Lost Balloons is Jeff Burke and Yusuke Okada. Their Dirtnap debut, Hey Summer”, will be out June 16th.

Listen to the song “Numb” here, courtesy of our pals at CLRVYNT.

Sonic Avenues’ latest Euro tour starts Thursday! Here are the dates:
Th. 30.03, D-Dresden, AZ Conni
Fr. 31.03, D-Leipzig, Zoro
Sa. 01.04, CZ-Brno, Kabinet Muz
Su. 02.04, DE-München, Kafe Kult
Mo. 03.04, AT-Vienna, Venue TBA
Tu. 04.04, HR-Zagreb, Mocvara
We. 05.04, IT-Bergamo, Edone
Th. 06.04, IT-Ronca, Jack The Ripper
Fr. 07.04, IT-Fidenza, Arci Taun
Sa. 08.04, IT-La Spezia, Skaletta Rock Club
Su. 09.04, SUI-Geneva, Le Cabinet
Mo. 10.04, FRA, Toulouse, Bar Le Ravelin
Tu. 11.04, ES-Bilbao, La Nube Cafe
We. 12.04, ES-Oviedo, Lata De Zinc
Th. 13.04, ES-Madrid, Trash Can
Fr. 14.04, ES-Benidorm, Fuzzville Fest
Sa. 15.04, ES-Castellon, Four Seasons Club
Su. 16.04, ES-Zaragoza, Robby Robot
Mo. 17.04, FRA-Paris, Olympic Cafe
Tu. 18.04, BE-Antwerp, Music City
We. 19.04, D-Essen, Anyway
Th. 20.04, D-Mannheim, JUZ
Fr. 21.04, D-Hamburg, Molotow
Sa. 22.04, D-Berlin, SO36 – Nothing Nice To Say Fest

Hey there! Ken from Green Noise Records here.

I am beyond excited to announce that effective May 1st, Accident Prone Records impresario and screen printing genius Gary Bahen will be taking over as the new owner of Green Noise Records! Accident Prone Records has been around for over 20 years now, so you know Gary knows what he is doing!

Not only that, but the shop will be moving to a sweet new location at 720 N. Killingsworth. The new spot will be better located, have more stock, and more frequent in-store performances. I honestly think the new store is going to be way better than the old one.

Dirtnap Records is definitely going to continue, and Green Noise is still going to be the exclusive mailorder outlet for our color vinyl, and the one-stop-shop for Dirtnap in general. So from a customer’s perspective, very little should change in that department.

As many of you who know me personally already know, life-changes are calling me away from Portland, and I am very grateful that Gary is going to continue the shop in my absence.  When I took over Green Noise at the beginning of 2005, I never would have imagined that I would still be here doing this 12+ years later, and I definitely wouldn’t have guessed that the store would wind up outliving my involvement.

So while this is definitely a bittersweet moment, I am quite happy to be moving on to a new chapter in life, while knowing that the store will continue in capable hands. Although no longer the owner, I will remain peripherally involved with Green Noise, including maintaining a monthly “Ken’s Picks” section of the website.

The last day Green Noise will be open on Foster will be April 23rd. The shop will have a grand re-opening on Killingsworth May 6th and 7th, with DJs spinning vinyl on the 6th, and live performances on the 7^th.

Thanks for everyone’s support over the years, it really does mean the world!
Ken Cheppaikode
Green Noise Records

If you find yourself in Austin, TX next week, please come to our showcase at Beerland! Friday, March 17th, 1-6 pm. Free, no wristband required. 21+, sorry.

Jim And The French Vanilla is the solo project of Jim Blaha from The Blind Shake.  This is his 3^rd album under the Jim And The French Vanilla moniker, but the first to be made widely available. (the first 2 came out on CDR-only and limited-to-100 LP, respectively)

The first 2 albums were acoustic, one-man-band affairs, but on Afraid Of The House, Jim (along with his brother/bandmate in Blind Shake Mike Blaha) expands to a full band sound, to astonishing effect.  The basic songwriting retains the incredibly distinctive mystical, other-worldly atmosphere of The Blind Shake, but the instrumentation and sound are both stripped down to their essence, dialing way back on the heavy-psych stamp of the Blind Shake at their heaviest.

Raw, feral, but incredibly CATCHY, Afraid Of The House covers a wider sonic pallet than one might pick up on at first. From poppy to heavy, from atmospheric to wild, Afraid Of The House reflects a wide range of ideas and emotion, while maintaining surprising consistence throughout.

Always prolific, Afraid Of The House comes out a mere 2 months after the latest Blind Shake album, Celebrate Your Worth, released in November on Goner Records. Other recent releases include Shadow In The Cracks, Swami John Reis And The Blind Shake, and others that I’m sure we’re forgetting.

We here at Dirtnap Records have long been huge fans of the Blaha brother’s output. We were JUST thinking that we should give these guys a call and ask about working together sometime, when the demo that became Afraid Of The House landed in our mailbox, via Max “Dirtnap A&R” Desharnais, of Sonic Avenues fame. If that ain’t serendipity, we don’t know what is.

1. When You’re Down
2. I’m Just Sitting Here
3. Back Home
4. Take It To The Grave
5. Not Even War
6. Eye For An Eye
7. Grow Like Rabbits
8. Psychic Killer
9. I Have To Slow Down
10. Green Curtains
11. Lonely Man