Illumination Opening at Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington NC

Celebrate artistry and light at Cameron Art Museum’s 9th annual artist-made lanterns exhibition, Illumination 2023. Interpreting the light that shines from within, artists from across the United States and Canada have created traditional and contemporary lanterns. This display marks the transition of the season’s change and the year’s end as we begin our return to light. The installation can be enjoyed inside the museum or outside the Studio One windows.

Friday, December 1st is the official opening event for Illumination 2023, featuring Fort Lowell Records LET'S SHINE Vinyl DJ Set, from 6:00-9:00pm.

CAM Members: Free

Not-Yet Members: $15

Students: $5

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION + TICKETS

LET'S DANCE at The Starling Bar in Wilmington NC on Saturday, September 9th

Join us at The Starling Bar on Saturday, September 9th from 7:00-10:00pm as Fort Lowell Records hosts a Vinyl DJ Night of dance-centric music deejayed by label owner James Tritten

CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

LET'S BOOGIE!

Join us tonight (Aug 24) at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington NC for LET'S BOOGIE — a night of Electro-Synth-Funk / Post-Disco — featuring FADER on the 'wheels of steel'!

CLICK HERE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

James Tritten - Fort Lowell Records Interview

[Repost from Primitive Man Soundz; by Dakota Brown, June 26, 2023]

Tell me about growing up in Tucson, AZ before relocating to Raleigh, NC. What led to this move for you and the label? What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Were these things that were relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?

Fort Lowell Records was born in Tucson, Arizona in December 2009, however I personally grew up in Jacksonville, Florida during the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of my youth was focused around soccer — which I started playing in 1979, as well as skateboarding — which I first took to in 1981.  During those times, Thrasher Magazine and Powell Peralta skate videos were pretty much what introduced me to new music: hip-hop, metal, and punk. Music was more of a soundtrack delivered via cassette tapes played through a portable boombox used to keep the energy up for our skateboard sessions, wherever they may be held: backyard half-pipes, launch ramps in the middle of the street, behind a grocery store, abandoned buildings, at the local school, etc.. My brother and I shared the same interests, bonding over music from Iron Maiden to Motorhead, and 7 Seconds to The Misfits. The first vinyl record I ever bought was Agent Orange's When You Least Expect It EP around 1984, purchased solely because Vision Skateboards made an Agent Orange skateboard deck with the same artwork and band logo; I had enough money for the record, but not the skate deck.  

Meanwhile, my sister was part of a school dance group. At the time I had no idea that their performances used (a lot of) New Order's music, until about 1988 when I became a big fan of New Order myself and then realized I had been hearing their music from my sister for the past few years.  Not to mention, solely as a fan of the movie itself she also played the heck out of the Pretty In Pink soundtrack prior to my own acknowledgment of its greatness and the future-favorite bands of mine on that album. 1987 was when I truly first fell in love with music, in the way I am still in love with music today. Echo & The Bunnymen had just released their self-titled album; their last studio recording with drummer Pete de Freitas. A good friend of mine at the time was a guy named Mike Gibbs, who I played soccer with. We never spoke about music ever, barely even spoke about skateboarding; I think he tried it once. One day Mike randomly walked up to me in Shop Class, handed me a copy of that Echo & The Bunnymen album on compact disc, and said, "My Mom just bought this album, and we've been listening to it in the car every day for the past few weeks on our way to school. I thought you would like it, so she said I could let you borrow it to check it out."  

My life with music started in that very moment. I fell in love not only with that album and Echo & The Bunnymen as a band, but I fell in love with the idea of music, becoming a musician, and living a life full of music in every way possible. I knew I wanted to be involved in the music industry from the moment I heard that album. I knew I wanted to do something — make albums / records — to possibly move someone else in the same way Echo & The Bunnymen had moved me in that very moment.   Unfortunately Mike is no longer with us, but there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how his simple gesture affected my life.  I will always be grateful for him and his Mom, and forever cherish his serendipitous act of kindness in middle school. Fast forward to North Carolina; it was in 1993 when my then-bandmate / now-wife Tracy Shedd and I first visited our now-home state.  Immediately we knew we wanted to move to North Carolina, but it ended up taking twenty-years to make that happen, mainly because we decided try out some other areas — such as Boston, Massachusetts and Tucson, Arizona — before finally making the commitment.  Finally, on our 2011 US Tour for Tracy Shedd after playing a show at Slim's in Raleigh, NC with friends Schooner and Miami Jetski, we made the decision together to take the plunge. It took two years for the planning and logistics, but in 2013 I took a job as the General Manager of The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina and we moved from Arizona to NC.  Five years later we would make one last transition, in-state this time, down to the coastal city of Wilmington, NC — which is where we now call home, and where Fort Lowell Records resides. Being kids from Florida, living by the water just made more sense to us. Wilmington has truly become our home, and we are doing everything to nurture its soil, and establish our own deep roots for a long lasting, music-filled future.

