Welcome To North Pole Records
North Pole Records is an independent record label based in Billings, Montana who works with international artists that we find interesting.
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"New Branches" by Giant Wave
Arriving just in time for late spring, the restless yet relaxed, breezy bossa acoustic pop of “New Branches” is a welcome musical escape. Think flowers, green, and new beginnings, with a tinge of the surreal.
Appropriately enough, the song is complimented by a whimsically strange music video created by Cory Vielma and viewable over on the band’s YouTube channel. Go check it out for yourself…
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LIFE RIDER, the second single from the upcoming Giant Wave album “Year Of Space”, streaming here now … full album out JUNE 6TH!
Pre-order the album on LP, CD, or tape on the North Pole bandcamp page.
NEW LYRIC VIDEO (a collaboration with Agnar) for the track ….
"Dream Room" by Quiet Winter
"Friends" by Miss Massive Snowflake
North Pole is elated to announce the pre-order of Friends, the latest release by Miss Massive Snowflake, out everywhere on March 28. Order now and vinyl ships immediately. The second single Suny dropped today and is only through Bandcamp for the next two weeks.
Friends, the latest release from Miss Massive Snowflake, is a collaboration between bandleader Shane De Leon and longtime musical compatriots Kristian Dunn (El Ten Eleven) on bass and Andy Brown on drums. After writing and refining the songs in Billings, the three traded tracks remotely over 2023-24 to finish the EP.
As the title of the EP suggests, the lyrics deal with dear friends both in our lives (as on the triumphant rock anthem “Suny”) and sadly no longer with us (“Jackie” and “Whipsmart”). While some of the lyrical content explores darker themes like suicide and addiction, the vibe is largely upbeat and hopeful, reinforced by De Leon’s energetic vocals and the band’s locked-in instrumental performances. As on previous releases, De Leon often experiments with varying moods and styles from song to song, like on the sardonic and electronic-tinged ballad “Green City Slickers”. Friends is a forceful ode to the important people we find in our lives, and a testament to successful musical collaboration.
Miss Massive Snowflake is the long-running DIY rock band and primary songwriting vehicle of Shane De Leon. Begun in 2004 in Portland, Oregon as a solo recording project while playing in celebrated underground-rock group Rollerball, De Leon has done quite a bit with the band since then. Expanding to feature many collaborators, both live and on record, MMS has released a wide variety of recordings and played over 800 shows, both nationally and internationally, in many different solo and full-band configurations. Currently based in Billings, Montana, De Leon is also the founder of North Pole Records and Kirks’ Grocery.
RIYL: The Mountain Goats, Tim Heidecker and His Very Good Band, Built To Spill, GBV
"Part Of Me" by Giant Wave
‘Coming after a series of solo-recorded and self-released EPs from Will Rockwell Ryerson featuring ambient instrumentals and genre-bending electronic pop, “Year Of Space” is a notable departure from previous Giant Wave releases. Featuring a variety of Baltimore-based collaborators, the album is a heady mix of genres and styles (ambient interludes, moody folk, lush indie-pop and electro-rap among them) brought together into a cohesive and compelling whole.’
→LISTEN to the first single (“Part Of Me”) and pre-order the album on the North Pole or Giant Wave bandcamp
→PRE-SAVE the album on streaming later this week
”Part Of Me” is about moving between spaces both real and imaginary, surrendering to difficult moments, and adjusting and eventually thriving within new realities. Like the rest of the album, I wrote and recorded the song while still living in Baltimore, and carried the music with me during a life-changing cross country move to Montana.
The video itself is an experimental travelogue of sorts, taken from a whirlwind yet spiritually refreshing two weeks of travel late last summer between Wyoming, Moab, Denver, Baltimore and Raleigh for Hopscotch Fest. The final edit of the footage was then artfully embellished with animations by Brendan Sullivan (@srendanbullivan ). Special thanks also to Mary Kate Teske (@marykateteske ) for her assistance shooting my rotating singing head/face at the end!
"Jackie" by Miss Massive Snowflake
"Finding Love // Having Autism" by 36?
Taylor Cochrane, songwriter for 36?, on “Finding Love // Having Autism”
“This record marks a pinnacle moment for me. It is the acknowledgment of something that I feel like I have never truly been able to accept. The thing about me that makes me different.”
