Update and project overhaul.

Hey everybody. Thanks for staying patient with the project.
As most of you have probably guessed. The tracks, artwork and poetry I have compiled with your help will not be released in time for a Christmas 2009 distribution. Everything was in place in mid-November for the albums to be manufactured but due to some miscommunication with the publishing outfit, I wasn't able to get a quote or even talk to anybody until recently.

So where does that leave us?

A good place, a very good place.
While "It Came Without Packages, Boxes or Tags: Shangri-La Media 2009" has been aborted. I am currently sending out emails and letters to all of the contributors requesting their permission to use their contributions on a soon-to-be-announced (with artwork and tracklist) independent compilation. I'm using this week to put together the art that has been submitted and re vamp the entire project with more publicity and intent than ICWPBT had.
If you are reading this and have contributed your CD, please send me a short email at procedelaluz@gmail.com letting me know it is okay to use your song, picture or poem on the new album.
I will contact the charities tomorrow and make sure they accept donations off-season.

Let's get this done!


Jordan
Shangri-La Media

We are getting there!

Just a quick update: I now have roughly 12 songs for the album, a few of them are from the same musicians (something we initially intended to avoid, but may not be the worst idea). To make the album an even more eclectic blend of undiscovered talent though, it is very important to be promoting the album. I've been pressing the random button on Purevolume and playing AmericanIdol-judge sitting in front of my macbook for a couple of weeks now trying to find and then contact people whose music just resonates the theme of compassion and simplicity.

You have all helped out so much with the project, I look forward to putting it into production starting in October. We are in the home stretch, and maybe it's my natural malcontent as an author and musician, but I still feel that there are many beautiful things waiting to happen to this album. As fall settles upon us in the Midwest and the Golden Frontier generally fades into winter, be alert for new possibilities. A few of the songs that will appear on the album, would not be appearing if somebody hadn't mentioned something to me after a coffee shop gig or an acoustic reading.

Thank you so much everybody. There is a wave of hope coming to those who have not felt it for some time. You are a part of this hope.


Don't stop believing.

Shangri-La Media.

Here's a Flyer

For everybody who has been trying to promote the project by word of mouth alone (or writing it in soap on the back of your car window), here is an easier way

It Came Without Packages, Boxes or Tags Distribution PDF

Print off many! Distribute many! Coffee Shops usually have bulletin boards which are great places. Handing them out at shows. Grocery stores, the possibilities are very many.

I've been getting a few more submissions, but most are from close friends. We need to do this...together!


Shangri-La Media.

2009 Project Report.

Instructions:
Withhold spelling/grammar corrections.
Distribute to any and all independent artists/musicians.

The 2009 Shangri-La Media Charity Album Project Report

Don't Stop Believing

Jordan

Music Review: Zac Bauman

Zac Bauman is a student at UC Davis. Anybody who attends will be the first to admit that UC Davis isn't necessarily known for having a huge focus on liberal arts. Bauman, however, seems to break this mold on a personal level. His music is as emotional and creative as it is intellectually stimulating. He uses a variety of instruments and abstract lyrical themes to create music that is both kick-back friendly, and at the same time fitting to the coffee-shop scene. This is definitely saying a lot. Since I became a resident, I have become somewhat critical of the Sacramento music scene (more than anybody should be critical of their local music scene - and they should. If there is anything you feel is missing, you can always be the one to fill it in). It literally was show after show that I endured the same guy-with-guitar type singer/songwriters who may have had an in 5 years ago (before certain performers whose fame in this article will be reduced to the initials JM) took not only their local coffee-shops but eventually vh1 and the grammies to their heart. Unfortunately Zac Bauman did not have the opportunity to change my mind about live performances in person. He did, however, mail the publication recordings of his songs: Rodya and Tom McLean. Listening to these songs, was emotionally reminiscent of the scene in Lord of the Rings (the better trilogy, and yes I will debate this with you)where Gandalf the White arrives on horseback with the riders of rohan following behind him. The only word I could use to describe it at that moment was unique. The word unique must be kept in mind as I make the following comparisons. In order to really get a grip on what Bauman's indie-acoustic side project is like, one must listen to it. The first song Rodya is nearly six minutes long and an orchestral soundscape. It has the instrumental dynamics of Sufjan Stevens, the ethereal spider-web vocals of Elliott Smith and the cinematic song-pattern of bands like North. That's right bands. In fact, if it weren't for the artist tab being visible on the jukebox, I would never assumed that it was a solo project (With the help of a few others, I have learned to not be presumptuous about what a side-project should sound like. My dismissal for Sacramento is dissipate as well). As many words as I've given to Mr. Bauman's art, I can't help but feel that I've done it a disservice by blindly praising it. His music draws on so many influences and perch itself on a fine line between abstraction and avant-garde cliche that it seems to demand criticism. The thing is, there is just nothing to criticize. Zac knows what he's doing, he knows what he's going for and as eclectic as the sound is, it is far from sloppy or mosaic. I highly recommend that you visit him on myspace. Be sure to pick up his record from Beat Nun Records, and "It Came Without Packages, Boxes or Tags: Shangri-La Media 2009." upon it's release in November.

Don't Stop Believing

Jordan.
Shangri-La Media.

It Came Without Packages, Boxes or Tags: Shangri-La Media 2009.

The album compilation "It Came Without Packages, Boxes or Tags: Shangri-La Media 2008." Is being restarted and revamped for the 2009 Holiday season. Although not much has changed about the course of the CD, I've decided to ditch some of the restrictions I had last year for contribution. I will be publishing a project report, likely in August or late July that will go over everything y'all will need to know about the reincarnation. Still if you want in depth information about the purpose of the album, or the financial accountability I've set forth as a standard for it, you can read it all in the 2008 Project Report.

