Start The Presses: Legendary Final Vinyl machines that pressed iconic records by Bob Marley, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Toots and The Maytals, come back to life at Miami’s SunPress Vinyl.

Record distributor, MonoStereo Distribution, forms strategic partnership with SunPress, Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer, Vlado Meller, Truphonic Recording Studios, and music marketing agency, Fanatic Promotion, to offer robust line of artist and label services.

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Billboard has announced the formation of Miami-based record pressing facility, SunPress Vinyl, housed in the former Final Vinyl factory, founded in the 1970s by reggae pioneer Joe Gibbs, and later home to his world-renowned reggae label, Studio One. The Final Vinyl plant issued classic works by Bob Marley, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Toots and The Maytals, and Miami’s notorious 2 Live Crew.

Principals at SunPress Vinyl, include  Dan Yashiv, a recording engineer who has worked acts from Pet Shop Boys to Britney Spears, and film producer Stephen Hays, along with Dan Pelson, former Executive Vice President of Sony Music.

Benji Rogers of direct-to-fan music platform PledgeMusic is also on board as an advisor, and long-time vinyl pressing veteran, Chris Moss, will oversee the demanding quality control standards of these legacy machines. To that end, Headley Haslam, the man who pressed every record during the Gibbs and Studio One years on this equipment, is now back at his post.

SunPress is also proud to announce, in an added nod to its historic roots, that it has entered into a partnership with Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong International, which will press its own catalog and third party releases at SunPress.

And before the gears even begin to turn on new product at SunPress, legendary Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer, Vlado Meller will have done his part to bring superior vinyl masters through the door.

Long Island, NY and Charleston, SC-based record distributor MonoStereo Distribution, via its relationship with Meller’s Vlado Meller Mastering, which operates out of Charleston’s world-class Truphonic Recording studio, will offer Meller’s services as the go-to vinyl mastering option for all SunPress Vinyl clients.

Meller’s career has spanned 40-plus years, and includes work with diverse A-list artists such as Prince, Johnny Cash, Celine Dion, Harry Connick Jr., Andrea Bocelli, Metallica, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and many more.

Monostereo, an independent one-stop and distributor co-owned and managed by New York-native, and current Charleston resident, Mike Gomez, specializes in the wholesale distribution of vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray, Turntables, and music accessories. Family-owned and operated since 1974, MonoStereo began as a small chain of record stores on Long Island, New York, and as an additional part of Monostereo’s 2017 plans, Gomez, along with his brother in-law and business partner, Jeffrey Berg, will renovate and re-open the flagship store, Record Stop in 2017.

Gomez comments, “By partnering with Vlado Meller, we’re working with someone who truly understands how to prepare albums for vinyl, a nearly lost art. He is an undisputed ‘master of mastering’ and we’re thrilled to have him as an extended member of our team.”

In addition to SunPress Vinyl and Vlado Meller Mastering’s services, MonoStereo will provide Label Services options for its group of distributed artists and labels via strategic partnerships with independent marketing agencies. The first of these relationships is with New York-based, Fanatic Promotion.

Fanatic was established by Josh Bloom in 1997 to build fan-to-fan connections between artists and the media. For over 20 years, Fanatic has continued to help launch careers through the strategic advocacy of creative talent. Artists represented during Fanatic’s history include The Avett Brothers, The Decemberists, Steve Earle, My Morning Jacket, and Sufjan Stevens.

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Participating Company Links

SUNPRESS VINYL : VLADO MELLER MASTERING : MONOSTEREO DISTRIBUTION : TRUPHONIC RECORDING STUDIOS : FANATIC PROMOTION

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL   

San Francisco-based 20 Minute Loop celebrates 20 years of music-making with “Songs Praising The Mutant Race,” its first album in eight years, out today.

Two voices “born to sing together” spotlight vocals on stripped-down catalog faves. SEE “Mercury Vapor” via BLURT, HEAR new song “Giftgas” via Atwood.

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20 Minute Loop (L-R): Kelly Atkins, Greg Giles. Photo credit: Teresa Miller.

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20 Minute Loop – In The Press

“Beautifully morose pop with catchy melodies and tight harmonies.” — NPR / All Songs Considered

“Pop songsmiths of the highest caliber, adept at crafting idea-packed tracks that are clever, catchy and wholly engaging.” — The Bay Bridged

“One of the more refreshing musical experiences I’ve had in months and months.” — Pitchfork

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

Hear the brand-new 20 Minute Loop song “Giftgas” via Atwood Magazine or the links below!

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/20-minute-loop-giftgas

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpr.com/20-minute-loop/20minuteloop-giftgas.mp3

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See the “delightfully twisted” video for “Mercury Vapor” via BLURT or the link below!