"COFFEE DONUTS" BY HELIX.EXT
HELIX.EXT core members, Jon Lodge (trumpet/electronics) & Shane de Leon (drums/guitar) improvise alongside bassist and new collaborator, Monte Allen. The inventive improvised pieces of free-noise funk skip by, fluttering in & out, repetitive grooves with distorto-trumpet feedback and rhythmic drone bop. Zone / freak out to this mix of free improvisation, & kicked out jams.
Monte Allen started legendary Portland, OR group Rollerball/RLLRBLL in 1993 with Mae Starr and Gilles. The original trio is still going strong. De Leon served a decade in Rollerball but departed in 2007 to begin Miss Massive Snowflake. This recording is Monte and Shane’s first time playing together in 15 years.
Jon Lodge attended Berklee College of Music & has fostered free jazz, musique concrete, minimalism, & experimental music for decades in Billings, Montana. His visual art is in museums & galleries throughout the US. A whirlwind of ideas, energy, & love of life.
"ART" by 36?
“ART is my favorite song to play off of this new record. It’s a self-deprecating song about being an artist. It pokes fun at the narcissistic quality that every artist has. The “hey look at me” factor. It’s kind of funny being an artist, it’s like we write down a very personal diary entry and then put it in front of a bunch of folks and say “BEHOLD!!” Of course, there is more to it than that, but I guess I was in a particularly strange mood on the day I decided to write a song about how being a performing artist is basically just someone paid to masturbate in front of people”
"Slow Cloud Moving" By Dusty Tears
Dusty Tears is Jamie Smith (Danghead, Lords of Howling) & Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake, Rollerball). The two have been working together on music since the late 1980s and recording under the name Dusty Tears since 2017. Mainly a recording project, Dusty Tears has released multiple EPs on North Carolina experimental mainstay Silbermedia and de Leon’s own label, North Pole Records.
Enjoy the ride.
"Feers" by 36?
The album artwork comes from a photoshoot Jill and I did in 2015. I had just recently sold a very overpriced and overrated keyboard that I had been holding on to (the red one, the “Supreme t-shirt” of keyboards) to get Jill a DSLR camera. It was the first time either of us had ever played with shutter speed and the results were, well… one day they’ll hang in the MoMA.
Anyways I came across these photos again while searching through old photos while working on a larger collage project and instantly I knew they would be the FEERS artwork. To me these photos embody the other side of reckless youth, the curious drive to explore, have fun, and make weird stuff just because you can. When we took these photos we weren’t thinking, “this will serve some DANK content”, we were simply just finding out about a fun setting on the camera seeing how silly we could get with it. And I think that’s really special.
FEERS is out now everywhere you stream your music. It’s a spaced out groovy one, that basically wrote itself as I was exploring a vintage string synthesizer when I first picked it up in the middle of the pandemic. There’s an underlying theme here that I am just now picking up on.
Anyways, life is good and I hope you enjoy the new track. Thanks for listening
released April 20, 2024
Written and Performed by Taylor Cochrane
Produced & Mixed by Taylor Cochrane at 36? Studios
Mastered by Brock McFarlane at CPS Mastering
Additional Instrumentation: Kerry Hickli – Synths, Back-Up Vocals Justin Van Groningren – Synths Mike Malkin – Bass
Scott White – Guitar
"Wasted" by 36?
Pulse Spasm Vapor
Available March 15, 2024
North Pole Record #55
Pulse Spasm Vapor
Beyond a Forgetful Green
LP & Digital
-LP w/ insert, black vinyl
-Ltd edition L of 60 w/ signed insert, and 8 page unique booklet
-Digitally on Bandcamp and streaming everywhere
CLICK HERE TO BUY
-Jon Lodge, Tricia Opstad, and Dusty Shriver are Pulse Spasm Vapor or PSV Trio. Lodge is an established Montana visual artist who creates black and white, process based paintings, utilizing planned randomness and surface tension. He has spearheaded musical improvisation in Montana since the 60’s after returning from Berklee College of Music. Lodge has found new inspiration in young collaborators, noise music, and underground labels. Opstad and Shriver are improvisers, dancers, and visual artists deep in the Pacific NW experimental scene.