What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music? Have you participated in groups yourself?

The first rock-n-roll concert I can remember going to was The Beach Boys in 1985 at Metro Park in Jacksonville, Florida with my Mother; that was one of her favorite bands, along with Chuck Berry.  Then, about five years later I bought the first concert ticket of my own to see fIREHOSE at the legendary music venue Einstein A Go-Go in Jacksonville Beach, FL — because all skateboarders back then were fans of fIREHOSE, after seeing Natas Kaupas in the 1989 Santa Cruz Streets of Fire video skating to their song "Brave Captain" and delivering his infamous fire hydrant trick. Einstein A Go-Go is as important to my story as receiving that Echo & The Bunnymen CD in Shop Class. Anyone who grew up in or around Jacksonville, Florida during the 1980s or 1990s and is now involved in the music industry will tell you more-or-less the same thing: Einstein A Go-Go shaped me, in almost every way. It was home to my very own inaugural live performance in 1991 with the first band I was in, Tumbleweed; documented here on VHS Tape by my friend Jamie Newell (that's me singing, playing guitar, in the paper chef's hat; don't ask).  It was where I saw Primus the next year on their first US Tour, and The Cranberries on their first tour state-side one year later.  It was where I bought some of my most prized Echo & The Bunnymen rare vinyl records, my first Mudhoney t-shirt, and the New Order subway station poster that hung in my bedroom during high school and first few apartments to follow. It was where I learned to dance to shoegaze music, smoke my first clove cigarette, and make-out with a girl on the beach at night.

Einstein A Go-Go is where Tracy and I cut our teeth as musicians with our first band together, Sella.  It is where we learned everything about being a live band: how to book shows, how to promote yourself, how to perform on stage, how to engage with the audience, how to build a fanbase, how to work through mistakes, how to continue improving your craft, how to support your peers, how to be a part of a scene, etc. It was an all-age music venue located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida that hosted dance nights and live concerts, plus had a record store attached on the side.  All of our earliest influences were being hand-fed to all of us by the Faircloth Family, owners of Einstein A Go-Go, and the various DJs who occupied the booth during its existence.  I personally did not start going there until the 1990s, but I remember my brother talking about sneaking out his bedroom window to go there many years before. Einsteins was equally as influential to our Floridian community in the 1980s, and provided a stage for some of our favorite artists in their early years like 10,000 Maniacs, Jane's Addiction, The Replacements, Sonic Youth; too many to name.

How did the label initially come to be and how did you guys meet each other? What was the overall vision and dream for the label? You guys have released some great works by the likes of Neon Belly, Death Kit, Andrew Collberg, Kim Ware, Tracy Shedd and La Cerca. What have been some of the most fun you’ve had working on projects and why?

I met my wife, Tracy, for the first time in January 1993. She was auditioning for a band called Sella that I was putting together with my friend Steven Haley. At the end of the audition, I told Steven, "I am going to marry her someday" (which I did on June 1, 2000).  After Sella disbanded a few years later, Steven and I started a duet called Audio Explorations. Tracy began to work on music of her own under the name Aerial, then Tiny Dynamite, and finally her maiden name Tracy Shedd.  For the years that followed, both Tracy Shedd and Audio Explorations were very fortunate to receive the support of various record labels such as Teen-Beat, Eskimo Kiss Records (run by Kim Ware), New Granada Records, and Devil In The Woods. We moved to Tucson, Arizona in 2006, and immediately fell in love with the music scene and community in general. This was during that odd time in the music industry when Compact Discs were beginning to lose their luster (for some people) and the idea of Digital Music was just starting to become a household consideration; however, online streaming was not quite there yet (as we know it today).  New bands trying to break into the scene (any scene) were now making their music available exclusively as a free download on MySpace, just to ensure people would listen to it.  

