Upcoming shows

The first week of December has some great shows coming up that we're working on:

Dec 1 2008 10:00P - FREE
Sputnik Monroe at the Silverlake Lounge with The Color Turning and Violent Soho (Australia)

Dec 4 2008 9:00P
Black Party Politics and EEK A MOUSE at the Roxy

Dec 6 2008 8:00P
Ninja Academy at Hanger 1018 in Downtowm LA
Woven CD release show [21+, BYOB]

Sputnik Monroe - Goldin Classics Review

Goldin Classics Review Site

Friday, November 21, 2008
We're Doomed, And It Feels So Good...
Hailing from Los Angeles, CA, Sputnik Monroe are an excellent up-and-coming band that you need to know! This five piece experimental rock unit has been compared to The Mars Volta, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd, and on their most recent EP "We're Doomed" The Great Depression Celebration Part I" it is clear as to why. Their debut full length "Wake the Sleeping Giant" was a bombastic funk fused hard rock album in the vein of Mars Volta. Since then however, the band has grown by leaps and bounds into their own sound that can be heard on "We're Doomed."



Why is it called "We're Doomed"? Well, here's the explanation from the bands website...

"After touring the US in two different vans, three transmissions, several blown tires, through a few hail storms and heat waves with no AC, adding a keyboard player, and ruining their credit scores to play music... Sputnik Monroe swept up the scattered pieces of their lives to make "We're Doomed". It's a 30 minute EP of a two part LP called "The Great Depression Celebration". Through the recording of part one, the band has been hit with streaks of bad luck. Josh Latham(engineer) lost his appendix, and later was diagnosed with a severe intestine disease landing him in bed for weeks at a time. He had to move to Boston to get family health care, leaving most of the mixing to be done over the phone and on the internet. Add a few common colds, broken gear, moving recording spots to five different locations, brushes with the law...and you have "We're Doomed", part one of The Great Depression Celebration."

Here is my track by track review of the highly conceptual EP...

The album begins with the beautifully atmospheric drift of "The Chamberlin." The ominous keys, heavenly choir-esque haze mix with intense jazz like drumming to create the perfect opening to the story. Nearing the songs half way point the intensity takes off with angular guitar lines before scaling back to the keyboards' calm, allowing the song to end just as it began. "Portamento / Nicola, I Miss the Barn" is the next track, an instrumental that serves as a two part suite. While serving one complete sound for the song, it is split into distinct sections and moods. The first half, Portamento, is an ambient filled insightful melody. The song constantly builds sonically complete with wailing siren like synths. The cinematic aspect of the song grows further intensity until its peak, where it returns to the ambiance.

"Standing in Rank" follows, picking up the tempo and heaviness of the album. The haunting synths, funky bass, progressive drumming and sharp charging guitars create the perfect backdrop for the strong vocal melodies. Reminiscent of Cedric Bixlar Zavala's voice, Kevin Netzley's energetic belts are cut from the same cloth as the best At The Drive-In songs. A horn section brings a slow depression over the complex odd time signatures of the rhythm section. This all blends to perfection to create a track that is dynamically epic, as it blends into the three part movement, "Ocean / Le Cirque Du Bruit / Time." The track starts off with their constantly impressive drumming, the deep impacting bass line, and reverb soaked guitars. Shifting rhythms with wavering vocal melodies create a sound equal parts art and rock. The members of Sputnik Monroe clearly know their instruments better than most, and show an incredible passion, without any of the self righteousness. Similar in many ways to the mighty Dredg, Sputnik clearly enjoy experimentation with countless effects and rhythmic times. Netzley's vocals travel the gamut from subdued Bixler-Zavala like shouts to high pitched trails with Bowie like flourishes. Never straying from the doom and depression theme for too long, all the songs return to the original bleak and dark state they began.

The sprawling and theatrically fueled "Everyone is Looking Elsewhere" closes out the album with a heavy and intense broading quality to the music. Chaotic, triumphant, and beautiful all at the same time, while remaining instrumental. The story is summed up amongst the emotional range and intricacies of their playing. This album could very well be the first half of a masterpiece, and I know that I personally cant wait to hear more from this band. Not only is their music great, but their album art is great too.

