GOLDRUSH 2013 Festival Companion Cassette

Welcome back once again to Planted Tapes, long time, no see! Thanks for dropping in, sorry for not writing more often, but we have a really special item in our distro that we just can't wait to tell you about. In case you hadn't noticed outside, the temperatures have finally started to level off a little out there, at least for us here in Denver — generally a welcome change of events if it didn't also come this year with liters upon liters of rain. We are always looking towards the Fall season here in Colorado as September can only mean one thing... GOLDRUSH. That's right, Goldrush Music Festival is upon us once again, taking place this year on September 27th & 28th at Planted Tapes' newest, most favorite place in the entire world, The Sidewinder Tavern and Crash 45. An excellent lineup of artists is set to make its way up to Globeville at 45th and Logan St. to bear witness to the festival's third annual edition, featuring performances by no less than 21 acts across two days, two venues, and three stages. Holy shit. We're not even joking: Noveller will be there. MV&EE. Thollem Electric, Lee Noble, Derek Rogers, Scammers, Giant Claw, Saguache... it's going to be insane, people.

This year's Companion Cassette tape came together especially well, with 18 tracks split across two sides, 16 of them being exclusive to our compilation. That means we've got brand new tunes from the majority of our performance lineup, and each and every one of these folks delivered hard, turning in an amazing representation of what they bring to this year's very full, very amazing schedule of events. Check out a stream of Side A, premiered over at Tiny Mix Tapes, and check back for Side B next week!

Side A:
1. Noveller, "Completing the Cube Ambient"
2. Scammers, "Planet Earth"
3. mole people, "Bloodletting"
4. Hideous Men, "Gray Eyes"
5. Lee Noble, "Woman in the Dunes"
6. Comfort Link, "Threading the Brown Snake"
7. Thollem Electric's Keyngdrum Overdrive feat. Heather Treadway, "eight"
8. M. Sage, "Expedition Blues Ascender"
9. Derek Rogers, "Live at Los Globos, 8/6/2013 (excerpt)"
10. Paw Paw, "Lost Dream"

Side B:
1. Cop Circles, “Sound Delivery”
2. Accordion Crimes, “Ivey”
3. Lee Dockery, “Drop”
4. Saguache, “Discovery Bell”
5. Giant Claw, “Jersey Christ”
6. Pythian Whispers, “Seance Frequency”
7. The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact, “Vibe Drone 2” feat. Crawford Philleo
8. MV & EE, “Green is the Colour”

Pre-sale is now open on this item, and there are a couple of options with which you can secure your copy, the first of which (and best, we might add!) is to buy a 2-day Festival Pass to Goldrush Music Festival 2013, which will be rewarded with a free copy at the show. You can purchase the pass for $20 plus a small service fee from Brown Paper Tickets here:

http://goldrushmusicfest.brownpapertickets.com/

The second way to secure a copy of this National Audio Company-provided c84 — a pro-dubbed, printed and packaged cassette tape — is to order one below. You can do this a couple of different ways, by either buying the tape on its own, or bundling it with a copy of our 40-pg. Festival Zine, the details of which are still forthcoming (but if you saw last year's, you'll know that this will definitely be an item you'll want to have in your hot little hand!)

• Edition of 300
• Tapes ship 10/1/2013
• $7.00 postage paid in the US & Canada:

• Bundle with the Festival Zine for $15.00 postage paid in the US & Canada:

• Zine only, $10 postage paid in the US & Canada:

Vitamins - "Motions"

Why, hello there! A new tape from Planted Tapes? No. Not quite. Co-owner Crawf is in a band called Vitamins, who have a new tape. And co-owner Crawf is being kind enough to distribute the tape for his band on his own label's blogspot page. And why? Because co-owner Crawf wants you to have a copy, that's why. This one came together both over a long, long period of time (approximately two years from recording to dubbing), and also a very short time (i.e. we're putting them together tonight in preparation for a big gig that you're invited to, of course). In any case, our bassist/guitarist/engineer Matt Daniels poured his heart and soul into realizing this effort before he heads to Chicago to continue his musical pursuits elsewhere, and this could be the last time we work with him on a recording such as this, so we're really excited and a little sad to finally get it out there.

This album encompasses the last major recording sessions from Vitamins and includes some previously-released tracks as well as some never-before-heard jammers. It's a 36-minute record, presented as a double A-sided c72 tape. We had a lot of fun making it, and hope you all dig it too. Here's a couple of samples:


1. No Notion of Anything Only Whatever is What
2. Wee Mouse
3. Vimanas
4. Baby Cakes
5. Due Return
6. Liquid Crystals
7. Shape-shifter
8. Return of the Due Return
9. The Disappearance of David Lee Powell
10. Racey Bomber

Our buddy Joey Wiley helped us with the dubbing on this one again, and endless thanks are due to him. Also, many thanks to Liz Pavlovic for designing the j-card art on such short notice.

...Oh, you want to buy one now? Please do:

• Edition of 100
• Tapes ship 6/8/2013
• $9.00 postage paid in the US & Canada

• International customers: Please get in touch for rates.