Up to that point, our own personal experience with music was to make it available on a physical medium for people to buy, and they would; assuming it was something the listener liked (whatever the genre). We did not understand the idea of giving one's music away for free.  So, we decided to put our money where our mouth was, start a record label, and promote / release music for artists that we liked — providing the same 'label support' we had received ourselves for the past decade. We immediately sold our 1976 Yellow CJ5 Jeep (with a 4" Lift Kit) to fund the first few projects for Fort Lowell Records; I still remember standing beside it just before we put it on the market as I called Zach Toporek from Young Mothers to talk to him about being the first artist. We lived in the Fort Lowell neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona at the time, so the name was obvious to us from the start.  It provided an indigenous element, which we wanted, as our original vision for the label was to only work with artists from Tucson AZ.  The other original idea was to only release 7inch singles; in the early years we were basically just trying to be the Sarah Records of the Southwest USA.  That all went out the window a few years later when we succumbed to the idea of full length albums, driven by the request of the bands we were working with at the time, as well as the fact that we ended up moving to North Carolina. 

Now, our vision is simple: to release great music that we love; glad to see you (Primitive Man Soundz) agree about the "great" part — thanks!  For the most part, everything we release (and have released) is by a friend of ours; and if not a direct friend — a friend-of-a-friend. Ultimately, this is what makes every release "fun": hearing the joy in the voice of someone you care about when they get to hear their own music on vinyl, or hold that twelve inch jacket in their hands for the first time.  For me, it is one of the greatest pleasures in life. And to share that experience with my friends keeps me going. For us, our This Water is Life project might be one of the most special things we've worked on. It is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop and indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina together one one record, as well as to provide a platform for local non-profits Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife. There are a lot of terrible things happening here with our water supply, and people need to know more about it. This project provides the local subject matter experts an opportunity to help educate our community with what's going on. We have released two volumes so far, and are in the middle of working on the third and forth as we speak. In addition to the environmental importance of the project, North Carolina hip-hop and indie rock have always been favorites of ours so it’s wonderful to be able to include Wilmington artists of both genres together on one release; hip-hop on Side-A, and indie rock on Side-B. 

What elements are most important to you when running a label and what exactly does it take to run FLR during these times? What have you been working on currently? Any new projects, or things you’d like to share for the spring/summer?

Talent, trust, and respect are most important to both Tracy and me for Fort Lowell Records, as well as vinyl (of course). If we do not like the music — correction, if we are not the biggest fans of what we are considering releasing — then unfortunately there is nothing we can do for an artist. This is a characteristic everyone should look for with any partnership they encounter, let alone working with a record label to release someone's music. Without our absolute love for the music, there is no way we could do what we do for our artists, or our label in general. For us, trust and respect are an essential part of any relationship, and this is no different with business.  Fortunately, we have a lot of talented friends, so we chose to focus Fort Lowell Records' efforts on helping people who we already have trusting, respectful relationships with. This is something we learned from Mark Robinson at Teen-Beat early on in our own music career with Tracy Shedd, and came to further understand as our careers progressed. It keeps things low risk and a lot more fun, as well as rewarding. Lastly: vinyl. Vinyl is final. As stated before, there is simply nothing like hearing your music on wax, or holding your own physical record in your hands. In the end (for us), that is what we are doing all of this for: to get music that we love on vinyl, so we can put the record on the shelf of our own personal collection at home, as well as drop the needle on the record when we want to hear the music — which includes at our various DJ Nights around Wilmington, North Carolina.

Some new releases on the horizon that we are very excited about (in no particular order of release date or favorites): 

• Tracy Shedd has a tasty new song titled "Let It Ride" with an infectious groove coming out soon as a digital single.  It is the very first song we recorded on our new-to-us 1980's 16-Track 1-Inch tape machine (analog, baby), and also features Andrew Gardner from La Cerca delivering a sweet lead guitar part; recorded as an impromptu session while visiting us here in Wilmington NC on a US Tour for his ambient album A Nice Sweet Getaway (an album fans of Brian Eno or Cocteau Twins should definitely check out).

