Releases
Label Fantastic! Releases:
The Barmitzvah Brothers “Growing Branches”
In July of 2011 Jenny contacted Geordie, John, and longtime Barmitzvah Brothers guitarist Tristan O’Malley in order to record an album dedicated to the imminent birth of her second child. The band had gone on hiatus in 2008 – giving each of the three youths time to follow their own course both as people and musicians. John vied to become the subject of a Bruce Springsteen song by marrying early and becoming a factory worker moonlighting as a rock musician; Geordie worked hard towards international pop superstardom, recording and touring with Islands and his own band the Magic; and Jenny commenced her career as Jenny Omnichord, solo touring musician and hardworking mother of the little son, Otis.
But similar to her album of duets for Otis, Jenny wanted a special album to welcome her second baby into the world. Over the course of a week, Jenny, Geordie, John, and Tristan reunited at Andy Magoffin’s House of Miracles in London Ontario to record “Growing Branches”, a series of songs celebrating the music of the Barmitzvah Brothers as well as babies, mothers, little sisters and older brothers.
The band released “Growing Branches” digitally on Zunior on September 16th 2011, on the day Jenny gave birth to her first little girl, Arrow. It marks 10 years since the Barmitzvah Brothers’ first record, 11 years as a band, and just for fun it is being released on 11/11/11 as 11th release on Label Fantastic! There are 24 different album covers, and each CD comes with a different selection of four band and family photos. Visit “The Shop” to buy the album today!
Inspired by legendary Canadian folklorists Staunton R. Livingston (The CFL Sessions) and Edith Fulton Fowke (Folk Songs of Canada), former performance artist Henry Adam Svec has decided to buy a field recorder and hit the road. The archive Folk Songs of Canada Now is the fruit of his first song-collecting journey across Canada. Discovered Folk include Al Tuck, Geoff Berner, Mathias Kom, Jenny Omnichord, Laura Barrett, Rock Plaza Central, Sunparlour Players, Olenka Krakus, Andy Magoffin, and more. The freely accessible archive also features painstakingly detailed explicatory notes and a rigorous introduction to some of Svec’s more non-conformist decisions as a folklorist. Folk Songs of Canada Now acknowledge’s the support of the Ontario Arts Council.
To be released September 2011
Visit http://www.folksongsofcanadanow.com/ to download the album for FREE!
Skeletones Four “Gravestone Rock”
Gravestone Rock is the follow-up to AAAAAHHH!!!, a 2009 collection spanning a decade’s worth of Collins’ songs, in which he played and recorded every instrument himself. He’s a very talented man but he values the camaraderie of his band of brothers, all lifelong friends who were raised in Guelph. Collins gathered them together, mostly at his grandparents’ farm in the picturesque country side within Caledon, ON, and then he set up some mics and pushed some buttons to capture the Skeletones Four’s latest songs for Gravestone Rock. Mastered by Harris Newman and available on 180 gram vinyl, the record’s a beaut—a raw but pristine document of a challenging pop band, making timeless rock songs with unassuming confidence.
Released August 2011
Visit: http://theskeletonesfour1.bandcamp.com/ to pick up the record today!
The Burning Hell & Wax Mannequin Split 7″ “Hear Some Evil”
Some new songs from a couple of Label Fantastic! favourites. Released May 2011
J.J. Ipsen and Paper Crown “Entertainment Ordinaire”
J.J. Ipsen is FINALLY done his long-awaited full length, “Entertainment Ordinaire” Featuring a few songs you may have heard on previous EPs and several amazing new hits, this album is what would happen if you blended Ron Sexsmith and Rufus Wainwright with ELO and the Zombies. It’s very super lovely. Released April 2011
Spring Breakup “It’s Not You, It’s Me”
A second course of breakup songs from Canadian heartbreak chefs Kim Barlow and Mathias Kom of The Burning Hell. Several of these songs are based on actual breakup stories Spring Breakup has collected, and with everything from sparse, lonely banjo plucking to Jamaican mento to epic rockers with wailing guitar solos, It’s Not You, It’s Me tries to do sonic justice to the spectrum of lost love and heartache. Released February 2011
Jenny Omnichord “All Our Little Bones“
Jenny Omnichord recorded an album with 13 of southern Ontario’s most interesting and noted producers. Next was an album of duets which she released the day she gave birth to her son Otis. This spring, Label Fantastic will release Jenny’s third album – and it’s backed by a band! The amazing Justin Nace recorded and produced it at the House of Miracles in London and Menalon in Toronto. She grabbed Tristan O’Malley (her band mate from the Barmitzvah Brothers) to play bass, hired Andy Magoffin’s favourite drummer Mike Brushey to play drums, and fellow label mate JJ Ipsen to play keys, arrange horns and strings and basically just add awesomeness. It is an album about impending babies, arrived babies, and coming to terms with changes and aging and the afterlife. Released May 2010
Upcoming Releases:
Paul Almond is awesome! On this record he is backed by the Blowbots, who are Richard Laviolette on drums, and Jenny Mitchell on bass. The music is like a punk version of Daniel Johnson. It’s a hi-fi recording of a low-fi basement band. There are songs about nymphs, diarrhea, dragons and dinghies.
To be released October 2011