The Ignorant Fall Tour

Nov 8 2008 8:00P
The Ignorant at Studio Gallery @ El Paso, TX
w/ Downtown Junkies

Nov 9 2008 9:00P
The Ignorant at Room 710 @ Austin, Tx
w/ Blood Royale

Nov 10 2008 8:45P
The Ignorant at Notsuoh@ Houston, TX
w/ The Caprolites, Wrong Ones, Deathbed Repentance

Nov 13 2008 8:00P
The Ignorant at Ruby Room @ Phoenix, AZ
w/ Toybox

Nov 14 2008 11:00P
The Ignorant at Double Down @ Las Vegas, NV

New Management

We're now managing up and coming LA band, Black Party Politics. Check them out...

"We're Doomed" Big Smile Magazine Review

Sputnik Monroe - "We're Doomed"
By Jonny Havoc [Rated 9x]

Sputnik Monroe - "We're Doomed"

The Great Depression Celebration Part 1
I remember seeing Sputnik Monroe about 4 or 5 years ago at the Sante Fe Cafe in Fullerton CA and have loved them ever since. They are a Indie Experimental band from LA. They most defiantly on this cd are more experimental than indie. Its just a specie cd, could be a sound tract to sweet indie film.
The artwork on the cd and on the cover has a very cool feel to it, almost Alice in Wonderland-ish and the whole style of the art and way its all put together has its own style and one of the best i've seen. (if your in a band takes notes and check them out)
Doomed Chapters
1 The Chamberlin
2A Portamento
2B Nicola,I miss the Barn
3 Standing In Rank
4A Ocean
4B Le Cirque Du Brutt
4C Time
5 Everyone Is Looking Elsewhere

Death is not a Joyride Summer Tour

Short but sweet:

Sep 25 2008 8:00P @ Universe City w/Zebre Norman, Oklahoma

Sep 26 2008 9:00P @ Sauced w/ Tympanic Frenzy Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Sep 27 2008 10:00P @ Soundpony w/Ghosts Tulsa, Oklahoma

Killradio September Release

I am happy to announce that Nine 12 Records will be releasing Killradio's new EP this month, "Good Americans". Right now the album is available for pre-order on our website. We will have it up on Itunes soon.... We had an excellent graphic designer, Adam McIver, do the artwork for us and it turned out awesome.

Nine 12 Band Widgets

Sputnik Monroe - Space City Rock Review

SCR's own Scott Whitt lukewarmly reviewed sputnik Monroe's first effort, Wake the Sleeping Giant, back in 2007. In that review, his major criticisms seemed to be that Sputnik Monroe failed to live up to the experimental fusion of Muse and Mars Volta that they claimed to be. I can't speak knowledgably on the subject, as I'm only a passing Muse fan, am barely interested in Mars Volta, and don't own Wake the Sleeping Giant anyway. All I have to go on is Sputnik Monroe's latest release, We're Doomed.
The term "experimental" is thrown around today so much that it has lost all real meaning. Most bands seem to think all you need is a delay petal and all of the sudden you're Pink Floyd. To me, experimental is John Cage telling his audience that the show is over when the piano eats the bale of hay. Still, I will admit that We're Doomed is sufficiently left of the dial to warrant the label "oddball," at least. Set up as a five-chapter story, with two songs mimicking the multi-movements style of Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia," We're Doomed is almost everything I ask for these days in a CD: it's short, it's weird, and it's got absolutely no chance of ever being on mainstream radio.
The atmosphere of the album cannot be denied. The air is so thick in these tracks I'm surprised my computer doesn't ooze an oily smoke. It's a fairly dark album, with Kevin Netzley's voice rarely exhibiting anything but a kind of desperate neediness. Still, many of the tracks rise out of the synth-y ambience to exhibit the smoother notes of ska or the revivalist energy of the Polyphonic Spree. The true mark of distinction of We're Doomed, however, is the seamless way that the album progresses. Often, you'll have no idea that you've switched to a new song, and with that in mind, you should view We're Doomed as a thirty-minute, one-song opera.
And that is the only real drawback of the album, if you can call it that. It really is one song played for thirty minutes. Now, it's a very very good song, don't get me wrong, but the album lacks any notable tempo changes, or even real key changes. There is not a lot of up and down in the musical presentation. Rather, you have a sort of continuous slope (is it up or down? Good question...) interspersed with brief rest stops for hamburgers and to use the bathroom. You are in for the long haul, and there is little to be gained by skipping to the end. The damn thing plays like a musical of Camus's The Stranger, ending on approximately the same melancholy note it began on.
Who's going to like We're Doomed? People who stand in the corner and look sad to make friends will like it. Librarians will like it. People who own one (and only one) Legendary Pink Dots Album will like it. People who prefer pencil drawings to watercolors will like it. Do you still believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Then you will probably like it. I like it. (Jef With One F // 08/14/08)

