Dub Narcotic Disco Plates - Hive Dwellers, LAKE, White Rainbow

KRecords is, of course, an inspiration for PIAPTK. Not only do they release great music, are extremely prolific (500+ releases!), very iconic (and/or infamous) around Olympia, but label honcho, Calvin Johnson is weird and hilarious.

K releases a series of 7"s called Dub Narcotic Disco Plates. The A sides are all recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio, the amazing 2" tape studio packed with vintage gear and weird instruments that is located in the basement of the former synagogue that is now the K Records offices. The B side is a Calvin "remix". His usual treatment is to add a lot of effects, drop instruments in and out of the mix and add a whole lot of melodica. There is an upcoming Mount Eerie release soon, and a lot of awesome recent releases from Karl Blau, Kendl Winter, Bobby Birdman, Christmas, etc.

Most of the DNDPs come in plain white dust jackets that are stamped and have a letter (the first letter of the band name) punched out with a big, 50's industrial paper punch. They rarely punch all the way and usually have weird "hanging chads" kicking around, making the letter unreadable unless you fold it. You know how much I love imperfect, handmade packaging.

I just picked up three of the new DNDPs last week:

The first one is "Lynch the Swan" from the Calvin Johnson fronted Hive Dwellers. A smooth, sexy bari-droner with such Calvinisms as "It's hard to know which came first, the chicken or the hearse". Plenty of fuzzy Casio and intermittent guitar over a slow-dance rhythm.

The second is a new track from LAKE called Gravel. A beautiful Ashley Erickson (CORRECTION.... LINDSAY SCHIEF!) fronted soft rock gem. This one is apparently not available yet. So keep an eye out.

And last, is a new tune from the long time K-ollaborator and loop lunatic, Adam Forkners' White Rainbow called The Making of Thriller b/w The Making of Star Wars. This one is centered around variations on the Calvin-sung phrase "Making Love is Beautiful"