You can always email questions, or comments to:
Procedelaluz@gmail.com

Love yourself,
Jordan.

The Very Best Record Label Samplers of All Time

I was on Wikipedia the other day and found a link to a website that claimed to database all of the English record labels currently in existence. In total, there were over 24,000. Many of them are just subbed from other labels, but it gave me enough inspiration to go through my stack of albums and determine what I thought were the very best label samplers ever.
5. Saddle Up and Love it (Saddle Creek Records and Lovitt Records)
Although Hot Topic is the last place one wants to end up in pursuit of beautiful music, the advent of EmTeeVindie has allowed a few really good bands to slip through the cracks of mainstream entertainment. It just so happens that most of these bands are currently signed to Omaha, Nebraska based Saddle Creek Records. With a fairly mundayne collage of SCR songs (such as Supine to Sit, The Faint, and Bright Eyes single "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)"), the real peak is Lovitt Records' split on the album (Ex-Maximilien Colby conglomerate Sleepytime Trio is signed to Lovitt). "Around What's Done" by Bats and Mice may in fact have made the CD, rather than Saddle Creek's more widely-known songs by Oberst and friends, and contributions by Division of Laura Lee and Fin Fang Foom balance the slower, melodic sound that Saddle Creek is famous for. The album is an inimitable listen with a lot of cohesiveness and a flow that is entirely uncommon to independent record labels today.

4. Location is Everything: Volume 2 (Jade Tree Records)
It seems to me, in modern music, that most labels go out of their way to make sure that the bands they are promoting are united by similar styles of music (Many even going to the point of splitting their label to differentiate genres). Visiting Jade Tree Records' Myspace though can (in the words of Joe Pesci) "...put that theory to sleep." Jade Tree Records is one of those labels that most people only know one or two acts from, but unlike Saddle Creek Records or Bloodtown. They are never the same bands. If you are talking to kids in more aggressive circles they are likely to name drop From Ashes Rise, Challenger or These Arms Are Snakes. While if you are into the coffee shop quiet set, you are liable to hear someone (presumably with an underbeard) discussing the genius behind Onelinedrawing or Jets To Brazil's intellectual diversion from the grunge rock scene that C-Sectioned them. The one thing that can be said about any band on Jade Tree Records is that they are all incredibly original. Every band present on this compilation has broken rules of their scene and created something beautiful and influential in their image. The album does a great job of picking songs which represent this revolutionary binding tie, while still having the ability to convince somebody completely unfamiliar with the rules of any scene that what the song is doing is counter-intuitive. In a generation and market marked almost completely by unoriginality, Jade Tree's Location is Everything 2, is nothing short of necessary.

3. Revelation 100: A 15 Year Retrospective of Rare Recordings (Revelation Records)
The primary purpose of label samplers is to give any member of the public that will lend it's ears a taste of what the label supports and believes without any tricky words to turn complicated emotions into overwrought dramatics (see Tooth and Nail Records). It is rare that a label compilation dares to do something besides give the public a sample. Unlike Jade Tree, Revelation Records is in the business of hard music. They have turned Shai Hulud, Himsa and Youth of Today into household names while simultaneously giving birth to the emotive hardcore legacy that bands like Elliott and Texas is the Reason picked up on when true "emo" died in the mid-90's. Because Revelation is one of those labels that likely releases more albums on vinyl than they do on compact disc in a year, their vaults are full of hidden treasures. Splits, Singles, EPs, and the coveted Promotional Japanese editions are full of songs that must wait to be heard until a label produces a rarities comp. Being familiar with most Revelation Records bands already, I bought this compilation and was nothing short of impressed. The first track on it, is Curl Up and Die's "Nuclear Waste? Bring that Shit." Which is only to be found on their "But the Past Aint Through With Us" EP. The bright sun is this constellation, however, seems to divert from the title of the record entirely. Elliott begun as a progressive punk act when they first released US Songs in 1998. Although, it is not a selection from US Songs that made the final cut of the compilation. Instead, Revelation chose "Away We Drift" off 2003's airy and melodic Song in the Air. At first glance, it would seem to make little sense, but without the passionate melody of Elliot's contribution, the album is sure to be discarded by many unwilling to discover the infinite passion present in the lyrics of even the most aggressive acts, on the CD. On a side note, Since By Man represents the 262.

2. Location is Everything: Volume 1 (Jade Tree Records)
Whatever, Backwoods Nation by Pedro the Lion is an incredible song. Also Tim Owen's chrono quartet has earned two spots on this list.

1. 80 Records and We're Not Broke Yet (Level Plane Records)
The album is a dual disc, the first being a label sampler and the second being a collection of rarities and live recordings from bands like Envy, melt-banana and Hot Cross. In addition to being the New York Yankees of screamo acts, Level Plane now produces Cinema-Grindcore pioneers (or at least necromancers, after Mortician has been deceased for quite some time) Graf Orlock, as well as spiritual acoustic songwriter Hrishikesh Hirway also known as the One Am Radio. The selling point and victory of this CD (besides opening with a band they had just signed), is its closing. The final song of the second disc is City of Caterpillar's epic, 11 and a half minute, live-recording "Drive Spain Up a Wall." The song is like a story one reads with their ears. It begins with a dark, dissonant lead guitar playing in 3/8 time and picks up. The song then builds and builds adding the entire band in intervals until bass/vocalist Kevin Longendyke is the only one resigned to observation. After 7 minutes of this rising, the music climaxes and breaks into what can only be described the most beautiful dose of chaos the listener's ears will ever receive until the end of the song when the music once again slopes down and completes the masterpiece. The second disc is full of such titles, but Level Plane proves they know how to save the best for last and whatever doubt there was that this album, this label this credo was anything short of groundbreaking is erased by the 10th minute of "Spain".