Dec 14

Alive Records

ALIVE RECORDS
 
 
Alive Naturalsound Records (also known simply as Alive Records) started in 1994 in Los Angeles, California, by Patrick Boissel, is an independent record label specializing in garage rock, punk blues, garage punk, psychedelic rock, power pop and blues rock music.  It grew out of Boissel’s association with the US label Bomp! Records.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
It wasn't until 2008 that a proper retrospective album for the Nerves came out, called One Way Ticket – on the Bomp-affiliated Alive Records label – that includes their recorded output as well as some additional related tracks, plus seven nice live tracks from a 1977 show.
 
In 2009, tapes resurfaced of their early sessions that the Breakaways hadn’t even remembered that they had made, and Alive Records also put together a CD for this group called Walking out on Love: The Lost Sessions.  Together with the Nerves CD, this album is being offered in a specially priced package with a brand new Alive CD of the Plimsouls at the top of their game playing live at the Whisky a Go Go in October 1981, called Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal.  Highly recommended.  Check it out at the Bomp! mailorder site: www.bompstore.com/breakaways-nerves-related-powerpop-walking-out-on-love-the-lost-sessions-cd/.
 
(April 2010)
 
*       *       *
 
After a few false starts, the Poppees were signed by Greg Shaw as the first new band for Bomp! Records – Bomp is still going strong, issuing the Poppees anthology album this year among other great records, and has several allied labels, such as AIP, Alive, Total Energy, etc.
 
(December 2010)
 
*       *       *
 
Hacienda has two albums on Alive Records to their credit, Loud is the Night (2008) and Big Red and Barbacoa (2010). 
 
(January 2011)
 
*       *       *
 
The 2008 album that I have, called simply Ron Franklin and released (where else) on one of the Bomp! labels (Alive), is actually Ron Franklin’s third album, and Allmusic gives it four stars. The recording quality is very clean (this is one of those albums where I own both an LP and a CD – not on purpose, but that is how it worked out). 
 
(January 2012)
 
*       *       *
 
The album I have by Thomas Anderson, Moon Going Down was released on Marilyn Records; the label predates Patrick Boissel’s better known, Bomp! Records-affiliated Alive Records.   
 
(November 2012)
  
*       *       *
 
Like any record company, Bomp! Records doesn't always sell a lot of copies of every album they release.  On their mailorder website and on the emails that I get periodically from them (three or four a week at least), they often have sales.  Sometimes it is 10% or 15% off your whole order, or a special price if you get all of the LP’s or CD’s by one of their artists, or package prices on groups of related CD’s, or book/magazine combinations – you get the idea.  They also have “punk” or “power pop” or “garage” albums in groups of 5 or 10 that you can buy for a low price – sometimes it is their choice of the albums for a really cheap price, and sometimes you can pick out any 5 that you want from, say, the Alive label for an attractive but not all that cheap price.  Over the years, I have ordered a lot of music from them that way – basically I am a sucker for a sale anyway, in a supermarket or a department store or a shoe store, you name it. 
 
Not all that long ago, Bomp started a promotion called “Come Fail with Us”, where they had special prices on CD’s and LP’s that “stiffed”, as they say in the record biz.  It was apparently real popular – because the sets are still available.  Later on, they started pricing CD’s you could choose from a really long list that were priced at $2 or $3 each.  (The Invisible Eyes is still listed for sale on the $3 list).  I ordered a whole lot of them, but because I had been in an LP-playing mode pretty much all year and most of the previous year, there they sat on my shelf, still sealed up in plastic. 
 
(December 2012)
 
*       *       *
 
 
 
So now we have come full circle:   The garage rock movement that had been churning along below the radar for close to 40 years broke out into the larger world as the Garage Rock Revival for a few years in the early 2000’s.  One of the CD’s that I unwrapped recently was one of those sale-priced Bomp! CD’s that I’d been ordering over the past year or so, because it was on their Alive label.  It was entitled, boringly enough, The Sound of San Francisco; it was a collection from 2003 of songs from brand new bands in the San Francisco Bay Area.  However, the music on The Sound of San Francisco is anything but boring:  one great band after another that started with that raw garage-rock sound, but each working hard in their own style. 
 
I would view this 2003 album as documenting one of the first wave of bands that were directly influenced by the Garage Rock Revival. 
 
*       *       *
 
The king of all of the new garage-y bands is probably the blues-rock duo the Black Keys (sometimes viewed as a sort of twin of the White Stripes) whose debut album, The Big Come-Up came out in 2002 and is the largest selling album that the Bomp! family of record labels has ever had – Alive Records in this case.  
 
(January 2013)
 
*       *       *
 

 

 

(New full-length album by Hollis Brown, this month’s Under-Appreciated Rock Band, released on March 5, 2013 on Alive Records) 

 

One name that has come up repeatedly in these 40-odd posts is Greg Shaw, a widely respected music historian and the founder of Bomp! Records – which also includes the labels AIP Records, Voxx Records, Total Energy Records, and Alive Naturalsound Records (usually just called Alive Records) – and their associated Bomp! mailorder music service.  It would not surprise me at all if I haven’t mentioned Greg Shaw in a third of these UARB articles.  In addition, more than a few of the Under-Appreciated Rock Bands have released albums or EP’s on one of the Bomp!-affiliated labels.  If I also included the albums on non-Bomp labels that I ordered through the Bomp! mailorder service, close to half of the UARB’s and UARA’s would likely have a Bomp! connection. 

 

*       *       *

 

Many of the seminal bands in these rock movements released albums on the Bomp!, Voxx, Alive or Total Energy labels; most of them are not household names by any means, but they are recognized by those in the know as being important bands that shaped the history of rock and roll.  Some of these better-known bands and artists are the Romantics, the Modern Lovers, the Dead Boys (and Stiv Bators individually), the Plimsouls (and Peter Case individually), the Beat (and Paul Collins individually), the Stooges (and Iggy Pop individually), Devo, Nikki Sudden, the Black Keys, and Soledad Brothers. 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

(Retrospective album of the Breakaways, the UARB for April 2010, released on November 10, 2009 on Alive Records) 

 

*       *       *

 

Greg Shaw died too young in 2004, but his legacy lives on to this day.  Greg Shaw and his wife Suzy Shaw eventually divorced, but she and her current husband Patrick Boissel continue to operate Bomp! Records.  Boissel is actually the founder of their most active label, Alive Records and previously operated Marilyn Records in the 1990’s.  Bomp! Records celebrates its 40th anniversary next year and advertises itself as the oldest independent record company in the nation. 

 

*       *       * 

 

 

 

(Second album by the UARB for January 2011, Hacienda, released on April 6, 2010 by Alive Records) 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

(Third album by the UARA for January 2012, Ron Franklin, released on March 11, 2008 on Alive Records) 

 

*       *       *

 

 

 

(Debut album by the UARB for January 2011, Hacienda, released on September 16, 2008 by Alive Records)  

 

*       *       *

 

The bandmembers in Hollis Brown are native New Yorkers and originally included Mike Montali (vocals and guitar), Jon Bonilla (guitar), Mike Wosczyk (bass), and Mike Graves (drums and percussion).  Their first release is an eponymous album, Hollis Brown that came out on Vibe Theory Records at the beginning of 2009.  In 2012, the band released a couple of singles and an EP, Nothing and the Famous No One; and then their new album, Ride on the Train (with Dillon Devito replacing Mike Wosczyk on bass) was released on Alive Records this year.  For some odd reason, I have seen every all three of these records described as their “debut” album. 

 

The promotional material on the band by Alive Records lays out their basic template:  “Taking cues from classic pop, rock ’n’ roll, and Americana, Hollis Brown combines raw rock sensibilities with sweet melodies and heartfelt lyrics to create a rich, warm sound that can fill any room. . . .  You’d be hard-pressed to find a Beatles song these boys don’t know by heart, and you can hear it in the music.  Classic rock with a New York state of mind, Hollis Brown is a throwback to an era when music felt fresh, songwriting was revered, and performances routinely inspired.” 

 

(May 2013)

 

*       *       *

 

I have been collecting Pebbles albums for around 30 years and have also purchased many, many other albums that have come out on Greg Shaw’s record labels:  Bomp, Voxx, AIP, Total Energy, and Alive.  There have also been several compilation albums that have collected highlights from Bomp! Records releases over the previous several years, and I have most of those as well.  One of the most comprehensive is Destination: Bomp!, a two-CD set that is subtitled “The Best of Bomp! Records’ First 20 Years”.  Bomp celebrates its 40th anniversary next year. 

 

(September 2013)

 

*       *       *

 

Boyskout initially put out a single on clear vinyl in 2003 on Isota Records, “Secrets” b/w “Pictures from the Moon”.  Their music caught the attention of the Bomp! Records label Alive Records, which included two Boyskout songs on their compilation album, The Sound of San Francisco.  The two songs were “Secrets” and “School of Etiquette” – of these three early songs, only “Secrets” is on the Alive CD, even though the name of the CD is School of Etiquette.

 

The debut album by Boyskout, School of Etiquette came out on Alive Records in January 2004.  Mark Jenkins with the Washington Post has written of this album:  “If some CBGB’s Frankenstein had managed, circa 1977, to transplant Patti Smith’s sensibility into Blondie’s garage-band pop, the result would have sounded something like BoySkout’s School of Etiquette.  Outfitted in such New Wavey accessories as sneakers and skinny ties, this lesbian-rock quartet revives such Smithian motifs as drowning and the erotic appeal of outlaws, but with girl-group bounce.  School of Etiquette may not be genteel, but it is impeccably arranged.” 

  

(January 2014)

 

*       *       *

 

These are the first two albums by Hacienda on Alive Records that I have: 

 

 

 

 

 

(February 2014)

 

*       *       *

 

Big Midnight also has released only one album, Everything for the First Time, which came out on Alive Records in 2003.  

 

(June 2014)

 

*       *       *

 

It is hard for me to pick out favorite songs on these albums; it is such fun just sitting back and listening to all the places that Brian Olive takes the listener.  I will single out “Back Sliding Soul” as a particular favorite; this song is featured on the Alive Records compilation album, Where is Parker Griggs?. 

 

*       *       *

 

I have the last two albums by Soledad Brothers:  Voice of Treason (2004) on Sanctuary Records and The Hardest Walk (2006) on Alive Records.  The Alive CD has an enlargement of their drumhead on the back cover, with the band name, the Black Panther Party logo (a panther naturally), and a slogan in Latin:  “Libertas Unitas Fraternitas”.  The meaning is “liberty, unity, brotherhood” and is similar to the slogan of the French Revolution – Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) – that remains the National Motto of France.   

 

*       *       *

 

Brian Olive regained his name and sought to be in a band where he was the one calling the shots; that normally means a solo career.  His debut album, Brian Olive came out in 2009 on Alive Records (the same label as the last album by Soledad Brothers).  Brian Olive provides lead vocals and plays guitar, piano and woodwinds.  Backing musicians include his old friends Jared McKinney and Craig Fox of the Greenhornes, Mike Weinel (formerly of Heartless Bastards), and Dan Allaire, who has been the drummer for the Brian Jonestown Massacre since 2002.  Also there was a vocal trio assembled for the sessions composed of the Kadish Sisters and Donna Jay. 

 

Brian Olive was one of several Alive Records artists who performed at the Deep Blues Festival in June-July 2012 in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  A CD called Alive at the Deep Blues Fest includes two of his songs, “Traveling” and “Bonelle” (both on his second album, Two of Everything).  

 

(February 2015)

 

*       *       *

 

In the mid-1990’s, Patrick Boissel moved to Los Angeles in order to work for Bomp! Records.  Right away he formed his own label called Alive Naturalsound Records (usually shortened to Alive Records).  He and Suzy Shaw married, and they now run the Bomp! empire together.  

 

*       *       *

 

More generous praise can be found in the Wikipedia article.  Reviewing a 1984 Certain General show at New York’s Pyramid club, the UK-based New Musical Express called the band “New York’s answer to [Echo and] the Bunnymen with a few [Jim] Morrison tendencies thrown in” [but with] “plenty of individuality and a lead singer full of passionate presence — agonized lyrics torn from twitching limbs.”  The review concluded by observing that Certain General was “almost psychedelic in their unfettered spirit.”  Bomp! Records – whose affiliated label Alive Records reissued November’s Heat in America in 1999 – has called them “NYC’s 80's cult favorite”, while Rock & Folk identified Certain General as “the bridge between Television and Radiohead.”  

 

Here follows a reprint of the Trouser Press Record Guide (4th Edition) listing for the SourMash family of bands.  Though slightly garbled, it presents a fairly accurate overview of our thing in the 1980’s.

Steve G.  