Also: This is available for a pay-what-you-will download via Bandcamp: http://vitaminsdenver.bandcamp.com/motions

PT003 - Fomer Selves / The Original Flowering Earth split cs

Welcome once again to Planted Tapes! It's been a long and cold winter, and spring is just refusing to... you know, spring here in Denver. We here at Planted HQ are going to do our best to warm things up a little by dropping PT003 into your cassette decks' yawning jaws. Hopefully the music contained within will inspire mother nature to wake up already and start getting green out there. So we're really excited to bring you this very new, very green (see below) cassette tape from two very good friends of ours, Oakland's Former Selves (Paul Skomsvold) and Colorado Springs' The Original Flowering Earth (Kyle Wade). Both sides are exercises perfect for a chilly, snowy April season: This one is about patience, people... for the warmth. The warmth that is coming. Skomsvold's pastel smears feel like they're constantly searching for points of release while remaining in a fluid sort of homeostasis—an ever-thawing melt of frozen harmonics that radiate with an inner heat. On the flip, it's Wade's meandering meditations that wander through aimless dream states, complete with beautiful folk guitar passages, field recordings, and an unsettling bridge of neuron-zapping noise.



We're very proud of this release, as each and every step of the process with both Paul and Kyle was carefully considered and dutifully executed. The results really tell the story: PT003 turned out to be quite a gem, outfitted with beautiful collage + ink drawing artwork from Sarah Michaels, and hand-applied vinyl transfer labels on emerald green transparent tapes. This again was mastered by Ben Thompson and duplication was assisted by Joey Wiley - many thanks to them for their help! And as usual, we have a sample stream of both sides of the tape (just above there), and a quick Q&A with the musicians down below to give you a little more background on what's in store for this release.

Oh! And we ended up with a few extra Lake Mary tapes, so we added a button below to bundle PT003 with PT002 for a discounted rate (within the US & Canada). Since international postage rates increased so much earlier this year, we're asking our overseas customers to kindly send us an e-mail to negotiate a fair price for shipping the tape. We want this in your ears, so let's figure that out!

Thanks again for visiting!

• Edition of 70
• Tapes ship 4/18/2013
• $7.00 postage paid in the US & Canada

***SOLD OUT***

• Bundle with Lake Mary cs for $10.00 postage paid in the US & Canada (limited to 20!)

***SOLD OUT***

• International customers: Please get in touch for rates.

You're both pretty familiar with each other's work... how do you guys know each other?

Former Selves (Paul Skomsvold): I met Kyle through GoldTimers, a label he runs along with two others. Kevin Greenspon and I released a split on GoldTimers sometime last year. Kyle and I traded some tapes and e-mailed back and forth about music and stuff. It organically turned to solicit feedback from one another on various music projects we were working on. I was always impressed by the music he sent me (No Mind Meditation and his own), and thought his comments on my music were very insightful. Specifically, I remember he gave me the last bit of feedback I needed to finish my side of the split I did with Quiet Evenings. I totally value and respect his opinion. I actually got to meet him in person at last year's Goldrush festival in Denver—so cool!

The Original Flowering Earth (Kyle Wade): I think we originally started corresponding around the time GoldTimers was releasing a Kevin Greenspon/Former Selves split. I liked Paul's music a lot and asked him for some feedback on some things I was working with, and we sent stuff back and forth for a while. I was just starting to make experimental music on my own after doing projects with other people, and Paul gave me a lot of thoughtful feedback that helped build my confidence.



You both use guitar on the music you submitted for this tape, but I want to know about everything else that went into your work. What other sorts of instruments can we hear on this tape?

FS: I used the same sources I've used for most of my releases to date: guitar, keyboard(s), a few pedals, and some field recordings. I've since bought an inexpensive synthesizer and have been messing around with it. 

TOFE: There are some field recordings I took in various places, including a magnificent-sounding train and drunken campfire chatter from up around State Bridge/Rancho del Rio in the Rocky Mountains. There's a MicroKorg (of course). There's a long section made entirely with no-input mixer, which is something I was kind of obsessed with for about a year. I'm pretty proud of the no-input mixer section because it doesn't sound much like the typical no-input mixer noise, and I recorded that whole piece live with no overdubs. That segues into some contact-mic'ed acoustic guitar through pedals, and then a "normal" acoustic guitar piece. I think the way this stuff was recorded is important, too--most of it at least started life on a Tascam Portastudio 4-track recorder.

Piggy-backing that last question: Looking back, what instruments do you wish you could have added if you were able to play them?

FS: There's nothing I wish I would have added to this tape, but I would love to learn the violin someday. There are people who play violin on the street outside of my office building and sometimes I'll stand outside and watch them play after work. I listen to the notes they play and imagine how I might arrange the notes differently, or stretch them out or whatever.

TFOE: I wish I really understood synthesizers and could do more with them than monkey with presets. Also one of these days I'm going to teach myself Ableton Live.

Give me the one-sentence review of each other's side of the tape.

FS: A nightmare bridging a peaceful dream and a beautiful morning (Kyle's side rules).

TFOE: Hazy, happy memories that change a little each time you recall them.

Last great movie you saw?

FS: I have a hard time concentrating on movies. Dumb and Dumber is definitely my favorite.

TFOE: I really like those "images of crazy stuff with awesome music" movies like Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka, so I was really pumped when Samsara came out. The visuals are incredible and Michael Stearns did the music... I think his "Planetary Unfolding" is one of the great new-age albums. Seeing that in the movie theater was a cool experience.

Favorite plant?

FS: Coffea.

TFOE: I'm going to say "amaranth" because that's one of my favorite words and I don't really know very much about plants.