• Local Wilmington NC indie rock legend James Sardone has his debut EP titled Colors coming out July 21st.  It includes remixes by Pitchfork's favorite De La Noche. The hit song on the EP "Colors of Your Brain" sounds like it could have come straight out of the recording sessions of New Order's Power, Corruption, and Lies. I can't wait to DJ this wax at one of our local Let's Dance DJ Nights.  People may remember Sardone from his 1990's band Brickbat, who used to tour with Jawbox, The Jesus Lizard, and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

• For all of you shoegazers out there... Mark my words when I say "Doggy Daycare." Their sick new mind melting digital single "(forgetting) sarah marshall" drops July 28th.  Think Swervedriver meets Feeble Little Horse meets Starflyer 59 meets Dinosaur Jr., and they all go largemouth bass fishing together here in Southeastern North Carolina on the Cape Fear River, which by the way has been polluted by The Chemours Company (assholes; Chemours, not the bands); see This Water is Life above.

ADDITIONAL RELEASES COMING: 

• La Cerca [Digital Single]
• Soda Sun [Digital Single]
• Summer Set - Members of De La Noche [Vinyl LP]
• Naïm Amor [Vinyl LP]
• Jon Rauhouse & Blaine Long [Vinyl LP]
• Blab School - Debut Album [Vinyl LP]
• Common Thread Fountain - 30-Year Anniversary [Vinyl LP]
• Forest Fallows - Members of Mute Swan [Vinyl LP]
• Female Gaze [Vinyl LP]
• Red Dwarf Star - Members of Maserati and Failure [Vinyl LP]
• Kicking Bird - Sophomore Album [Vinyl LP]

Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

"Thank you!" for your interest in Fort Lowell Records, and reading this interview to learn more about what we are doing.  As a gift, I would like to introduce you to a very special album titled ambient music by our own artist infinitikiss from Albuquerque, New Mexico. We released this album just a few months ago, and with all due respect to everything we have ever released, I have to be honest in saying this album quite possibly may be one of the most important projects we have been involved with. Infinitikiss ambient music grew out of artist Nic Jenkin's own slow-growing interest in sound healing, vibrational therapy, and learning about chakra / energy systems, which helped him realize (and illuminate) that a collection of sounds from live improvisations which were recorded to cassette tapes, originally to serve as backing tracks for live solo performances, could actually be its own album. The song titles reflect the moods and colors (aka spectral wave) of the blending and bending of colors in a rainbow (ROYGBIV), as well as to the energy fields of our bodies; corresponding to the “roygbiv” sequence and play with imagery of said colors. In our opinion, every human being in the world deserves to know about infinitikiss' album ambient music and have the opportunity to experience it, which is why it is our gift to recommend Jenkin's masterpiece to you, so you too can benefit from its existence in the world as much as we already have. 

LET'S TUESDAY at Satellite Bar & Lounge

Join us at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington, North Carolina every Tuesday after work from 6:00-8:30pm as Fort Lowell Records hosts an evening filled with an eclectic mix of music deejayed by Tracy + James Tritten from their own person vinyl record collection, while patrons enjoy time with friends, a classic movie in the back courtyard, and dinner from Block Taco!

CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

LET'S DANCE at Palate Bottle Shop

Join us at Palate Bottle Shop in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday, June 24th from 7:00-10:00pm as Fort Lowell Records hosts a Vinyl DJ Night of dance-centric Alternative / Indie / Underground music deejayed by James Tritten!

CLICK HERE FOR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

How the couple behind a growing record label is putting Wilmington music on the map

[Repost from StarNews; by John Staton, May 14, 2023]

Over the past five years, arguably no one has done more for Wilmington's indie music scene than Tracy Shedd and James Tritten.

A regular presence at area concerts and other happenings — they share a DJ set every Tuesday evening at the Satellite Bar & Lounge on Greenfield Street, during which they spin, on vinyl, everything from classic hits to obscure bangers — the married couple has helped highlight Wilmington music in a way few others have.

Since moving to town in 2018 with Fort Lowell Records, the independent label they started in Tucson, Arizona, in 2009, the couple has released a steady and diverse stream of music by Wilmington acts, from indie rock and dream pop to punk and hip-hop.

Consider this stat: Since October of 2020, when Fort Lowell released the Wilmington music compendium "GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter," the label has issued nearly 30 albums and singles, over half of them by Wilmington acts.