The Ignorant Summer Tour

We are helping Northeast Records band, The Ignorant, put together their summer tour... check out their website for tour details.

A Note on "In Rainbows" and the like

Now of course, I see what Radiohead did by releasing their own album... and I appreciate it in it's own regard. However, the part that concerns me is more the false ideas that it presents to any upcoming band. Of course Radiohead could do something like that. They are one of the biggest bands of today. They have more money than most indie labels anyway, so of course they didn't need a label to release an album. Of course, they could afford to just give it away.

The problem lies in the fact that there are still bands out there who are not up to the par of Radiohead, but think they can do the same. No. It's not like that. Small indie / regional touring bands still need that extra 5 to 10 bucks to help them get from Albuquerque to Houston. Radiohead can take a plane.

As long as bands have the ideality in their head that all they want to do is write and record music, there is still a place for labels. As long as bands have bad credit and live paycheck to paycheck, there is still a place for labels. Even the mere storage of packing supplies, thousands of albums, and everything else needed to make a successful business of a band doesn't fit in the unaffordable studio apartments that Los Angeles has to offer. And in that is where there is hope for the likes of me.

I appreciate what Radiohead did, but it brought a completely unwarranted realm of cockiness to other musicians that they can in fact, do the same. Maybe they can?

Sometimes I wonder

If I will ever release another physical cd. Nobody really knows where the music industry is going, but we can all speculate.

One of my favorite insights about all of this comes from Moses Avalon's book, "Secrets of Negotiating a Record Contract". In it, he says, "As I write these words, companies with new ideas for distribution are fighting vast financial powers. But what they represent is greater than their opponent's resources for they represent the future and the future can't be stopped. It can, however, have enemies. Who are they? They are anyone who opposes change; as long as they can keep things from changing, these enemies of the future will continue to make money without adapting to new ideas and new concepts. Progress is historically unkind to such people. Progress is the future. You are the future. You are progress. Lead, follow, or get out of the way..."

Rest of the book aside, the ending provides us with some hope. And really, that's all we need. Just a little glimpse of the end of the tunnel to keep us interested in finding it.

It seems like many indie labels, such as myself, are becoming more of a promotional and marketing firm - with the money being made on tours and merchandise aside from the music itself.

Then there are bands like Fugazi, who only play five dollar shows, and don't even sell any band "merch"... yet they maintain the band, and even get a certain amount of respect, just for their perseverance. Ian MacKaye is definitely someone I look up to, though I don't follow his practices to a T.

I guess the only answer is that you have to be in this because you love it and not any other reason, because otherwise, you won't last.

I know I haven't been around that long. Going on year five as a label, year 2 doing this full-time. But at least I'm still here. Still typing. Still caring. Still listening.

Booking

Recently, I have been focusing more on booking various bands and managing than the actual label work itself.

Some of the bands I have booked tours for:
Death is not a Joyride
Legs on Sale
Sputnik Monroe
The Pleasures of Merely Circulating

I'm looking to book more tours, for more bands. Criteria is I must love your music. I generally accept booking submissions via sonicbids. It's just easier that way.

Youtube videos

I have a bunch of videos up on youtube of Nine 12 artists and friends.

