TESTING TESTING, 1, 2, 3... DEAD WESTERN PLAINS NEVER SOUNDED SO SWEET BEFORE!

The test pressing has arrived for Dead Western Plains!  Mastered by JJ Golden and pressed by Rainbo Records, once again... we've got another great record on our hands that we can't wait to get into yours!  "Alta" b/w "Gift Horse In The Mouth" is a spectacular 7inch from these Tucsonans, who will soon become your new favorite band!  November 23rd is our release date for this gem on White Vinyl.  Stay tuned for more information about the pre-orders, and plan to see Dead Western Plains in action on Saturday, September 25, with the Fort Lowell Records Showcase in Tucson, AZ, at Sky Bar... or on Saturday, October 2, with our Showcase in Phoenix, AZ, at The Compound!

WET & RECKLESS GO ON TOUR!

Thursday, September 23 - Los Angeles CA - Origami Vinyl
Friday, September 24 - Las Vegas NV - Double Down Saloon
Saturday, September 25 - Tucson AZ - Sky Bar
Sunday, September 26 - Phoenix AZ - The Rogue Bar
Tuesday, September 28 - San Francisco CA - El Rio

Detailed information about each show is available on Wet & Reckless' MySpace page.

7INCHES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Nicolás Prados, from Spain, has been making custom videos since 2008 for bands that release their music on 7inch records. He posts his videos on YouTube and Tumblr, and has worked with artists in the past such as Washed Out, The Smith Westerns, Best Coast, and Neon Indian. Our team here at Fort Lowell Records have been blessed with Nicolás' talent, and are very proud to present to you his latest work... for our very own Wet & Reckless (Non-Official Video)! Enjoy!

AN INTERVIEW WITH FORT LOWELL RECORDS BY METROMIX, MIXED LOCALLY BY TUCSON CITIZEN

Fort Lowell Records showcase
A Q&A with the founder of the vinyl-only Tucson label in advance of its Sept. 25 party
By Billups Allen
Originally posted by Metromix on September 17, 2010

As good records have found their way almost completely out of thrift stores and onto eBay, there seems to be a newfound interest in vinyl collecting.

While some die-hard record labels weathered the vinyl slump, there is a need for a new generation of labels. Fort Lowell Records is a new label in Tucson dedicated to releasing singles. Label patron James Tritten is taking on the old-style method of running a label by arranging shows, self-distributing product and promoting the bands. It is an uphill climb, but with Fort Lowell’s third release—a split 7-inch with local Tracy Shedd and L.A.'s Wet & Reckless—being celebrated on Sept. 25 Sky Bar, there is hope that music can still be hustled off the computer screen.

Many of your releases are bands are from Tucson. Is it part of your mission to document music from the area?
Fort Lowell Records was started with a mission to release music by bands that have roots with Tucson.  So far, all of the bands, with the exception of Wet & Reckless, currently live in Tucson. Wet & Reckless live in Los Angeles, but have ties back to Tucson. This town generates some of the best music I have heard in a long time, and from many different genres. I want to try and document as much of it as possible and share with the world. People need to know what is happening here. 

Do you feel like you are going to focus on documenting a certain genre?
My personal interests lie mostly with indie pop/rock, but that does not mean I am not open to ideas. I collect a lot of music from hip-hop to classical to country. As long as it is something I would have bought in the store, then I would consider putting it out on Fort Lowell Records.

I have explained this to many bands before... deciding what bands I want to release is really no different then buying music in a record shop. The money is extremely limited with Fort Lowell Records, so I honestly can’t release everything I would want to. Imagine if you had $20 to buy new music, but there were over 200 different records you want to purchase. That is the feeling I have with trying to decide what record will come out next.

Fort Lowell Records is run as a non-profit. I personally invested the money to start the project, and I don’t ever intend to take money out. All of the money made from the sales of the 7-inches simply goes back into Fort Lowell Records to continue putting out more and more music. There are a lot of bands from a lot of genres that have asked to work with me that want to release a 7-inch record. It is very simple... the more support we can receive from the community with purchasing our records, the more support Fort Lowell Records will give back to supporting more and more bands. I would love to see this project grow to be able to support different genres of music outside of indie pop/rock. 