And the hits keep coming. May 12 saw the release of "The Time Space Continuum Redux," a lush remix of a 2006 album from Wilmington hip-hop group MindsOne by Port City DJ and producer RizzyBeats. (There's a listening party for the album May 18 at Flytrap Brewing.)

May 19 marks the release of "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," the incendiary new album from Wilmington sweat-pop rockers Kicking Bird. (Album release show is May 19 at Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern.)

Indie rock mainstay Shedd's new single comes out in June, and July 21 will see the release of "Colors," a new EP from veteran Wilmington songwriter James Sardone. Coming later this year will be the first official album release from iconic Wilmington indie rockers Summer Set. And that's just for starters.

Brian Weeks, the guitarist and songwriter for Summer Set and for the moody electro-pop act De La Noche, has been playing in various Wilmington bands since the '90s.

"There's been other local labels before, but not like this," Weeks said of Fort Lowell. "One of the strengths they have, especially James, he's just relentless and he's got the business side down."

RizzyBeats, the Wilmington DJ and producer who can often be found behind the counter at Gravity Records on Castle Street or spinning at various venues around town, said Fort Lowell has helped push artists to the next level.

"As creators, it's nice to be able to focus on the work," Rizzy said. "James is good about getting all the things together, taking it off our plates," including getting crucial publicity for new releases by Wilmington artists.

Both the MindsOne and Kicking Bird releases have gotten attention from national music sites, and Fort Lowell artists Lauds, who released the throwback shoegaze album "Imitation Life" in January, are featured in the current issue of national music magazine The Big Takeover.

Tritten and Shedd say it's a labor of love for Wilmington and its music.

"I already have a full-time day job," Tritten said, working for Kwipped, an online equipment rental marketplace.

"Honestly, I think I'm so obsessed as a record collector, that's the only reason I run a label. I just fall in love with a band and it's like, 'All right, I'll put your music on vinyl, just because I want it,'" Tritten said recently from he and Shedd's super-sweet downtown Wilmington apartment, which comes complete with a low-ceilinged, noggin-bruising recording studio space replete with music equipment. "It just boils down to, I'm a fan of it. It's really that simple. And it's never just me, it's me and Tracy, both of us together. That's the key part."

James Sardone, who's been part of the Wilmington scene for 30 years (aside from a decade-long stint in New York, where he earned a write-up in the Village Voice as the rockabilly act Jimmy Nations), said that "Fort Lowell is important to Wilmington ... They've given a boost to the music scene by participating and promoting, as well as providing a voice and label support for local artists."

Tom Michels of Wilmington rockers Kicking Bird said Tritten will "send you a song or tell you about something you'd be into, and he's always right. He's got this amazing, encyclopedic musical knowledge."

Wilmington on their minds

Natives of Jacksonville, Florida, Shedd and Tritten have known each other since the early '90s when they played in a band called Sella. Later, Tritten would form the band Audio Explorations and back up Shedd, now his wife of 23 years, during her long career as a solo artist. The couple toured relentlessly for years, with Tritten also serving as a booking agent for dozens of acts.

Ask most anyone in Wilmington who knows them, and you'll probably hear the word "supportive." Tritten, often clad in a trucker cap, is loquacious and has an easy smile, while Shedd has a shock of wavy gray hair and a winning laugh, with a friendly manner that immediately puts folks at ease.

And even though they've only lived in Wilmington since 2018, they've got deep roots in the Port City.

"In 1996 we got invested and tied into the Wilmington scene very deeply and very quickly," Tritten said. That was when Audio Explorations played its first show here, and he and Shedd met Wilmington folks that they're friends with to this day. "All through the late '90s, all through the early 2000s, we were coming here multiple times per year."

In 2006 the couple moved to Tucson, Arizona, for what they thought would be forever. There, in 2009, they started Fort Lowell Records, named after a U.S. Army fort in Tucson that later became an artists' colony.

Then in 2013, Tritten got a job offer to be the general manager of the legendary Cat's Cradle music venue in Carrboro, and the couple moved to Chapel Hill.

That job didn't work out long-term, but it did lead the couple to Wilmington in 2018, where the scene here reinvigorated Fort Lowell, which had gone largely dormant in the Triangle. Shedd completed her 2019 album "The Carolinas" at their home studio downtown and they played a release party at downtown venue Bourgie Nights that same year. It's been on ever since.