-To create a revolution in sound you gotta know what the fuck you’re doing. You gotta fuck shit up by disassembling and reconstructing in order to create a whole new language or feeling. You got mugs frying circuits and twisting knobs to create an uneasy atmosphere to scramble and rewire. Or you have Pulse Spasm Vapor Trio that sticks to their “traditional” instruments and prefer to create new language via einsturzende/art ensemble/sun city girls, with the goal of sounding like music wafting from another room. This recording is adding to the essence of free sound with heaps of beauty, squawk and unpredictability and is keeping “the sound” alive. –Bryan Ramirez
–Pulse Spasm Vapor Trio came together by a chance occurrence. Much like their grouping, their sound is created in the spirit of exploring randomized operations of sonic trills, wails, pulses and hums sculpted by influences of free improvisation and the limitless chaos of abstract noise. The psychic communication unfolding in the moment that is prominent in their playing exists in their visual aesthetic also, which is vital to their sound. This visual and deep listening juxtaposition is what brings the trio to a visceral landscape of genre bending lucidity, creating new sounds. Future and classic styles mutated together resemble that of a dystopian lab experiment leaking into the water. Drinking would result in transformation of all senses, you will hear cosmic infinity coursing through your bloodstream. You become sonically altered entering PSV Trio territory. Boundless. Forever humming the dream state. —Dusty Shriver
FB & IG @northpolerecords
"Einäugige Kirsche" by RLLRBLL
RLLRBLL
Einaugige Kirsche
-CD slip sleeve w/ letterpressed cover and booklet.
-Digitally on bandcamp and Streaming everywhere
This re-release from PDX avant-goth / free-jazz / noise-funk masters, Rollerball, comes in original letterpressed covers with booklet.
Einäugige Kirsche was originally released on CDR in 1999 on Portland label Felina y Magia, then quickly licensed by Road Cone Records in 2000. Rollerball performed across the US and Europe with Jackie O’Motherfucker, Califone, Black Heart Procession, Ovo, and Cerberus Shoal over the next few years.
Rllrbll continues to record and perform with all three original members of Mae Starr, Monte Allen, and Gilles. The trio met in Montana, and formed Rollerball with Herman Jolly (Sunset Valley) in 1993 in Portland, Oregon. Jolly departed after a couple years, and Shane de Leon (Miss Massive Snowflake) joined for a decade alongside saxophonist, Amanda Mason Wiles. Wiles and de Leon both left over a dozen years ago, but but the core trio lives on.
From the troutmask on the internet:
OK, so more of the same. Kinda Jackie-O Motherfucker-y, kinda Necks-y but without the repetition and insane percussion. Perfectly at home on Road Cone…
What the hell? Did this just turn into R ‘n’ B? And holy fuck where has this bass player been during the previous 15 minutes? And just as quickly it’s receded. A few spare trumpet wails, but it actually sounds like the just sucked the whole track into a vacuum cleaner.
And now its sounds like its trying to escape. And failing.
Well, that’s one way to make me kick myself for not having heard of you at all until now.
"Live at The Filling Station 2022" by Miss Massive Snowflake
North Pole Record #58
Cassette and Digital
Why a live album?
Miss Massive Snowflake has always crafted their albums in the studio: orchestrating, layering, and producing songs the way the band wanted to hear them. On stage, however, they quicken the pace and crank up the distortion. This version of “Jacksonville” features frontman Shane de Leon provoking the audience, howling “Come fight me!” as the song comes to a close. Thrilling, cathartic, and very different than on record.
The Filling Station is a legendary Montana venue. De Leon’s first time playing there was in 1993 with his first band, Freak Seen. The current sound engineer, Pat Lokken, and radio impresario, Bob Wall, have crafted a great scene of live music that also captures the experience for the bands. This live cassette is taken from two out of the three live shows Miss Massive Snowflake performed at The Filling Station in 2022.
Miss Massive Snowflake has existed in many forms since 2004. There were the early solo years with an acoustic guitar and backing tracks (2003-2008), the five piece band (2008-2011) that crafted the acclaimed Songs About Music LP, the heavy touring years (2012-2017) with Jeanne on bass and Andy on drums, when Shane de Leon wasn’t performing 150+ solo shows a year in Europe and the USA. The past five years saw de Leon return to Montana and reinvent the live band with different players, using a stable of musicians around the Billings music scene.
It’s raw, but captured well. We want to share this facet of Miss Massive Snowflake with our friends and the world. It is available for purchase at northpolerecords.com and kirksgrocery.com.
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