What inspired you to start an all-vinyl record label?
I personally only buy music on vinyl, so I honestly can’t imagine releasing music via any other format. We do make all Fort Lowell Records music available through digital distribution, reaching outlets like iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, etc. I understand that there are listeners who prefer collecting music on a digital format, and because there is no cost to us to make this possible for them, we’ve made that available. In addition to the vinyl records, each 7-inch comes with a digital download of the music, so you can listen to your -7inch at home and take the MP3s of the music with you on the go.

For me, vinyl is music and music is vinyl. I’ve been collecting vinyl records since 1994, when I purchased Stereolab’s single “Ping Pong” on 7-inch. I owned the same recording on CD, and when I first heard it on vinyl, it became an entirely new experience. I had owned plenty on vinyl records before that, but never had been able to A/B compare the same song. There was much more of an honest presentation to the music. It was warm, alive, and able to breath on it’s own. I’ve been listening to music on vinyl ever since.

As a musician, I felt my own music deserved the respect that a vinyl record lends to the music. 

It’s nice to see your records are getting into stores all over town. Are you doing a lot of hands on distribution?
When I began Fort Lowell Records, I agonized over getting distribution. This is the main advantage for a band to work with a record label. Because Fort Lowell Records is focused on a single community, Tucson, I felt the only way to handle the distribution within the city was in person.

Building relationships with each vendor is extremely important to me. I want them to feel a part of what we are doing. I love going into Bookman’s on Grant and seeing how excited Scott (Landrum) gets I come in, or watching Tasha (Sabatino) at Mast proudly place the new 7-inch on their record player for their customers to enjoy, or reading the weekly report from Bill (Sassenberger) at Toxic Ranch showing what ranking our records are in his Top 10 Best Sellers report. We’ve extended the love to our neighbors to the north in Phoenix, and they are equally as engaged in what we are doing here in Tucson.   

I notice on your website that you seem to be taking on a lot of extra responsibility in the form of putting on shows and doing grass roots promotion for your bands, whereas a lot of labels don’t seem to be doing that sort of thing. Are you using any labels you are a fan of as a model for this dynamic? 
Teenbeat (Records). In 1999, my wife, Tracy Shedd, and I met Mark Robinson, owner of Teenbeat. He became a fan of her music immediately, and asked to release her music on his label. From that point forward, Mark gave a lot of support to Tracy with her music career, more than simply making her music available to the public. I learned a lot with how to run a record label from her time spent with Teenbeat, and have great admiration for what Mark has done with his label in the past 25 years.

I look to create opportunities for the bands and the record label to simply have fun and share experiences together. At the end of the day, that is why I am doing what I am doing ... to have fun. I certainly don’t want to put all of this effort into Fort Lowell Records just to create work for myself; I want to have fun. I love doing the DJ nights with The Vinyl Baron, where the bands themselves join her at Hotel Congress to DJ their own favorite music the week of their 7-inch release. I am also looking forward to the showcase at Sky Bar on Sept. 25 in Tucson, as well as the one at The Compound on Oct. 2 in Phoenix, where all of our bands will be playing together on the same night.

Mast in Tucson has the new Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd 7inch!

...and the record is not even released yet! Stop on by Mast's store at 299 South Park Avenue and support local music in Tucson! They've got a GREAT selection of vinyl from Tucson musicians!

TRUTH.

"Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium." ~ Henri Matisse

LADIES & GENTLEMEN... FLR004 [Artwork for Dead Western Plains]

COME ON DOWN!

We are all set up down here at Hotel Congress (www.hotelcongress.com)! Come on down and support Tucson. We've got all three of our 7inch records for sale... Young Mothers, ...music video?, and yes... that means that we've got our brand new split 7inch for Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd that is not even released yet! Come down now to pick up a copy before anyone else! We've also got The Rad Bag, hand made by Petite Bonfire (www.petitebonfire.com) specifically for our 7inch records! See you soon!

PRE-ORDER FLR003 NOW!

Pre-order our Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd 7inch now on our WEBSITE + MYSPACE! 
All pre-orders will receive a free CD of Tracy Shedd's last full length album, Cigarettes & Smoke Machines, which was released on Teenbeat in 2008! The candy-red vinyl is so delicious, you are going to want to eat it when it arrives at your doorstep!  Don't forget, all Fort Lowell Records 7inches come with digital downloads so you can take your music with you on the go!