You'll often find them at local "makers" markets, with stacks of vinyl next to the apothecary concoctions Shedd makes. The couple created an even deeper connection to their new hometown with "Water Is Life," a blend of photography, music and environmental activism that adds up to an ongoing series of vinyl and digital releases split between Wilmington indie rock and hip-hop acts. The the third release in the series (with rocker cydaddy and rapper Sheme of Gold) is coming soon, with two more in the works.

At the same time, Fort Lowell continues to work with national artists. Upcoming albums include solo projects from Coley Dennis of Athens, Georgia, psyche-rock act Maserati, and from Neko Case guitarist Jon Rauhouse.

Fort Lowell band Lauds is starting to make some ripples nationally, and there's a rising wave of younger Wilmington acts like Pleasure Island (probably the most popular band in town), Doggy Daycare and Lawn Enforcement, all of whom regularly play at Cargo District hotspot The Place and are represented by Wilmington's newest label, the Gen-Z-centric Suck Rock Records, a label Tritten and Shedd both praise.

"I put blinders on with that kind of stuff," Tritten said, when asked whether Wilmington music is ready to step into the national spotlight. "We're just releasing music we like. It's really that simple."

All photos by Mary Riley; StarNews

Fort Lowell Records presents: STOWE [dj set] at The Opera Room | Sunday, May 29, 8PM

Tracy + James of Fort Lowell Records are spinnin' records every Tuesday night at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington NC from 6:00-8:30pm

Fort Lowell Records DJ Set at The Starling Bar in Wilmington NC - Friday, Feb 24, 6-8PM

Join Fort Lowell Records at Satellite Bar & Lounge for Valentine's Day for the 'sweet jams'!

Fort Lowell Records at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington NC

EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT, spinnin' our favorite music from 6:00-8:30pm!

Wilmington, North Carolina... Mark you calendars

The Wilmington Record Show returns Saturday, March 4th from 11:00am-5:00pm at Waterline Brewing!

NEW T-SHIRTS

SHOP NOW

Best of 2022 *Updated*

Here are the Fort Lowell Records releases that have been featured on various 'Best of 2022' or 'End of Year' lists for 2022:

Citified Lie Like a Painter [LP]  |  LISTEN NOW

• Big Takeover

Desario Signal and Noise [LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

• Big Takeover
• Dagger Zine

JPW Something Happening / Always Happening [Debut LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

• Aquarium Drunkard
  
• Buck Curran
• Great Big Hoping Machine
  
• Marc Masters
• One Chord to Another
• Petal Motel
• Remake/Remodel
• Stinkweeds
  

KITIMOTO Vintage Smell [Debut LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

• Add to Wantlist
• Here Comes the Flood
• Marc Masters

Lauds Imitation Life [Debut LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

• Big Takeover
• Decay FM

Lauds II [Digital EP]  |  LISTEN NOW

• Big Takeover
• Jason Myles
  

Kim Ware and the Good Graces Ready [Digital LP]  |  LISTEN NOW

• Krenten Uit de Pop
  
• One Chord to Another

New Year's Eve

Join us Saturday, December 31st at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington, North Carolina for our New Year's Eve celebration, featuring a live concert performance by Kicking Bird — who's debut album Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released in the new year (more to come on that) — followed by a Let's Dance DJ Set by Fort Lowell Records!

Fort Lowell Records is a Teenager now!

Happy Birthday, Fort Lowell Records! On this day (December 21), thirteen years ago (2009), our record label was born out of the love and admiration for artists within our community. It all started from a conversation with Zach Toporek from Young Mothers allowing us to release two of their songs for our first 7inch, aided by the sale of our yellow 1976 CJ5 Jeep (AKA: A ‘Rock Crawler’, with 35" tires and a 4" lift kit; damn I miss her) to help fund that project, as well as a few other records — including our second release “I’m Afraid of Everything” by …music video? (pictured here).  Thank you, everyone, for the continuous support. 2023 is going to be an awesome year for Fort Lowell Records, which will include new releases Lauds, infinitikiss, MindsOne & Rizzy, Blaine Long & Jon Rauhouse, Kicking Bird, Brian Lopez, Blab School, James Sardone, Fuzz & Mac, Dead Cool, Naïm Amor, Summer Set, and more! Happy Holidays! 🍰

New Trucker Hats are available!