Sputnik Monroe - Santa Monica Mirror Interview

Artist Spotlight

Liz Ohanesian, Mirror Contributing Writer Sputnik Monroe
On Thursday, April 17, the tightly packed crowd at Mar Vista club The Good Hurt waited in anticipation for Sputnik Monroe. For five years, the band, whose members hail from Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey, has been making waves across the Westside and beyond utilizing vintage keyboards, computers, and violins in addition to the usual guitar-bass-drum combination. And at just after 11 p.m., when the band took to the stage, the sound it emitted was almost too large for the tiny club, a dense onslaught of music that stirred onlookers.
"It's really a hodgepodge," says Kevin Netzley, singer and keyboardist of Sputnik Monroe, of the band's sound. "Spacey rock is kind of the best but doesn't really explain what we do. There are a lot of noises, a lot of sounds, but not in an ambient band kind of way."

He adds, "We definitely have melodies and movements to our music. We try to bring in a lot of different sounds."

No matter how one chooses to describe Sputnik Monroe, the band still produces an intricate, blissful sound that crosses generational lines.

"It's easy for us to peg people's generations or what they do by what they say to us afterwards," says Netzley. "Someone younger will tell us that we sound like [experimental rock band] Deerhunter and someone older will tell us that they are reminded of Pink Floyd. I think it's because we do incorporate, cull from so many influences."

The show at The Good Hurt was the launch pad for Sputnik Monroe's nine-day, seven-show Southwest tour, which would take the members to Austin and back. It was also a celebration for the band's latest EP We're Doomed, the follow up to the 2006 debut album Wake the Sleeping Giant.

In 2006, when Sputnik Monroe decided to record its debut album, the band traveled to Seattle with enough savings to create an 11-day recording budget to produce 10 songs. With just enough time to lay down a song a day, Wake the Sleeping Giant sounded "as good as it possibly could," Netzley explains.

"Two years later, after we finally felt like we toured and sold enough to warrant letting go of [the album], we did the exact opposite," says Netzley This time around, the band members stayed local, found a friend who could engineer the recording sessions, and took their time.

"We spent a month and a half doing five tunes," Netzley says of the recording process.

Sputnik Monroe plans to return to the studio later this year to record another short collection of songs.

"This EP is purposely a part one," says Netzley. "Hopefully, six months down the road, we'll put out part two and we'll hopefully be fresh and not have to play the same tunes two years later."

We're Doomed is available at selected independent and online music retailers. Go to sputnikmonroe.com for more details.

Sputnik Monroe - Neon Buzz Review

Neon Buzz Magazine

ALBUM: Sputnik Monroe - We're Doomed
Defined, I assume, by themselves, Sputnik Monroe are allegedly a "electronic electric rock band". I feel somewhat awkward typing such words, as there is little evidence suggesting anything close to such title in their music. However, here I am, sitting at the laptop, dreary eyed, eagerly listening intently to each track repeatedly, despite being the only one in the silent household awake.

I've been proved wrong. Once again. 'Standing in Rank' is a mixed up, scatterbrained monster of a track, sounding like The Cooper Temple Clause fed through a disjointed synthesiser. Yelpy vocals and apocalyptic space riffs combine to make a rousing attack of intense musical mastermind, with layers upon layers of tantalizingly precise epic-prog rock.

'Ocean' lives up to expectations, sounding like an alt-rock frenzy preparing for angular war. Filled with instruments battling each other in ultimately clashing harmony, and alarming fret-work, Sputnik Monroe have mastered the art of creating a wholly anthemic, yet spiky sound.
As chords and drums clash and bang, contagious energetic twists and turns dotted in each song come alive, in a way that almost predicts a long and successful future for this criminally under-hyped group. Inventive, yet deadly rhythms set the music alight, creating a raucous yet beautifully mysterious edge to the band's distinctive edge.

Enigmatically entrancing, Sputnik Monroe have defined themselves and their unforgettable sound in a way that many current bands could only dream of. Exciting to the point of the unbelievable, this band are mind-blowingly awesome. Whatever you do, don't ever forget them. As if that was possible.

Olivia Jaremi
Posted by Neon Buzz at 01:38
Labels: Album