FUN FACT #1: Emily Wilder, singer / guitarist from Wet & Reckless, is the cover star on Tracy Shedd's album, Cigarettes & Smoke Machines!

FUN FACT #2: Wet & Reckless have a production company called Echo Productions Productions.  They made this video for Tracy Shedd's song "City At Night," from her last release, EP88, put out by our dear friends at Eskimo Kiss Records earlier this year!

TEST PRESSING GIVEAWAY! ...SIGNED!

We are excited to let you know that we will be giving away a signed test pressing from each of our first three releases this coming Saturday!

For those of you that don't understand the significance of this... test pressings are the very first run of vinyl pressed from the manufacturer. They are mailed to us to listen to before going into production, to be sure everything is correct with the pressing. For Fort Lowell Records, test pressing are even more significant because they are the only copies of our records that are pressed on black vinyl, making them extremely rare; there are only four copies like these in existence... but only one copy that was been signed by the band, making them uber-rare!

Fort Lowell Records is going to take part in the 4th Annual Vinyl Revival Record Fair on Saturday, September 4th, at Hotel Congress (http://www.hotelcongress.com) in Tucson, AZ. There will be raffle prizes given away during the event, that will include three signed test pressings from Fort Lowell Records... FLR001: Young Mothers, FLR002: ...music video?, and our newest release FLR003: Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd!

In addition to the giveaways, we will also have copies of our Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd Split 7inch (FLR003) for sale, along with Young Mothers and ...music video?! The release date for FLR003 is not until September 28th, so come on down and pick up a copy before the bands get theirs! Once you see the candy red vinyl in person, you won't be able to resist! All Fort Lowell Records 7inches will be on sale for $5.00 each! See you at the show!

EMBRACING THE BLOG

Okay, we've been back and forth between Blogspot, Facebook, and Twitter, trying to figure out what the best site is for us to use to drive our updates.  Our goal is to be able to drive everything via a BlackBerry mobile device, and not have to be stuck behind a computer all of the time... allowing us more time for turning over the 7inch records in our Corporate Offices.  So here we go... this is our official test; typing our original post here on Blogspot, then using TwitterFeed to re-post this same note to Twitter and Facebook.  Let's see how it works.

TUCSON AZ SHOWCASE - SEPTEMBER 25

FORT LOWELL RECORDS SHOWCASE

Saturday, September 25, 2010
Sky Bar, 536 N. 4^th Ave., Tucson, AZ
8 p.m.
Free.

See all five bands from Fort Lowell Records’ four 7inch releases in one place and pick up an early copy of FLR003 before it’s officially released!

7inch-only Fort Lowell Records is throwing a party to celebrate the release of their third 7inch record, a split single featuring Tucson band Tracy Shedd and LA’s Wet & Reckless. Copies of FLR003 will be available for purchase, even though the official release date is September 28.

It’s not just any party--- at the show will be all of the bands who have released music through Fort Lowell Records, including LA’s Wet & Reckless, and Tucson’s Dead Western Plains, who will be on Fort Lowell Records’ fourth 7inch release, due to come out November 23. DJ The Vinyl Baron will be spinning records before the show and between sets.

Admission is free.

LINEUP:
8:00pm: The Vinyl Baron spins records
9:00pm: ...music video?
9:45pm: Dead Western Plains
10:30pm: Young Mothers
11:15pm: Wet & Reckless (from Los Angeles CA)
12:00am: Tracy Shedd

ATTENTION PRESS + RADIO

If you are interested in receiving promotional copies of our 7inch records to use for reviews in magazines, newspapers, internet, etc... or for playback on a radio station or podcast, please contact us directly (fortlowell AT gmail DOT com) to request to be added to our physical mailing list. Because our 7inch records are pressed in limited quantities, we have to reserve this list for those of you that have an interest in what we are doing. If you are interested in Fort Lowell Records, but like working with digital media... no worries, we have a digital mail list as well. Just let us know what your preference is.

We are about to begin our campaign for our third release, a split 7inch for Wet & Reckless and Tracy Shedd, so contact us as early as possible! We look forward to hearing from you soon!

INTRODUCING... THE RAD BAG!