"SUPERFAN OF FORT LOWELL RECORDS"

CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW

Premiere: inifinitikiss’ “in the same vibration that pothos green grows” (and Fort Lowell Records interview!)

[Repost from Independent Clauses; by Stephen Carradini, November 10, 2022]

In 2014, Fort Lowell Records took a leap of faith and asked me to do something that I had never done before in 12 years of being a blog: premiere a record. (I still have my vinyl copy of the Good Graces’ Close to the Sun framed and hanging on my wall to mark the momentous occasion.)

When I dramatically changed the genres I review and listen to in 2018, I noted that “I’ll probably be a pretty bad premiere partner for the near future, as I don’t quite know how to talk about the stuff I’m geeking out on yet.” So it’s with astonishment and gratitude that I present to you one of the first ambient premieres I’ve ever done–for none other than Fort Lowell Records.

“in the same vibration that pothos green grows” is the first single from infinitikiss‘ ambient music (yes, it’s really called that–I can’t make up this amount of serendipity).

The track itself is an expansive piece drawing on the subtle tensions between a roughed-up arpeggiator pattern and the round tones of a bright acoustic guitar. The programmed and gently distorted synth puts forward pressure on the track; the lazy, expansive, elegant acoustic guitar notes slow the track down. The space between those motions is the heart of the song. Even with the texturing on the arpeggiator, the piece is warm and sunny, evoking hammocking on back porches and laying in summery fields.

Fort Lowell Records · infinitikiss - "in the same vibration that pothos green grows"

If the song above piques your interest, the album will be pressed on chartreuse green translucent vinyl via Fort Lowell: you can order it here. (Look at that snazzy mock-up! You know you want one.) The album releases February 17, 2023.

And while, usually, my premieres would stop there, this one was too astonishing to let go at just that. So I took it upon myself to talk with James Tritten, the label head of Fort Lowell records. I wanted to know: how did y’all end up listening to ambient too? And how did you come across infinitikiss? James was so gracious that he not only gave me answers to those questions, but he made a Spotify playlist of his favorite ambient tracks. (The interview has been condensed for clarity and length.)

Stephen (IC): infinitikiss is an ambient record. How did that come about, and how did you get involved in ambient?

James Tritten (JT): It starts with The Band and the Beat [ed: James and his wife Tracy Shedd’s electronic duo. We’ve covered them too.] So basically, Nic Jenkins is infinitikiss. We met him when we were living in Raleigh, around the time we were touring around the region. We were booking a leg all the way through Florida and back, and I just picked up his name between the Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina.

He lived between the two cities, and so I reached out to him. And we ended up playing a couple of shows with Nic. Nic and Tracy and I, but specifically Nic and Tracy, really, really hit it off. Like, they were brother and sister immediately. They were just kindred spirits.

I think it was like the first night we played with him, it was the end of the set. She got him after the show and she’s like, Nic, I wanna record a record with you. And that would’ve been probably 2015 or 2016. So then fast forward that conversation: when we decided that we were gonna record another Tracy Shedd record, Nic was it. If you look at the credits on The Carolinas record, it’s Tracy, me and Nic Jenkins.

So, Tracy and I took a little trip across the US this last May and we spent time with Nic. He’s now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We got there, we spent a couple of days with him, which was beautiful. Somewhere in that conversation I must have spoken about the first ambient record that Fort Lowell had the privilege to release, and that’s the La Cerca record: A Nice Sweet Getaway. That came out in 2020. I remember recommending it to Nic at some point. It was later that he made a note [on Instagram] like, “wrapping up an ambient record,” and then I reached out to him then to say, “Well, hey, could I hear it?” That’s all it was. Could I hear it?

So we, Tracy and I, we just fell in love with it within–I don’t even think I was halfway through the record yet, and I was already like texting him, “Hey, can we talk about putting this out?”

This is a true statement when I say that I literally start every Saturday and Sunday listening to that La Cerca record. And we’ve been doing it for two years now. And the minute I got Nic’s record, it’s now both records. They’re just both of ’em side by side. It’s just such a beautiful way to start a day. It’s so just peaceful and it just, it just brings you into the day.

IC: So, tell me about this playlist!

JT: I literally spent my entire weekend making this playlist. I’m so excited. I’m really proud of it.

