Well, hello there. In the wake of our third year celebration, we scientists here at the Labs decided to take a break.
Unfortunately, our curious brains don’t break very easily, and in the Fall we still squeaked in a few releases and experiments. We put out a disc of improvised piano performances called Hypothesis that featured 5 pianists doing their thing on a 9 foot Steinway piano at Iowa State University’s famed Martha Ellen Tye Recital Hall. It turned out beautifully, and we’re pretty proud of it, and would like to do another Hypothesis disc in a completely different vein sometime soon.
We also put out our first holiday album, the fantastic Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “Peace,” filled with great holiday standards and a couple of new compositions by one of the finest songwriters in Ames. And the new Strong Like Bear EP “On the Couch,” which ended up being sort of a mini-concept album by the time all was said and done.
In the background, we were also collecting bits from friends and artists on our growing roster to create our first zine – recently released, it’s available in Ames at the Vinyl Cafe, Iowa Music Store, SHIELD Comics, and Mayhem Collectibles. It’s 2 measly bucks and it’s filled with goofy shit and beautiful art.
Special shoutout here to our friends at Prints, who made a glossy, professional looking zine affordable for all of us. We quite literally could not do what we do without them.
Coming up soon (since you asked, and, by the way, you look great today, but there’s something in your teeth there) we’ll be kicking into gear again for 2016, with releases by Ira Grace and the Bible Belt Prophets, Great Caesar’s Goat, Grandchamp, Personal Vendetta, another Nate Logsdon joint, and a few other things in the cooker.
We’ve slowed down a bit, but inertia keeps us ever moving forward.