Holy crap, this bag is cool! We are so excited to show you The Rad Bag - our very own bag, custom made by Petite Bonfire just for our 7inch records! These are photographs of the final prototype that has been approved by our Executive Team. Petite Bonfire is going to begin production for The Rad Bag this week. We are hoping to have a few available for the 4th Annual Vinyl Revival Record Fair at Hotel Congress (Tucson AZ) on Saturday, September 4th. In addition, we are going to make The Rad Bag available on our website as part of a package including all of our 7inch records, as well as at other future events for Fort Lowell Records. Seriously, people... this bag is the raddest thing going! It's even got a pocket under the hood for your phone! Be the first one on your block to own The Rad Bag! Stay tuned to our sites for more information on how to get one!

4th ANNUAL VINYL REVIVAL RECORD FAIR

 

Saturday, September 4

Hotel Congress presents...

9am-3pm - Vinyl Revival Record Fair
11am-3pm - Fort Lowell Records Showcase
- Live performances by Tracy Shedd + Young Mothers
- DJ sets by The Vinyl Baron + Fort Lowell Records Executive DJs


It’s that time of year again! Vinyl Revival invites you to join us at Hotel Congress for Tucson’s most exciting record sale! This year’s fair will coincide with Club Congress’ 25th Anniversary Party, Labor Day Weekend. A three day music festival featuring some of the best Tucson bands from the past 25 years, who will rock the stage each night. In it’s fourth year, Vinyl Revival will help us revive some of Tucson’s best music. Vinyl Revival will provide an atmosphere where the serious record collector or novice can have exposure and access to all things vinyl! Come on down and take part in Arizona’s largest independent record fair. We’re sure you’ll find something you love!

Fort Lowell Records, Tucson's latest record label releasing 7inch records for Tucson artists, will have their records from Young Mothers and ...music video? for sale. In addition, this will be a one-time-only chance to purchase their latest release, a split 7inch featuring Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd, that is not available to anyone else until September 28th!!! Come down to the Vinyl Revival to get your copy of FLR003 first! Tracy Shedd will be on hand to play a few live tracks for everyone, along with Young Mothers! Then, resident Fort Lowell Records' DJ, The Vinyl Baron, will be spinning some sweet, sweet vinyl all afternoon long!

To top if off... Fort Lowell Records will have a SIGNED Test Pressing for each of their records (Young Mothers, ...music video?, and the Wet & Reckless + Tracy Shedd Split 7inch) to give away as door prizes! You won't want to miss it!

SPINNING AROUND WITH ...MUSIC VIDEO?

We love this end-cap that Zia Records on Speedway (Tucson AZ) designed for ...music video?'s 7inch Record!

RELEASE DATES... MOVIN' ON UP TO THE EAST SIDE

We are so excited about these next two records coming out for 2010, we decided to move the release dates up so we can get them in your hands sooner!

- WET & RECKLESS + TRACY SHEDD Split 7inch: September 28, 2010
- DEAD WESTERN PLAINS Alta 7inch: November 23, 2010

Consider this an early Holiday Gift from the Executive Team at Fort Lowell Records!
Preorder announcements coming soon!
Enjoy!

INTRODUCING... "THE $7 HOLLER!"

Fort Lowell Records has partnered up with The Vinyl Baron to celebrate the release of each FLR 7inch record. Band members from the 7inch that is being celebrated join The Vinyl Baron at Hotel Congress, in downtown Tucson, AZ, to spin some of their favorite music on vinyl! This always takes place on the Friday night that follows the release date for their 7inch record. This tradition began with Young Mothers, back on April 23, 2010, and will carry on again this coming Friday, July 16th, with ...music video?. J Lugo Miller, from ...music video? will be spinning some soul records, as well as some of the beats he used in various ...music video? recordings, including beats from "I'm Afraid Of Everything," ...music video?'s song featured on their FLR 7inch.

To help celebrate the night, Fort Lowell Records is offering a drink special in honor of 7inch records, called The $7 Holler! For just $7 you can get a FLR 7inch record and a 7-N-7 Mixed Drink (Seagram's 7 Whiskey with 7-Up)! And, if you don't particularly like 7-N-7's, then the fine people at Hotel Congress will be happy to serve you up another type of well drink or beer of the same value. We won't let you go thirsty! Just don't drink and drop (the vinyl)! Stop by the merchandise table to purchase your FLR 7inch and receive a drink ticket you can take to the bar. Otherwise, 7inch records are $5.