Ambient music starts with that, at my core, I’m a shoegazer. Tracy and I, we grew up with shoegaze. Like we were going to the club when it was like, “Here, let me introduce you to a band called My Bloody Valentine. You know, they just put out an EP.” And it’s really weird. It’s really noisy, you know?

So as a shoegazer, the goal was always to just get your guitar to sustain as long as it could. You know, one strum and then just this ever-sustained echo or whatever it was–reverb, whatever. This would’ve been like ’92, maybe ’93. I had four Roland Space Echoes. Four. Not one. Four.

IC: Just in case.

JT: No, I played through every one of them! That’s how obsessed I was with sustaining the guitar. Four of them. And I’d even loop ’em. I knew how to cover the erase head and you can create loops out of it and stuff. So I just became obsessed with these things. They were very much part of my instrumentation, as much as the guitar was. Well that led me to Brian Eno’s Discreet Music. So it’ll be the first song on the playlist. In my opinion, that is just the utmost epitome of ambient music.

And then I purposely, you know, I gave you La Cerca right following that because I just, I think it is on par with what Brian Eno does. And I know that’s a bold ass statement to say.

IC: Hey, you know, shoot your shot!

JT: I think it’s great. These examples on the front end that are these shoegaze bands that we were listening to. I mean, at the end of the day, ambient music is shoegaze minus the rhythm section. I mean, really! It’s true!

So that is where I just started aggressively collecting music like that. My dad ended up getting me introduced to bands like Tangerine Dream and Synergy, some of that older stuff, you know, the Barry Cleveland I’ve got there. Harold Budd, you know Harold Budd. Obviously you can kind of tie that into Brian Eno. But you can quickly see how it goes from this world of shoegaze stuff into this world of like old seventies-ish electronic music.

IC: I see … I love Johan Johansson. I see that on here. I love Spiritualized, Squarepusher, AphexTwin. American Analog Set. I love that you have–this is the more guitar-oriented ambient, right? The way I came into ambient is the opposite direction from the more synthesizer-heavy stuff into quieter and quieter and quieter and quieter until I ended up at ambient.

This is really fascinating for me. It will be really exciting for me because a lot of these were not in the path that I took to get to Brian Eno and then points beyond.

JT: I appreciate that actually, because I purposefully did that. I felt like, “I really need to tell my story with ambient music.” And I’m coming at it from a guitarist point of view. That’s the truth. You never would associate a band like American Analog Set with the word ambient.

IC: Yeah. But you put it in there and it makes sense.

JT: Yep. Well, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that track and what it is specifically. It was part of the Darla Records Bliss Out series. The Windy and Carl track came from the same exact series. It was a series of 12 inch EPs that they did. And my understanding is that that is what they were pushing the artist to do. I don’t know if the word ambient was being directly given to them. But that American Analog Set 12-inch is nothing like any of the albums. It’s completely different.

And so that song, in my opinion, it qualifies to a degree of ambient. There’s a couple of tracks in there where’s there’s a bit of a beat or rhythm that kind of comes in, enough that someone may challenge it.

IC: I think that’s part of it. I mean, ambient doesn’t have to be all clouds of synthesizers, right?

Thank you for talking with me about this “new” fascination that I have that goes back a decade, but is still basically new because we’ve only been writing about it for short period of time. I’m looking forward to more, more ambient records from y’all!

JT: I thank you even more for the opportunity to help promote the record and get it out. It really does mean a lot. —Stephen Carradini

James Tritten of Fort Lowell Records

'The Devil's Stomping Ground' movie features Fort Lowell Records artists

This Wednesday, November 16th, Jonathan Landau's movie The Devil's Stomping Ground will have its world premiere at the 28th Annual Cucalorus Film Festival here in Wilmington, North Carolina.  This independent film features music from Fort Lowell Records' own Sean Thomas Gerard, The Majestic Twelve, Tracy Shedd, and Kim Ware and the Good Graces.

The premiere will be held at Thalian Hall and starts at 7:00pm.  You can buy tickets here.

There will be an after party for The Devil's Stomping Ground, which will be held at Hi-Wire Brewing, and will include live musical performances from Sean Thomas Gerard, The Majestic Twelve, and Kim Ware, starting at 9:00pm following the movie premiere.

Watch the Trailer here: