Stumbling upon Annie the creator of Fat Town Records a local CD maker for artists along with her own duo group called Bodega Rats. How I learned about them was when I purchased the Pillowsnake album "hmminBYRD" which was manufactured by Fat Town Records along with the Tv Flesh EP at the time. They do not only make the packaging but also everything else that comes with it. There is more to be said about this, but this is one of this week's feature Annie, @seedy-r, @bodegarats, and @fattownrecords.
Sharing about Annie's recent interests as she shares by saying, "Lately I have been obsessed with the classic Australian electronic group Severed Heads. I was recommended their seminal album Since the Accident on Spotify last week; experiencing mind-numbing eargasms from tracks like A Million Angels and Godsong severely affected my perspective of sonic texture and structure! Their second album Clean appeals to me on the same level as well, I am sure the abrasive yet joyfully pop-inspired tracks from that album like Food City can be enjoyed by anyone!" This is all something that I will check out for sure. It's always nice to be given new music recommendations.
Annie continues by sharing her favorite local creatives "Excellent groups like Bison/Wist, StrangeLight, The Vennz, The Dead Sedds, Gusto Gusto, Lazer Hog, Error, Noble Insect, Mellowdrama, and SUPER, as well as solo acts like Pillowsnake, I Killed Techno, Scribe Rothchild, Roche Motel, PlanetGrim, A Beautiful Lotus, Jacob Jenni, Disease Freak, Jacob Jay Gonzalez, Still Empty, and Sarita Loops never fail to impress as their music lifts me up to dance profusely until I faint. Visual artists like Aletse Art, Andres Sanchez, Fay Made with Love, Oddxink, Pastel Comics, Cactus Face, Amy Valdez, and Eliseo Diaz also captivate me with the unique perspectives they have elegantly transposed into our relative domain. However, I have made it a personal mantra to appreciate and enjoy all artists regardless of their 'skill' level due to their own individual struggle and lifelong evolution as creators; I am going to bite the bullet and say every local creator is my favorite! Oh yes, Movie Night in Mission is an astounding place to visit for anyone interested in film as the vibrant owner has done a flawless job running a DVD rental business; decorations galore respective to the genres of cinema they are located around as well as an unmatched selection (did I mention extremely cheap rental fees?) leads to an unforgettable experience!" Although we may be able to name personal favorites we come to terms that every local creative can be our favorite as Annie expresses. There's always something new to experience from the local creatives from our community and even a quick glance at their social media such as Instagram can open a new taste for the viewer which leads them to do more than just scratch the surface of our community. I've never heard of Movie Night in Mission, but it sounds really interesting, and it's now something on my radar.
As my introduction to Annie started with Fat Town Records and understanding what she provides to the community with the production of the CDs giving artists the possibility to have their work being played in more than one way, a collector's items, or just someone who wishes to support a local musician. With all this comes, a question comes to mind being how Fat Town Records came to be as Annie explained "I would say that the idea for fat town began back in December; Jetwad was booked to play a killer show with Bison and we wanted to give out a free demo CD of new material, as it had been an entire year since uploading and releasing our debut demo album Roger Roger. I tried my hand at making 'professional-looking' CDs to coincide with our evolution as a band, and thankfully everyone who received a copy thought they came out looking pretty good. The recognition I received motivated me to continue manufacturing CD packages of multiple styles." From December to August and Fat Town Records has already created CDs for a couple of artists such as PillowSnake, Tv Flesh, Planet Grim, and themselves as she continues "Once my girlfriend, Diciour, and I released our debut single Vessels of Society under the name Bodega Rats, we accordingly needed to create our own label to release our 'official' debut under; hence the creation of Fat Town Records! We had hopes of manufacturing disks for other local creators but didn't necessarily want to go around asking people to be on our label. Fat Town really took off once we sent a copy of our single to Pillowsnake, as he was impressed with its packaging enough to ask us about manufacturing the physical release of his latest groundbreaking release, HmminBYRD. Accordingly, we made social media accounts for the label to promote his release and possibly receive more requests to make CDs for other artists." Yeah, the hmminBYRD CD is actually really well done and it looks well "professional-looking" as stated and I can see the increase in the requests to create CDs. I look forward to the upcoming artists who get a chance to have their work sent out to their fans.
Creating the CD's must be a long and possibly a tedious process, but can something truly be called "tedious" if you enjoy doing along with the benefit of an artist who enjoys the final product? Well, Annie gladly shares the process behind creating their CDs "The first step would be to attain all of the materials needed to make the packages and CDs themselves. Really all we use to make these is a computer, color printer, matte paper, printable CD labels, jewel cases (typically sold in bulk), and CD-R disks; however, a large bulk of the cost comes from buying printer ink as one cartridge in my printer only prints about 80-100 sheets of full color, fluorescent images. Since the packaged booklets contain 2 sides of full-color images, and the separate disk/spine labels also require full-color printing, the price for completing an order of 50 CDs usually costs me around $125... the second step is to print out the 4-page booklets; set up the images to be the perfect size of a jewel case in word, print out a number of copies that display the first/last page of the booklet, place these pages back into the printer upside-down, print out the same number but instead with the 2nd and 3rd pages, trim off the excess paper then fold the booklet in half...the result is a nice insert that fits perfectly into the jewel case." These are a lot of steps even though it's labeled as one to three just imagining the amount of work that goes into them, but the payoff must be worth it for sure. Of course, there may be an obstacle in the process that comes in the way, but that does not stop their final steps to creating their product "sometimes the booklets don't fit very tightly but we allow this due to the lessened stress these smaller leaflets allow when removing/placing them out of/into the jewel case itself. While printing out and trimming these booklets, we'll typically be burning copies of the release we're making on a separate computer for efficiency. All that's left is to align the CD/spine labels in photoshop and print those out, then place them on their respective destinations (spines of the jewel cases, on top of the disks). The labels we buy allow for two disk labels and four spine labels on a single page, so that helps with preserving ink. We have this cute little CD label press that allows for quick, easy, and accurate placement which helps tremendously with the process." This is how the CDs are made, but of course, there may be more to come in the future as Annie says "We're trying to move onto eight-page booklets and standard size jewel cases as well as cassettes, or perhaps vinyl" Be on the lookout for future creations by Fat Town Records!
From Fat Town Records to also being in a duo group by the name of Bodega Rats which the duo started their path into creating music as their own group Annie explains the upcoming behind Bodega Rats "back in August 2019, the local concert organizer Tiger's Blood was looking for new bands created specifically to perform covers of one artist of the created band's choosing, with the intent of getting these groups to play a Halloween show. Diciour created the name Bodega Rats and we stepped up, originally attempting to perform as a Coil cover group. We were turned down, but we were both so inspired by the thought of us performing together that we continued as a group and released our debut two months later." Although the group may have been rejected to play for the event they were able to turn that around for themselves into something better for the duo. Rather than being down about it, they took the initiative and has landed them as Bodega Rats. Although Bodega Rats has been formed what comes next? Well, Annie says "our intentions with Bodega Rats were to be true to our own musical tastes as well as question the current boundaries of sonic structure with a project where we could have as much creative freedom as possible. Such a project would not be complete without our own perspective of life itself making its way into the tone and purpose of our releases, with each one focusing on its own subject. Our motivation is driven by our mission to instill joy and provide information in any way possible to as many people as possible throughout the entire planet as we plan to dedicate our lives to touring and performing here within the next year or so." You certainly can hear their creative freedom throughout their recent release "Year of the Rat" which I would recommend listening to "Sanguine" and "Aurum" to get deep into what they're all about. Although performing live in front of a crowd may take a while, but they certainly have time until then. For now, the option of going live through Instagram is still a possibility but we shall wait and see.
Listening to "Year of the Rat" and taking all in I just had to ask what the genre is or what they would label their album as to which Annie replied with "I suppose experimental would be the most applicable genre to place our music under. However, I believe this is only due to the varied sounds of our releases. Year of the Rat is more trap and dance music inspired. However, if we had to choose a broad genre to place all of our music under, it would be dance music. Despite all of this we still have not exactly created the sound we're aiming for in our minds. Such a sound will prominently be present in our next album, and we say that with determined confidence!" I can certainly get lost within the first tracks which I enjoyed the most and it puts me in mood or rather sets in me a specific setting which eased me into the remainder of the album. You can check out "Year of the Rat" on SoundCloud. If this is not the exact sound they have in mind then there is certainly something more to be looking forward to!
"Year of the Rat" released earlier this year being their debut album on July 10th. I had to ask if they have any new tracks in the works as time has passed and Annie lets us know by saying " Most definitely! In fact, your question has inspired us to release a single from the upcoming album as soon as possible. The album won't be ready for another six months at the earliest as we would like to focus on creating more material regarding Year of the Rat (music videos!), but we know a sneak-peek at the new album's completely different, edged sound would be enough to tide everyone over until its future release! Words cannot express how excited we are to keep moving forward and further evolve as creators. We plan to never bring Bodega Rats to an end, but at the same time we are trying to avoid over saturating our discography so we will probably spend much more time touring than recording." From the possibility of new options for Fat Town Records in more than just CDs to a new sound coming from the duo in due time as well. Just by the mentioning of "different, edged sound", I begin to wonder what exactly it can be. That certainly is a sneak-peak into what's to come even without a sample on social media of what this new sound can be. For now, I can only imagine until an official post is given by Bodega Rats.
These are Annie's thoughts on the local scene
"I think the scene we have down here is extremely 'underrated'. By that, I mean that it is not appreciated by the general public enough in the slightest. I've seen people online say things like 'there is no scene down here, everyone sounds like shit or uses shitty instruments'. This definitely does not define our entire population but serves as a euphemism for the ignorance towards local creators: the majority of our neighbors simply aren't even looking to enjoy local artists or give them any sort of chance. We have a population of over two million people across the RGV which indicates that there is most definitely a large number of our citizens that enjoy music or art in any sort of form. Whether it be Tejano, cumbia, rap/trap, indie rock, or metal, there's an ever-growing community of creators in the RGV encompassing all corners of music and art that can undoubtedly satisfy the taste of absolutely any human being. As an involved community ourselves, I am sure you can agree with me when I say that there is an abundance of local groups/acts that are comparable to those popularly listened to throughout the Earth. I'm really considering attempting to write a business plan with the intent of getting a loan to open a warehouse dedicated to our region; Fat Town Records on an actual business scale, with an industrial vinyl press, sales floor to sell all records locally produced and manufactured, a stage for live events, and a 24-hour skate park to satisfy the hunger of skaters looking to shred at any time without worry. I imagine a place where only local music is sold and played to demonstrate how excellent a band that lives right next to you may sound. Perhaps it would assist in bringing attention to the endless amount of influencers directly around us that are just as wonderful and creative as those incessantly praised. With these statements, I do not intend to talk down on our region as I appreciate its culture and body of life to an obsessive extent, although I do wish that our local shows and exhibits would draw crowds like those seen in San Antonio, Houston, or Austin considering our population is just as massive as theirs."
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