Remember, every Friday Night following our release dates, plan to join us with The Vinyl Baron at Hotel Congress! You will get to hang out with the band members and hear them spin some of their favorite vinyl records!

HELP, PLEASE... SOMEONE!

"SHANE, COME BACK SHANE!" or FORT LOWELL RECORDS DOES LOS ANGELES

When the decision was made for Tracy Shedd and Wet & Reckless to do a split 7inch together, everyone involved in the project pretty much agreed that Tracy could take the lead on deciding what the artwork imagery should look like. "Mudhoney's record (ep) Superfuzz Bigmuff," Tracy said to explain what she had in mind. She met with Alaina Brownell, Fort Lowell Records' resident photographer, and decided to stage an environment of girls dancing and host a party for a photo shoot for Alaina to capture. Being that Wet & Reckless is an all girl band, and the Fort Lowell Records Executive Team is (or seems to be shaping up to be) also made up of girls, a plan was set in place for the the executives from Tucson (Tracy; Alaina; Design Consultant. Loreto Echevarria; and El Patron, James Tritten) to take a road trip out to Los Angeles to meet up with Wet & Reckless for such an event to take place.

Friday, April 30th - James Tritten's sister, Kim Tauch's, birthday
Everyone was extremely anxious to get on the road to Los Angeles. From Tucson, Los Angeles is about an 8-hour ride, with not a great amount of scenery to keep one's level of alertness in check. However, with two of the three girls equipped with iPhones, there would be plenty of excitement generated from online Madlibs and eBay shopping. The plan was for everyone to get off work a little earlier than BEER:30 so we could be on the road in time to arrive by midnight in Los Angeles (Do the math... 4:00 pm).

Successfully, Team Tucson gathered everything together and was on their way across town. While stopping for gas, Loreto asked James if he could take a "mechanic's look" at the tires on her truck before they got on the road. "Everything seems normal, except your back left tire looks like it could be a little low," James said. Loreto stated she wanted to get on the road and perhaps at the next fill up they would add a bit of air. Happy-go-lucky and with snacks in hand, the crew made their way onto to the ol' I-10 corridor and headed west.

No sooner than passing the town of Marana about 20 minutes north of Tucson, Loreto reported her truck to be pulling a bit to the left. Everyone agreed it must be the road and asked Loreto to change lanes to see if it would be more level. Just as she pulled over to the right, getting into the middle lane... "POW!" goes one of the tires! Now, take a good guess at which one you think it was. Loreto screamed for her life, "The breaks aren't working! The breaks aren't working!" As if she had flown MiG fighter-jets shot down in Nam and successfully survived crash landings multiple times, Loreto steered her Volvo SUV (yep, that's how we roll) two more lanes to the right, then to the shoulder of the highway, all while her back left tire disintegrated away. She was able to coast the Volvo to a safe stopping point.

The tread of the tire was completed separated from the side walls and wheel. Alaina pointed out, "Look at all the liquid on the ground from the tire melting away!" Unfortunately, that was not "liquid tire"; it was brake fluid. When the tire broke apart, it crossed the brake line and snapped it completely off the caliper. Fortunately, James grew up with two fathers that instilled a great amount of respect for the importance to "be prepared." Like any good Boy Scout, James had brought his entire tool box from home, packed with nuts and bolts and washers and "manly accessories." Within minutes the spare tire was on the axle and the brake line had been MacGyver'ed tight with manly accessories to stop the bleeding.

Team Fort Lowell knew they had to turn around and head back to Tucson. The spare tire and hose clamp were not going to hold up for the 48 hour adventure that these cadets were about to embark on. In fact, it was questionable whether or not the journey would (or should) continue from this point. They were able to drive to the closest PepBoys to discuss matters further with Hippe (pronounced HIP-pee), a fine young mechanic that was hanging on to every moment he could spend with the young, professional, executive ladies. Hippe wanted to help in any way possible, but was simply unequipped. He did approve of the craftsmanship that James applied to the broken brake line, so the team decide to move the Volvo across town to a repair shop closer to Loreto's home.

