word in, and are quite excited about. 

In between those two anniversary shows, of course, is Record Store Day; that annual day where lovers of all things grooves and sibilance pay their respects and load up their bags with new jams. This year, we'll have something on hand of our own to offer in the form of the Radar Eyes flexi disc. Saki Records will be featuring the record with a special packaging variant that's exclusive ONLY TO THEM for RSD. Radar Eyes will also be playing a short set at the shop in the afternoon, as part of Saki's live lineup commemorating the RSD festivities, so get on over there to check that out!

which brings us, finally, to...

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We've got three new flexi discs coming at you in late April and early May. We've been attempting to keep the flexi series going monthly and fell short in March, so we're making it up to you with the double release of the Radar Eyes flexi disc on RSD as well as another flexi which will be unveiling that same day in San Francisco. 

Brother/sister garage rock stompers, White Mystery, are celebrating their 5th anniversary on that day and we've been working with them to get something special rolled out - part of which, we can't divulge at present. For now - you'll have to settle with the proof of the center label for this rad flexi. After that, check back on 4/20 to the webstore and grab yr copy. They'll be going so quickly, that we're still not even sure that we'll get to keep any for ourselves!

And then, in early May, we'll be rolling out a new flexi disc by Oscillator Bug, the art damaged new wave project of Shapers sculpter, Zaid Maxwell. He'll be on tour with local buds, The Hood Internet, and PA based space synthers, Black Moth Super Rainbow, so make sure to keep yr eyes peeled for this record, because they'll be flying fast and we're not even sure that we'll be getting that many in the webstore!

TL;DR, right? 

Keep checking in as we get closer to Record Store Day. Tons more in store!

- N+B

Cassette Downpour!

Woah!

When it rains, it pours, right? Or, in the case of our fair city - when it snows, it blizzards! Okay, so that was poorly worded. I'm from the South. What do I know about frigid punnery?

Anyway - we've got three new releases that have just dropped into our laps and already, a good portion of them have flown out the door in the few hours that they've been sitting at N+B HQ.

First up, we've got Jim Marlon Magas and his new all instrumental works - six bite sized jams on one side and one half hour stretch of dancey goodness on the b-side. This cassette and Mr. Magas have been getting some solid press as of late with a write up in the Tribune as well as being a featured item over on Pitchfork. Dig on in and see what the hype is about! 'Psoilers' is already exiting the premises in droves and we're not likely to re-press, so get hoppin'!

Next up, we've got Videotape - one of our favorite bands currently operating here in town, with a cassette re-release of last year's "This Is Disconnect". This isn't just any old re-hash, though. Nope, we've added on four new jams (well, three and a half - one is a reworking from the group's first EP) to freshen this record up and give it a second shellin' out appeal. Not that it needed augmentation - seriously, records this solid don't come around every day. Videotape were also the first recipients in a new series we're launching that will unveil new lathe cut 7" records EVERY SINGLE WEEK from here until eternity. 'Static', the opening track off of '...Disconnect' was the featured jam on the single, and the 56 people who ordered are the only ones who will ever get to hear it in that format. Don't let that discourage you - pick up a copy of this cassette!

Finally, we've got local ambient drone master, Jason Shanley, under his alter ego, Cinchel, gently tossing us an hour long epic composed of treated instruments, singing wine glasses that change pitches with daily evaporation, and a whole lot of glacial atmosphere. 'Sometimes You See Yourself (Through The Cosomos)' is the stuff Eno was predicting the future of music would be, way back when, and Cinchel deserves way more acclaim than he's getting. Sure, it may be March, but this tape is already on our year end best of for '13.

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In other news - tomorrow is lathe #3 in our ongoing series of lathe cut 7" singles. It goes up AT NOON and runs until noon Next Wednesday. ONE WEEK. and then gone foreverrr.

This time out, it's a jam from Chicago's favorite dub sons, The Drastics. 'Maté Maté (Xanthines) is a ferocious slab of bass stuffed dub with eerie keys and the apparitions of a horn section lurking beneath the surface. A total killer of a track! Order it HERE at noon tomorrow and don't sleep on it, as we won't be pressing ANY more after the order is taken down next Wednesday.

More developments as they come. We have some rad releases coming down the pipeline in the next month. Stay tuned!

Free Panda Riot Flexi!

Mid-week! Yr almost to the weekend!

 To help lighten things up, head on over to The Vinyl District to get yrself the chance to win a free copy of the fresh off the presses Panda Riot flexi disc that we just dropped last week! http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/tag/giveaways/ Kind words from the folks at The Vinyl District, too! "To coincide with the release of Northern Automatic Music, Chicago label Notes & Bolts is releasing the track “Amanda in the Clouds” on a very limited edition 7” Flexi. The 7” is pressed in an edition of 250 — 210 of which are packaged in a regular sleeve with the remaining 40 in a special “cloud” sleeve. You can trust me when I say that these things are seriously cool..." There you have it. Click on over and comment as outlined with the song you'd love to see on a flexi and get a chance to win! Also, be sure to head over to Saki Records this Sunday to see Panda Riot playing with Startropics in support of the flexi. It'll be rad!

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 In other flexi disc related news - the second recipient in our series is now in the process of being pressed and should be back to us within the month. Already strong with a steady of releases under their belts, including LP's and 7"s on the mighty Hozac, Radar Eyes have turned in an amazing jam that we're stoked to have the pleasure to drop the needle on. Check the proof for the center label below.




Talk soon!

Videotape Lathe 7" and Panda Riot Flexi Disc

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Hope all is going well!

We have a couple of news items to drop on you for this evening. 

First thing's first - we've been pretty enthused on Videotape, a local group who have been slowly forming waves behind the strength of syrupy sweet melodies and beyond fuzzed out shoegazing. Their effort from last year, "This Is Disconnect" will be dropping on cassette from us in just a couple of short weeks, but until then, we've got another rad project in the works for them.

Starting with Videotape, we're launching a monthly lathe club. What is a lathe, you may ask? Lathe cuts are short run records that are cut in real time one by one - these are NOT factory produced records ala larger pressings plants. Each record will come in a hand assembled sleeve made from transparency sheets with the record's number and its owner stamped on. 

Here's the catch, these lathes have been on sale since midnight on Thursday evening and will remain on sale for four more days until midnight Friday morning. After that, they'll be on sale no longer - not on N+B's website, not on Videotape's site or Bandcamp, nor at the band's shows. However many that get ordered within this one week window will be all that we produce, so now is the only chance you have to scoop one up. Click on over to our brand new webstore and scoop up a copy or two, today! http://notesandbolts.bigcartel.com/product/videotape-static-lathe-cut-7

and if yr still on the fence, preview the track, "Static", here.

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In other news, we just dropped the flexi disc for Panda Riot's new song 'Amanda In The Clouds' into the webstore on Friday afternoon and it's already flying! Grab one now as we've only got 150 or so of these left in stock, and only 30 of those come in our limited cloud sleeves, each hand cut and inserted.

Notes and Bolts were one of the first to air this track over a month ago on episode 081 of N+B's podcast and the track just received a more official debut on Popmatters earlier this week. Check out the track now on our Soundcloud.

We've got more coming within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!