JABS 2021 mix now available

includes the songs I liked the most from 2021, the most crucial reissues, and a few connections to in-progress projects for JABS please click HERE to stream/download

A 24-page zine with writing about all 23 songs selected for this mix is included with all orders placed at JABS until copies run out. Alternately, send your mailing address to jabsrecords@gmail.com and I will send you a copy.

Review of MODESSA – 7″ from Freak No-Hitter, Nov/Dec 2020 issue

ITSOFOMO performance by Ben Neill and Don Yallech from 1993

ITSOFOMO, the defiant, tender, and visceral collaboration between David Wojnarowicz and Ben Neill premiered in 1989, at the Kitchen in New York City. It’s a dense, unnerving work, overwhelming the audience’s senses with a staccato, four-channel video, Wojnarowicz’s damning monologues, Neill’s fearless composition, and warlike percussion—all shot through with the pressure of inescapable speed. After its premiere, ITSOFOMO was subsequently performed at the Walker Art Center, The Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, San Francisco Art Institute, Hallwalls, Buffalo, and Exit Art, New York. In 1991, just 16 months before Wojnarowicz’s death from AIDS, the pair recorded ITSOFOMO, one of the final creative projects completed before the artist died at the age of 37.

In 1993, Neill performed ITSOFOMO alongside percussionist Don Yallech at the Bang on a Can music festival, using recordings of Wojnarowicz’s voice. This was the first public performance of ITSOFOMO after Wojnarowicz’s death. The Bang on a Can festival has made video of the entire performance available on their website, click HERE to view.

YOUNGER LOVERS MIX TAPE

The Younger Lovers mix tape has songs from the new “San Pedro Sessions” 7″ plus interviews with Brontez and Kid Kevin plus songs by their other bands plus songs by their favorite bands! Listen/download HERE

If you click on any of the JABS releases and scroll to the bottom of the page there is a link to a separate page listing the complete production costs for that record. I have been thinking about this since the label started, all of the different ways this information might be useful, but especially in the wake of Donut Friend firing employees for working to organize a union I’m reminded of the hazy economics of “punk businesses” and I believe that making this information available is an ethical responsibility, or the beginning of a path to one.

Glassworks Coffee interview with AZITA

I actually just got the Scissor Girls Demo LP. I think it turned out really well.

Yeah, it’s pretty. I haven’t heard it yet, but it looks nice. I mean, I can’t really listen to my old stuff. But I realized that everything on that, I think it’s like 7 things, that’s the exact first time I wrote any songs. I never once even tried writing before those songs.

Oh wow!

I know! It’s so weird, because I never thought about that this whole time, but that’s why it’s hard to listen to?

If you haven’t listened to it yet, you may not realize this, but it’s a 45 rpm record, and I don’t think it says that anywhere on the labels.

Oh my god, I did not know that! Wow, I guess that makes sense.

I threw it on and was like “Man, it’s been ages since I listened to the Scissor Girls, but I don’t remember this groove they’ve got goin’ on…” and then your vocals came in and I realized the issue. That said, it’s still a great listen!

It all makes sense now.

I know the label that put it out had some delays due to printing issues with the jackets, but the guy Ethan was super responsive and cool about the whole thing. 

Right, right. They did have some printing issues. I got to know him because of this, but Dan Koretzky had put him in touch with me and was vouching for him. So yeah, he was very cool to deal with in every way. He wrote me an email explaining the printing problems they had. Someone had posted about the delay on my Facebook, and another person commented saying they saw pictures of the bad covers and that they looked terrible, so I’m glad he redid them. Then, what I saw what the finished ones really look like, I just thought they look amazing. To me, since I have the cassette that was scanned, obviously, it looks exactly like the cassette sitting in the middle of this black field because of the spot varnish. It’s just the exact cassette cover. It’s cool.

Glassworks Coffee of Chicago, Illinois posted a great interview with Azita Youssefi about making music which includes a long history of the Scissor Girls, and some specific details about JABS 04 – The Scissor Girls LP which reproduces their 1992 demo cassette on vinyl for the first time. Apologies to anyone who’s been confused by the record playing at 45 RPM!

To read the whole article, click HERE

Modessa 7″ now available

Modessa was short-lived band with Helen White (Petty Crime), Amy Heneveld (Meltdown) and Ethan Swan (Emergency) inspired in part by the spectral coolness of Quix*o*tic and the insistence of the faster Raincoats songs but mostly influenced by each other’s bands. This 7″ has been “coming soon!” for 20 years? Excited that it’s finally out. All songs written, recorded, and performed live in a two-week span of time in Portland, 1999. For more info/ordering, click HERE

Scissor Girls LP out December 4

Happy to announce that the next release on JABS will be ‘The Scissor Girls’ a vinyl pressing of The Scissor Girls handmade demo tape, from 1992. This LP represents nearly two years of work, and incredible efforts by the members of the band, Bob Weston, Elliot Dicks, and Fred Thomas to make these songs available once again. Azita was able to find the DAT master, produced by Elliott Dicks in 1992, and after being transferred were remastered for vinyl and pressed at RTI. Full color cover with spot varnish details, printed inner sleeve. Limited to 500 copies, more info and preorder available HERE (direct) or HERE (via bandcamp).