Loreto's husband, Captain Kane-Man (aka Mr. Flint), came to the rescue, meeting the ladies and gent on the Westside to escort them across town to the Eastside PepBoys, ensuring their safe arrival. Kane, the true hero in this story, decided to offer his own vehicle to the project for the weekend so that everyone could get back on the road and see to it that these photographs would be taken. It was an extremely noble gesture and greatly appreciated. The team left the Volvo with the new mechanic, made a pit stop by Casa de Echevarria for additional accessories, then delivered Kane to his own temporary replacement vehicle for the weekend (Captain Kane-Man's gotta have wheels to get around town and rescue others, you know).

Loreto (from here forward referred to Lolo) was beat. She had been driving the Volvo up until this point and was simply exhausted from all of the excitement. James had taken the wheel of their new Jeep, and they were now headed west, crossing back through Tucson (hopefully) one last time. The positive energy for the team was being revived. Kane's dedication and support made everyone believe in the purpose of the trip again and find the motivation to carry on.

Driving on Ina Road, past Oracle, there seemed to be a construction zone on the road approaching. Casually following the neon glow of the the directional signs, all of a sudden the Jeep had been re-routed north onto a dark, twisting road that was jammed with traffic due to the 25-mph speed limit and incompetent drivers. The drive had already seemed endless, and none of the West-side cross roads looked familiar to the East-Tucson posse. It was as if Tucson was crying out, "Fort Lowell! Come back, Fort Lowell!" Tucson simply did not want this group to leave.

Pressing on, the Jeep was eventually able to make it past the point the Volvo did not. Excitement was shared between Tracy, Lolo, Alaina, and James in their new 48-hour-home, followed by a moment of silence that was fueled from the shear exhaustion from the past 5 hours. Then, Alaina began to laugh... hysterically, and uncontrollably. She had taken a look at the clock and it read "10:00pm." The young executives had just left Tucson for the second time, and the reality of their departure had just hit Alaina. It became infectious. The entire group began laughing out loud, and subconsciously crying on the inside without tears showing on their faces. Everyone knew that it was a crazy idea, but everyone remained optimistic and felt the sacrifice of sanity for the love of art would be worth it in the end. This is the dedication the executives of Fort Lowell Records give to each project and each other. This is what rock-n-roll is all about.


Saturday, May 1st - "May Day, May Day, May Day!"
For the past 15 years, James had been on many tours around the country, driving many late-night-after-concert-shifts lasting from 6 hours to 14 hours, so the idea of an 8 hour overnight drive from Tucson to Los Angeles seemed very realistic and possibly fun in some ways. Lolo's role with Fort Lowell Records has been to be a supportive energy in any way needed for any projects, and this was clearly demonstrated with this overnight drive. She stayed up the entire time keeping everyone's optimism in check, and James' alertness to the road focused, ...with the assistance of a healthy dose of Cool Ranch Doritos and two Starbucks Double Shots (standard issues for James and overnight driving). The team did have to pass up the Massage Parlor at the one stop they made for gas, and pressed on to arrive in Los Angeles a little after 5:00 am.

Emily and Deanna from Wet & Reckless, and Gimpy and Puppy, Deanna's cute dogs, greeted everyone upon arrival. Whitney, newly appointed lead guitarist for Wet & Reckless, remained asleep on the coach. Team Tucson did everything to be as quiet as possible, but sleeping on the hardwood floors did not seem as inviting as sleeping on blow-up mattresses, despite the Boeing engine-like noise they would make to inflate. Lolo and Alaina did their best to settle in the living room, while James and Tracy attempted to make their mattress inflate between the kitchen sink, oven, refrigerator and garbage cans. No one cared about the arrangement at this point. They simply wanted that bird outside singing beautifully to his mate to die, and the sun to take a detour north, east, or south... any direction but west.

With a few hours of trying to sleep, everyone began to rise around 11:00am. Discussions about taking a walk to get coffee were underway. The idea of starting this day, regardless of the lack of proper rest, just seemed like the right idea (but perhaps should have been re-analyzed). Deanna's house sits on top of one of the steepest streets in the world, Baxter Street in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Driving in at 5:00 am provided a beautiful view of their city. However, not considering this at 11:00am for the walk to go get coffee proved to be an work-out that Team Tucson (a city where most of the residential area resides in the flat area between mountains and hills) was not prepared for.

