FVC #1 - These Midwest Summers - For Friends EP (limited to 20)

Tonight we are putting out our first release, 'For Friends' EP from These Midwest Summers.

It's limited to 20 copies, hand packed, hand stenciled CDRs, hand numbered.

It will be available tonight at the Oakland Theater in Downtown Youngstown at the Laughrica Benefit for a suggested donation of $5, although more would be great as we'll be giving every cent made to the benefit. Hopefully all copies will be sold tonight, but if not I'll post info on how you'll be able to purchase a copy should there be any leftovers....

Details on release #2 will probably be posted right after the holidays.

Attempt 4,815,162,342.....

It's never been a lack of desire to get this thing up and moving for me, it truly hasn't. It's motivation and commitment for the most part, these things, along with a healthy dose of bad luck have always been thorns in my side. Minor setbacks here and there have already put me back a bit in my original plan with FVC, but in some ways it was a blessing in disguise as I've come to realize I was trying to run before I could walk. I think my hopes for this have always put me in a 'run before I walk' situation and due to this I've feared failure because there was so much to lose, but I think I'm over it. Thanks in a large part to my brothers courage to play in front of a bunch of strangers and reading up on some of the labels I most respect, those like Plan-It-X, No Idea, It's Alive, etc has really helped to shape what I should come to expect out of both myself and this 'label'. So here is phase II (or IIthousand...). The Asleep record will hopefully still happen, not sure when or in what facet I'll be working with them, but I will for sure, when the stars align in the ways we all need.

Photo by Crystal Beiersdorfer



The first release will be out this month, I know, fast right? It's going to be a limited, either to 25-50, CDR EPs, with handmade covers and each will be #'d. It will be the first release from These Midwest Summers, a band/person/entity very close to my heart (and bloodline). The TWS EP, as yet untitled, will have 3-4 songs, one being a cover of his choosing, although there's one or two I'm pulling for. TWS is all that far removed from Bright Eyes, Elvis Costello & other singer/songwriters with a penchant for intelligent, sometimes self deprecating and sarcastic, lyrical content.

Brian/TWS will be doing all the artwork design himself and we will unleash this nugget of genius at the event listed below, with EVERY DOLLAR, not just 'profit', going to the cause the night is for. TWS will be performing in the gallery during intermission. The event is for a great cause, and a great friend of mine, so you should stop out not only to pick up the limited EP, but also to help out a genuine good person.



I'm excited to really get moving with this finally and I can't think of a better way to get things moving than with my brother being my first release. I've already got a few things lined up, one which includes and 'bootleg' of sort of a tape with Sound on Tape / These Midwest Summers demos from the 'Friday by 5' project we worked with earlier this year. I'm also going to attempt to get a recording at least some of the stand up being done at the benefit to release after the break of the new year. It's moving finally and with a little work, motivation and a number of drinks, it'll finally start to take shape in 2010. I've got a good feeling about the way things can/should move from this point onward with FVC. As soon as I let go I got a grip it would seem.


I'm planning on getting buttons/shirts done around the break of the new year, sweatshirts as well perhaps, who knows. Brian is going to be working on a new logo for me for the first round of shirts/pins/stickers. The Ohio/Black Flag logo will be a part of every logo/release I do, but I want to use it in different ways as often as possible. I'm pretty siked on the idea I have for the logo and I think Bri can pull it off pretty well. I'd also like to set up a distro on the site for releases/labels I love, admire and respect, but that's totally on the back burner currently and will likely take a while to come into play.