Remember to support your local mailorder. Remember that physical records are prettier and more valuable than a mp3. Remember that indiepop is alive, it’s not a cold little digital file. Indiepop is not to be caged in your ipod. And if you forgot about how inspiring it is, here are two stories to keep believing!
The United Kingdom has been blessed with a new indiepop mailorder and it’s called Pebble Records. It’s also a label and they have already signed Sarah legends The Orchids and the best new band according to Twee.net poll: The Cavalcade. What is good news also, is that both bands have albums and singles to be released this year!
Behind Pebble Records there is a nice chap called Michael who is a hardcore indiepop lover. How do I know that? Well, he owns the demo of the Ruth Ellis Swing Band. I mean, on my book, that’s WOW! Also I find it funny that years ago, in 2007, I bought some records from him on ebay, some Waltones and Wishing Stones 7″s. I bet he doesn’t remember, I only found about it today while going through old email. But something that is for sure, is that since that time he was doing a fine job sending well-packaged records. That I do remember.
The idea of Pebble Records is mostly to centralize indiepop in UK. To create a store that caters the indiepop hungry, same as what Fraction Discs does in Sweden or Vollwert in Germany. It’s surprising there wasn’t a store like this in UK, as it has the most bands and probably the most indiepop fans than any other country in the world. So Pebble Records is here to fill that gap and so far they are doing it in a brilliant way.
It has been not that long since they opened. It was on mid-November with a clear intention and idea:
Pebble Records is an indiepop and electronica label and mailorder based on the South Coast of the UK. As a mailorder we want to bring the UK a fantastic selection of worldwide labels at sensible prices and the best of UK music to an international audience. If your favourite band or labels not here let us know we love hearing new music! Everything on the website is in stock for fast delivery (usually posted within 1-2 days). As a label we will release records by bands we love and think you will to.
At the moment they have a fine selection of records by different labels including Matinée, Slumberland, Hugpatch, Susy, LTM, This Almighty Pop! and many more. Sweet!
Did you notice that Indiepages is back! It’s been many months since Chris decided to have a break. I missed his weekly reviews, his nice webshop and of course, the demo of the week. Things were very quiet at the indiepages site, only the message board was up and running. Don’t know if it was some sort of new year resolution but Chris is back. Back in top form, with more energy and more ideas for running his fantastic page, which won this years Twee.net poll award as best indiepop page. It’s true that he won’t be doing as many reviews as before, but that’s fine, we can all live with that, right? I see some doubtful faces now. Okay. What about if I say that he will be so busy running a REAL, a physical, store in his own Seattle. A RECORD store. Weren’t all record stores closing down? Well, maybe, but here’s one that is opening!
Here’s what Chris has to say about it: “Why the sudden (and seemingly crazy) decision? Well, there’s a high-end stereo shop in a great location here that has a subdivided second floor which they’re renting out to small businesses and artists for very un-Seattle prices (a little over a buck a square foot per month!). Besides myself, there’s a death metal-themed record shop, a clothing boutique, a second-hand record dealer and an artist that uses her space as a studio. The whole thing’s pretty cool, actually! It will be a record shop and mailorder that will be committed to:
- Selling records from bands/labels that we like & admire to the pop kids in Seattle and online.
- Putting an emphasis on helping smaller bands & labels from around the world that don’t otherwise have much distribution outside of their own area.
- Offering everything at a very low markup since we have barely any overhead; we find it much more important to introduce people to great music than turn a profit!
- Having fun doing all of this, of course!”
Chris has named the store Jigsaw Records. Does that name sound familiar? That was the name of his old label, one that released beautiful records by Rocketship, Cessna, Poconos, Leslies among others. Now it’s not a label anymore but a fine record store! One that will open quite soon, March 13!
So at last, the US will have a fine and fair mailorder. How much we’ve missed that. I know it wasn’t in the US exactly, but since Poppolar went down, there hasn’t been a good indiepop store on the web. This are the good news we’ve been waiting here for so long! Thanks again Chris!
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One Response to “:: Got New Friends at the Record Store”
Excellent news! Thanks!!!