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EvfwR5zVTw

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20 Minute Loop album + poster art by Sara Lautman (The New Yorker, The Believer, The Pitchfork Review)

Twenty years of 20 Minute Loop is celebrated today with the release of Songs Praising The Mutant Race, the San Francisco-based band’s first album in over eight years, an achievement marked not only by gray hair, ringing ears and creaky knees, but a shit-ton of songs, stories and shows.

The album features stripped-down re-workings of favorites from the band’s catalog – check out the video for longtime favorite “Mercury Vapor” via BLURT, as well as one brand-new song “Giftgas,” which addresses the Holocaust in the context of a pop song with masterful creativity, sensitivity, and reverence. Atwood Magazine has premiered the track along with an extensive editorial discussing its meaning.

Formed by Greg Giles (vocals, guitar) in 1997, and joined by Kelly Atkins (vocals, keyboards, flute) shortly thereafter, the core duo of 20 Minute Loop follows-up the release of five albums, with this, their sixth, and arguably most passionate, recording yet.  The seemingly permanent shelving of 20 Minute Loop due to impossible scheduling, newborn children, and brain-rotting graduate studies, has now given way to Songs Praising The Mutant Race, which offers up stripped down and reinvented versions of ten favorites from the 20 Minute Loop catalog, one cover song, and one never-before-released tune. The record proves that bands may die, but songs don’t. The collection breathes with both the wisdom of age, and renewal.

Inspired by the reactions of longtime fans at a series of intimate house concerts that 20 Minute Loop performed upon initially reforming in 2014, Songs Praising The Mutant Race finds the group recording as a trio in very similar circumstances: live in the room at Ninth Street Opus studios in Berkeley.

In re-imagining, re-arranging, ironing out, and stitching this material back together, the band wanted the songs to shine without being burdened by too much production. Here we have the songs and singers laid bare, accompanied by overdubs from mostly acoustic instruments, including viola, trumpet, flute, accordion, wineglass organ, and more.  The result is a perfect depiction of the vibe from one of the living room concerts that inspired the record, with the band’s visceral lyrics and accompanying tempos taking on a woozy, syrupy overtone that makes these songs feel fresh. Sonically, these new versions focus on the vocal interplay between Giles and Atkins, who sound more like they were born to sing together than ever before.

“Singing with Greg has been the single most important musical relationship of my life,” Atkins explains. “It truly feels like ‘coming home’ for me. The nimble instinct that you have after singing with someone for 20 years is a once-in-a-lifetime treasure.”

That special vocal combination is especially affecting on the album’s opening number and first single “Mercury Vapor,” about which Atkins explains, “The re-do of this song includes Caitlin Tabancay Austin adding a third harmony, which absolutely brings the song to life. It’s frenetic, neurotic and makes me feel like I have a nervous tic every time I sing it – but in a good way.”

As a band that came about and went away in the age of the Compact Disc, 20 Minute Loop is very excited for Songs Praising The Mutant Race to be its first album issued on vinyl, and they are doing it with style. In addition to the usual formats, fans can purchase a beautiful vinyl edition of the album with a jacket illustrated by Sara Lautman, whose work has previously appeared in The New Yorker, The Believer, The Pitchfork Review, The Awl, and other publications.

Songs Praising The Mutant Race by 20 Minute Loop is out now. Members of 20 Minute Loop are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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20 Minute Loop

Songs Praising The Mutant Race

(S/R) – Out Now

  

Track Listing:

01. Mercury Vapor (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)

02. English As A Second Language

03. Empire

04. Giftgas (STREAM | MP3)

05. Elephant

06. Hell In A Handbasket

07. Parking Lot

08. Drowning

09. Aquarium

10. Carlos The Jackal

11. Windsor McKay

12. Never My Love

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20 Minute Loop Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Tabah begins ascending beyond Minneapolis-based buzz with upcoming release of debut album “Symmetry Somewhere,” out March 17th.

Band to launch support tour at Daytrotter Downs festival on March 3^rd. New “transportive” single “Curtain Call” streaming now via Impose.

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Tabah (L-R): Andrew Seitz, Murphy Janssen, Cecelia Erholtz, Charlie Bruber, Jeff Ley. Photo credit: Peter Jamus.

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PLAY, POST & SHARE

Hear “Curtain Call” by Tabah from Symmetry Somewhere now via Impose or 89.3 The Current!

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/tabah-curtain-call

[MP3]: http://fanaticpr.com/tabah/tabah-curtaincall.mp3

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“A mystically groovy sound. A tribal sense of belonging.” — Minneapolis City Pages

The five-piece Minneapolis-based band Tabah is often called out in the local press about its vocalist, Cecelia Erholtz. The word “Earthy” gets used a lot, and while not inaccurate, it leans into a place that is smaller than what is actually required to describe her. As a matter of fact, Erholtz’s “Earthy” vocals communicate something more universal than what could be attributed to any one planet. They could be “Jupitery,” or “Saturny,” and even Heavenly on Tabah’s debut album Symmetry Somewhere, scheduled for release on March 17th, 2017.