The local coffee was great, and the company was even better. Everyone took time getting to know each other and take in the beautiful neighborhood of Echo Park. Emily and Whitney headed out to the studio for the day for Wet & Reckless to begin recording what will become their track for the Fort Lowell Records Split 7inch with Tracy Shedd. Deanna took James down to Origami Vinyl in Echo Park to meet with Sean (co-owner) and drop off some records to carry in the store. Lolo unfortunately had to learn a bit more about the damage to her Volvo, something that ended up being not just a simple drop-off-at-the-mechanic-for-the-morning kind of repair. Everyone else embraced the clean water of Los Angeles and took l o n g e r - t h a n - n o r m a l showers to try and re-start their day off on a better (or at least more clean) note.

Team Tucson decided to head out to Santa Monica Pier and stick their dry desert skin in the frigid Pacific Coast water. With the recently discovered Hipstamatic iPhone App and Alaina's truly impressive professional cameras, the kids from Tucson enjoyed an afternoon taking photographs of each other, drinking beer with olive juice (trust us, try it!), and already beginning to miss their loved ones they had just left behind nearly 24 hours ago. The original plan, if they had arrived in Los Angeles on time, was for Lolo and Alaina to drop off Tracy and James at Deanna's house and go visit with Kelly Flint, Lolo's sister in-law/Kane's sister. They would have been able to spend some time with Lolo's family on Saturday and then meet up with everyone else later in the day. The trip to the Santa Monica Pier was simply something to make the best of the time now allotted to the project due to the situation, and it proved to be a fun, relaxing afternoon, soaking in the California sun--- possibly the highlight of the trip.

Everyone met back up at Casa de Wet & Reckless around 9:00pm. Team Los Angeles began cleaning the house and getting ready to get their groove on, while Team Tucson, who had never really gotten over the stresses of the Volvo experience, and who were malnourished and exhausted from a lack of sleep, did their best to pull themselves together to try and make something work. Lolo opted to take a nap in the Jeep to try and recharge her batteries. As the party slowly began to get started Alaina looked for any opportunity to document imagery for possible usage, but all creative juices were left behind on the road with the tire tread from the Volvo the night before.

More and more friends began to arrive as the night went on, and everyone did their best to pull together what may still become the cover art to FLR003, the third release for Fort Lowell Records. No one will truly know the outcome until Alaina is able to develop the film from this adventure. There were a few magical moments of group splits on the wood floor and Fred-Astaire-and-Ginger-Rogers-like dancing moves that very well could work out to be what everyone was hoping for.

The party carried on in the neighborhood of Echo Park, as the night progressed. Lolo and Alaina decided they were not going to be able to pull another all-nighter, so they decided to take a trip down to Long Beach, CA, to meet up with Kelly and try to get a decent night's rest before having to make the drive back to Tucson the next day. Kelly was able to give directions to Lolo just before her phone battery died. Unfortunately, James had all of the electronic gadgets with him back at Deanna's house that could have allowed for Lolo to re-charge her phone if needed. The girls followed Kelly's directions to a T, not knowing that her instruction to exit the 710 on Cherry Street was not a possible direction to take.

They circled around the Los Angeles area, trying to figure out how Cherry Street intersected with the 710. Meanwhile, Kelly had been trying to contact Lolo to let her know about her mistake, but was unable to do so because of the dead phone. As minutes turned to hours, the night became an endless whirlwind that seemed to have no end. Lolo and Alaina found themselves in South Central Los Angeles, and every convenience store seemed to know that Cherry Street was in Long Beach but had no clue how to direct them where they needed to go.

Finally, a clerk at one of the stores offered to look up directions for them online. In order for Lolo to give the clerk Kelly's address to look up, she had to get the information off of her phone. Lolo found a power outlet on the outside of the convenience store. As any iPhone owner could tell you, you can't just plug in a dead iPhone and expect to use it immediately; you've got to wait a good couple of minutes for it to breath again before it is able to come back to life. So Lolo stood there, bent over due to the low height of the outlet and short length of the power cable, for a number of minutes before her lil' co-pilot came back to life.

Once Lolo was able to connect, they gave the address to the clerk immediately to pull up directions while Lolo reached out to Kelly to let her know what had been going on. Everything seemed to finally be coming together. As Lolo was about to stand up and step back to ease her body from being cramped over, Alaina shouted, "Don't move!" It was dark this time of the morning, and where the power outlet was located on the building, no illumination was provided. Apparently Lolo had been squatting in a fresh puddle of someone's puke, and was about to take a step back into more of it.

