zero vu

Thousands of middle-aged music lovers tonight relived their (parents’) youth watching a nearly 70-year-old Beatle rerack his antiquated discography for Utah.  Five words:  The Who Superbowl Halftime Show.  Weren’t you just a little embarrassed to be watching?  At least you didn’t pay $160/ticket.  Better to have saved those 16,000 pennies to support a new era of local music that begins Sunday night.

Chris  and  Anna  Brozek
opened Slowtrain records in 2006 and have spent the last four years growing an exemplary local business built with one-on-one customer relationships, a passion for new music, and, increasingly, live performances hosted from aisles of the record store at 221 East Broadway and in its basement performance space the Subterranean.  What more natural extension, then, to birth the Slowtrain Records Label which is commemorated Sunday July 18.  (Photo:  Russ Isabella)

Most any emo singer-songwriter with a 4-track recorder, ProTools, and Photoshop can burn his own CDs with homemade sleeves and sell them out of the back of his van.  Pressing vinyl is a more complicated and esoteric process.  Getting a gig with the Slowtrain label means you have the opportunity for CD and vinyl release, plus bands will enjoy in-store marketing and the Brozek’s regional music relationships in Portland, Phoenix, and probably some other cool town I’ve never visited like Stockholm or some such place.

So leave the Paul McCartney concert to your socially awkward uncle and instead join Slowtrain’s pre-release show for premier label release The Devil Whale.  A $20 ticket gets you a pre-order copy of the vinyl, a CDEP,  the band’s private performance, complimentary adult beverages while they last, and assorted raffle fun.  And it guarantees your participation in authentic musical democracy.  Vote with your financial support: Today’s Devils Whale is tomorrow’s  Soft Pack, Lightspeed Champion, and Ty Segall.