 

CERTAIN GENERAL  

Holiday of Love EP (Labor) 1982 

November’s Heat (Fr. L’Invitation au Suicide) 1984 

     Reissued w/ bonus tracks (Fr. New Rose) 1990; (Alive) 1999; (Fr. Fantastica) 2002 

These are the Days (Fr. New Rose) 1986 

     Reissued w/ bonus tracks (Fr. Fantastica 1999) 

Cabin Fever (Fr. Barclay) 1988 

Jacklighter (Fr. Barclay) 1990 

Signals from the Source (CBGB) 1999 

Closer to the Sun (Fr. Fantastica) 2000 

Live at the Public Theater (Fantastica US) 2001 

An Introduction to War (SourMash USA) 2002 

Invisible New York (Easy Action UK) 2008 

 

(March 2015)

 

*       *       *

 

The years are sure flying by; it seems like I just wrote the article about this Alive Records artist.  Normally I talk about new bands in January, but I liked these guys so much that I brought ’em in early.  The message of appreciation by Hollis Brown for my picking them as a UARB comes up highest of any of my stuff on a Google search.  

 

(May 2015)

 

*       *       *

 

While I sometimes stumble onto them in record stores, mostly I order albums by new bands through the Bomp! mailorder service; and more often than not, they were released by Bomp! Records, Alive Records, or one of their other affiliates. When I discovered the Pebbles Series of 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock in the late 1970’s, I began buying other compilation albums of this kind of music; but I quickly found that I enjoy Pebbles albums more than almost all of the others. In short, I figured out that Bomp! mastermind Greg Shaw has basically the same taste in music that I have. 
* * *
Bomp! Records would qualify as a mostly underground record label in their early decades; but with the May 2002 release on Alive Records of The Big Come-Up, the debut album by the Black Keys, their artists have a higher profile these days. Not surprisingly, Alive Records has made several special reissues of their hit album, such as the above copy that was released on gorgeous hand-mixed colored vinyl. 
After making a six-song demo and sending it to a dozen or so record labels, the Black Keys signed with Alive Records, since they were “the only label that would sign [them] without having to see [them] first” (according to Wikipedia). Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded the entirety of The Big Come-Up on an 8-track tape recorder in Carney’s basement, accentuating their raw blues rock sound. They released one single from the album on Isota Records, the blues standard “Leavin’ Trunk” backed with their cover of the Beatles song, “She Said, She Said”. At a later date, another track from their debut album, “I’ll Be Your Man” was used as the theme song for the HBO series Hung.  
(June 2017)
* * *
There are plenty of rock bands out there that do not have a Wikipedia article yet, and I already have the LP or CD in hand.  I alphabetized my CD’s a year or so back, and picking a row almost at random, here are some potential future UARB’s and UARA’s:  King Richard and the Knights (a wonderful 1960’s garage rock band from Albuquerque that actually I was pretty sure had a Wikipedia article, though I can’t seem to find it now), Level with the Ground (a local band that came along about the same time as 3 Doors Down – as with Schattenfreiheit though, a German duo who put out a self-published album that is among my all-time favorites, they are too obscure to make the UARB list), Looters (I have written about them before but had not realized they were a potential UARB – an inventive world-music band that, unaccountably, was a favorite of many Bay Area punk rock bands, including Dead Kennedys), the Love Drunks (an Alive Records punk rock band, with quite affected vocal stylings), and Martin (how could I resist that one?  His full name is Martin Kember).  That is actually a pretty good list of potential UARB’s and UARA’s; I will have to do this more often! 
 
(Year 8 Review)
* * *
 
I might yet write some more posts, but not until I secure my website in a safe place. No other bands or topics come immediately to mind though. I have already written 13 “stories” about various aspects of Bob Dylan’s musical life, and I don’t know what else I have left to add. As it turned out, a lot of my posts have revolved around artists on Bomp! Records and their affiliated labels, like Alive Records. When I was preparing the last of my posts, on The Iguana Chronicles (a long series of albums of unreleased material by the Stooges that was put together by Greg Shaw of Bomp! Records) – which was named after the least likely UARB of them all, the Iguanas – I went through all of the Bomp! Records artists that I could locate before I finally found one without a Wikipedia article that wasn’t already a UARB: SS-20, whose first album came out in 1986 – 12 years after Bomp! Records was founded.
 
(Year 10 Review)
Last edited: March 22, 2021