Breaking loose of all possible emotions, the two girls grabbed the directions from the clerk, cleaned themselves off as best as possible, and arrived at Kelly's faster than an ol' 78-rpm record would shatter on a concrete floor. Kelly and her fiance Ron were waiting for Lolo and Alaina with open arms, shots of Vodka, and a nice comfy bed to put an end to their day. Lolo reached out to James to let him know that they were not going to be meeting up for brunch in the morning, and instead they would simply call them in the afternoon when they were ready to wake up and head back to Tucson. The two Tucsonans had had their share of fun in Los Angeles and were more than ready to head back to the desert.

Meanwhile, back at Casa de Wet & Reckless... the party and photo shoot continued on. Everyone had been having so much fun posing for Alaina's camera earlier, other cameras made their way out of pockets and flashes kept going off throughout the party. Everyone danced until the wee hours of the morning, and Lolo and Alaina were certainly missed by all. The favorite pose of the night seemed to be the group "splits," in honor of the "split 7inch" release for Wet & Reckless and Tracy Shedd. A highlight from the night was when Felix, manager for ...music video? (the second band to release a 7inch with Fort Lowell Records), decided to play a track from ...music video?'s new album coming out later this year, and everyone in the party began asking with excitement, "Who is this?!" Felix turned to James as said, "See! This is what happens every time I play ...music video?!" It was a beautiful gathering for friends of old and new, and something that will always be remembered when the split 7inch is released later in 2010.

Sunday, May 2nd - "Where am I?"

Lolo and Alaina in Long Beach and Tracy and James in Echo Park both managed to get to bed around 5:00am. However, Tracy and James had already made plans to meet up with long time friend Mendy Pound and her fiance, Gabriel Vidauri, at 11:00am for brunch. This left them with only about 5 hours of sleep to re-coup from the previous 36 hours of fun in the California sun. Emily had given Tracy and James her own bed to sleep in so they did not have to try and squeeze their blow-up mattress in the kitchen again. As James began to wake up this Sunday morning, he though to himself, "Ahhhh... it feels so nice to sleep in my own bed!" For a brief moment, he honestly had thought that everything up to this point had been a dream and that he was still in Tucson, AZ.

The morning plans carried out as expected. It was a sad good-bye for such a short trip with Wet & Reckless. Brunch with Mendy and Gabriel was extremely pleasant and a nice way to conclude the adventure in Los Angeles for Tracy and James. Lolo and Alaina had their own enjoyable experience with Lolo's family. They were able to sleep in to gain enough energy to make the hike back to Tucson, and share some quality time catching up with Kelly and her fiance Ron. In the early afternoon, the four executives from Fort Lowell Records met back up and set their compasses for Tucson.

Fortunately, the drive home would prove to be not as exciting as the drive to Los Angeles. Lolo knew that James still had yet to have a complete 8 hours of sleep, so she offer to take the lead on driving home, which she ended up managing the entire drive rather than just the first part. The Jeep continued to hold up to its end of the bargain, and had truly become home for these four explorers. There was a great sense of comfort being back in the Jeep, knowing that when it would conclude its journey in 8 hours, it will have taken them home.

There was also a great sense of success, accomplishment, and pride. The team did not lot let anything stand in their way. They had a mission and gave everything that had to try and complete what they had set out to do. Success is not found in the end result of something, rather during the process of doing something; success is the act of doing. The executives will not be successful when they find a photograph to use for the cover art... rather, they are already successful because they had an idea to do something and never gave up. That is what life is all about, as well as what Fort Lowell Records is all about.

It is too often that ideas are simply left on the table, or perhaps never even make it to the table and are left in one's head. Ideas need to be carried through so that life can be lived. This is how you grow. This is why we exist. Our fearless cast of characters learned a lot about themselves and each other from this experience, and grew in more ways than they could have imagined. But what is most important is that Fort Lowell Records continues to grow as a family, and that art, expression, and creativity is given the opportunity to exist.

We truly appreciate all of the time and energy that was given toward this project, and look forward to many more exciting adventures for many more years to come!

- Fort Lowell Records