Erholtz’s powerful voice – she also contributes on guitar – needs a powerful band to support it. Grounded, if you will. Earthy? Tribal. It comes in the form of the adept playing of her classically-trained bandmates, Jeff Ley (guitar/vocals), Charlie Bruber (bass/vocals), Andrew Seitz (keyboards, vocals), and Murphy Janssen (drums/percussion.)

Together – and Tabah’s musicians really do sound like they are playing together – the band takes this music to a unique place where psych-heaviness and ethereal-wisp combine in a way that hasn’t necessarily been heard like this before. Consider this: Symmetry Somewhere is a head-bobbing, mind-bender of an album that was recorded in Nashville, and could pass for folk in its quieter moments, but is still loud enough to piss off neighbors by blowing off their doors.

Recorded live to tape, with minimal overdubs, the band worked tirelessly during the day at Welcome To 1979 Studios, and then retired to a cattle ranch just outside of Nashville where they would meet at a gazebo near a frog pond. That place soon became a temple where the five would find themselves reflecting, releasing, and crafting closely amongst relaxed moonlight, soft mornings and Southern thunderstorms.

“We became so close on that trip that it sometimes feels like we’re still there,” Bruber recalls. Perhaps Symmetry Somewhere is the sound of trust and distrust combined then, a document of the band’s evolution from five into one. “A balancing act of destruction and perseverance,” as Bruber terms it.

At the end of the day, however, Tabah is pragmatic when it comes to this, encouraging listener interpretations rather than trying to define them. Describing Tabah as a “blank and meaningless canvas,” Bruber continues, saying, “We are eternally grateful for the ways people have perceived us so far, and we believe that this album will finally allow listeners to get a sense of what we are really going for in our music.”

So far, it’s made a lot of sense for the Minneapolis NPR-affiliate, 89.3 The Current, which has consistently supported Tabah since the band’s first EP release in 2015, giving the single heavy rotation and naming it one of the best local tracks of the year. The resultant sell-out crowds at Tabah’s hometown venue, the famed 7th Street Entry, have only further cemented the group as a must-see live act in the city; a mystifying, haunting, soulful experience that will now go national with the release of the new album, and tour to follow.

The first single from Symmetry Somewhere is “Curtain Call,” an ironic choice for a beginning, but one that has actually been a part of the band’s set since the start. An earlier version of the song appeared on Tabah’s debut EP, but owing to the five-headed monster (or many-armed Buddha?) that is Tabah, the song has become something else over time.

Indeed, Janssen explains that “‘Curtain Call’ grew along with us.  Shorter, meatier, yet still lush, it now evokes a beginning that can only come from something else’s end.”

Bruber concurs, giving the song the credit for helping the band become what it is today.

“The reaction we received for that song in our early days of playing Minneapolis gave us the confidence to grow,” he says. “In some ways, ‘Curtain Call’ was the boost we needed for us to feel like we were doing something special.”

Now that Symmetry Somewhere is completed, the members of Tabah continue to seek – personally and also professionally – through their visceral ability to connect in meaningful ways with their rapidly expanding audience. Now they have the tangible result of this pursuit. The new album is already in their hands and ears, and soon, in yours. As for what can’t yet be physically grasped, it’s still waiting for us to discover. It might be Earthy. It’s definitely out there.

The debut album Symmetry Somewhere by Tabah is scheduled for release on March 17th, 2017, preceded by the single “Curtain Call,” streaming now. See Tabah on tour this spring. Members of Tabah are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Tabah – On Tour

3/03/2017: Davenport, IA @ Daytrotter Downs Festival | Tickets

3/04/2017: Saint Paul, MN @ The Turf Club (Album Release Show)

3/05/2017: Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s

3/06/2017: Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews

3/07/2017: Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge

3/08/2017: Wichita, KS @ Barleycorn’s

3/09/2017: Norman, OK @ The Red Brick Bar

3/13/2017: Austin, TX @ Cheers Shot Bar Rooftop (SXSW)

3/13/2017: Austin, TX @ The Thirsty Nickel

3/15/2017: Austin, TX @ Handlebar

3/16/2017: Austin, TX @ Cherrywood Coffehouse (SXSW)

3/18/2017: New Orleans, LA @ DMac's

3/19/2017: Jackson, MS @ Soul Wired Cafe

3/21/2017: Jackson, MS @ Offbeat

3/24/2017: Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot (Album Release Show)

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Tabah

Symmetry Somewhere

(S/R)

March 17^th, 2017

  

Track Listing:

01. Lucid State

02. Curtain Call (STREAM | MP3)

03. Closer To Colder

04. Bloom

05. Noble

06. The Hive

07. Spine

08. Kuker

09. False Balance

10. TWC

11. Celebrate

12. Villain

13. Central Why?

14. Myth

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Tabah Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL