 NFR 018 The Accident That Led Me To The World "The Island Gospel" CD - - - $10/$15(Ships March 3rd, 2008.) The Accident That Led Me To The World's The Island Gospel is a hymnal to loneliness, isolation, and the individual, set to a sound meant to convey the sense of turning your back on the world and being, literally, an island onto oneself. The follow-up to their 2006 self-titled debut, The Island Gospel features 10 new songs that were developed over the course of 2 long years of touring and eight months of meticulous recording sessions. Not quite folk, not quite country, not quite anything else that might fall under the Americana catch-all, The Accident That Me To The World's music might best be qualified as acoustic. This characterization may seem overly simple or broad, but here the term is apt in that it signifies something pure, straightforward, and unadorned by unnecessary embellishments and exaggerations. These days it seems like a lot of CDs and a lot of bands try to testify that they're something that they're not, while The Island Gospel stays true to its flock: instrumentation of vocals, guitars, upright bass, clarinet, and banjo performed by a three-member congregation singing with one voice. Hallelujah. While supplies last: a limited-edition version of The Island Gospel, featuring a 12-page booklet. This booklet contains song lyrics and additional artwork, and is bound in a black linen cover with a silver silhouette of the album's cover image on the front. Also, each booklet is personally autographed by all the people involved in the making of The Island Gospel. Only 200 copies were made of this limited-edition version, and no more will ever be produced. Tracklisting: The Island Gospel / Hole Of Doubt / Life, As An Anchor / Caves / Try Try Try / Nervous Hands / Time And Space / One True Word / Light And Orange Flames / Statues Check out a different album. Limited-edition version: $15  NFR 017 Mark Mandeville "Live - October 12, 2007"
CD - - - $5On October 12, 2007 Mark Mandeville took a brief break from The Accident That Led Me To The World to play 10 country songs by himself in his family room and in front of his friends. This recording documents that experience, maintaining the performance "as is" and keeping the witty banter in between songs. In other words, What You Hear Is What You Get. If you were there you may hear yourself on the CD, and if you weren't there you can listen to it and pretend that you were. Handmade limited edition of 100, and featuring special recycled packaging. Tracklisting: It's All Up To You / Proof / A Million Washed Up Ways / Anything / House Of Stone / So Blue / Airplane Song / Oh Fate, Oh Darling / Your Only Song / Ramble On Check out a different album.  NFR 016 The Button Pushers "Music For 8-Bit Video Games"
CD - - - $5The Button Pushers know how to push all the right buttons and demonstrate as such to full effect on their debut CD Music For 8-Bit Video Games. 14 compositions for keyboard, keyboard, and more keyboard. Relating to its theme more in theory than in actuality, the contents therein thus shall not be dismissed as "video game music". Rather, think of it as music for a world that was better off yesterday. Tracklisting: First Level Highs / Second Level Blues / Made In Japan / Thanks For Playing, Would You Like To Try Again? / Music To Shoot People To / The Overworld Is A Large And Dangerous Place With Many Creatures Meaning To Do You Harm / Riding High On A Stolen Cloud / Hero's Theme / Villain's Theme / Looking For The Secret Door That Will Lead Me Out Of Here / 13 Go Logos / Hunting Spies / Rad Racing / Garden Ninja Check out a different album.  NFR 015 The Foundation "The Coolest Guy"
CD - - - $5The Foundation is like a kid brother rifling through an older sibling's Pixies and Weezer CDs while they were away at college pondering the meaning of life (or the lack thereof) and then appropriating their contents for its own devices. The results of this intrusion of privacy and past are, predictably, both precocious and obnoxious, as well as being ambitiously ahead of its years while being hopelessly behind the times. Depending on one's perspective, The Coolest Guy will appear to be either tunefully raucous or warmly nostalgic, and, to those who can admit to themselves that despite one's best efforts one never truly escapes adolescence, it will be found to be both. Tracklisting: The Surf Is Up / Velo / Queen / Lee Unit / Glucose / Foreign Girl / The Girl I Love Is Dead / Robodrum / Daisy / Last Year / The End Of The Album Song Check out a different album.  NFR 014 The Jena Campaign "A Panda For Amanda"
CD - - - $10Turn that frown upside down. The Jena Campaign's 2005 self-titled debut was characterized by its dirgefulness and torpidity ("slow-folk-core" being the apt terminology), but now TJC is back with a (mostly) more mobile and livelier second effort. "You stole my car, and then you stole my heart" singer and storyteller Matt Maggiacomo proclaims on the opening song, but, judging by the tone of this track and other upbeat selections off of A Panda For Amanda, we think that overall he's pretty much OK with that. Just like he's apparently OK with "A Girl On Drugs" and the fact that Jesus was a drama queen. A Panda For Amanda is about learning to laugh at things and about embracing life in the face of sadness. Additional instrumentation of banjo (Mark Mandeville), mandolin (also Mark), upright bass (Zack Ciras), and plaintive female vocals (Raianne Richards) adds an alt-country tinge to an album that is a triumph over despair. Tracklisting: You Stole My Car And Then You Stole My Heart / A Born Again Christian Upon Reading The Da Vinci Code / Girl On Drugs / Our Weekend In Kansas / Wyoming / A Panda For Amanda / London, Northampton, And So Forth / Baby, You're A Stranger / Red Eye To Chicago / Cheyenne Skyline Check out a different album.  NFR 013 Karrie Hopper "An Unusual Move"
CD - - - $10Her parents and God (or the deity of your choice, if you believe in that sort of thing) may have bestowed upon Karrie Hopper a singing voice youthful in its innocence and straightforwardness, but she sings with an aged perspective and poignancy. This was immediately obvious to us upon our first exposure to Karrie, her song "Take My Life": "The Mother and Daughter are almost the same...I'm sorry I was a difficult child to raise. I know I drained every bit of you, that's why I'm like you." Next we heard was "Tuesday", a song about patience and unrequited love, and when she sings that "Your answer will come in a matter of time", it's all too evident to both us and Karrie-Present that Karrie-Past is waiting for something that's never going to arrive, at least in the way that she wants it. After that we were undyingly hooked on her sounds - a voice with the rare combination of distinctiveness and honesty backed with mostly a nylon-string guitar and sometimes minimal accompaniment - and we know that soon you'll be too. Tracklisting: An Unusual Move / Twilight Song / Tuesday / The Night Game / Beyond The Wild / Prayer Before Nightmare / Ten Years From Now / True Rider / Racing / Take My Life / Inspiration City / You Were Loved Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 012 Jerry Fels "Live In Your Bedroom"
CD - - - $10Jerry Fels writes songs that are often clever and/or insightful, which are always short and to the point, and that have titles which speak for themselves. His live shows are intimate and uproarious affairs, and Live In Your Bedroom endeavors to capture that experience - if either you have not been so privileged to witness such an event, or if you wish to stage your own Jerry Fels spectacle in the the privacy of your own home (to each his own...). L.I.Y.B.'s packaging features the very lovely artwork of the very talented Kristy McColl. Jerry Fels is available for bookings of all occasions. Want Jerry Fels in your bedroom, living room, coffeehouse, or at your college? You'll never know what's possible unless you ask. Tracklisting: Bury The Boyfriend / Shake It Around / I Bet They Were Fucking / What Does It Matter? / For Unapologetic Cruel Karma / Everything's Bigger In The Big City / A Girl And Her Dog / Be Good To Yr. Self / No More Love Songs / A Waste Is A Terrible Thing To Mind / If Life Is A Highway Then Love Is An Ocean / Open Letter To Anyone Who's Ever Fucked Someone Over Check out a different album.  NFR 011 Mike Antos "Cease And Decyst"
CD - - - $3Meet Mike Antos. Lovable, huggable, and aw-shucks-able. His debut CD features two bagpipe tunes, three Jerry Master of The Rudiments® covers, two songs from the Mikey Horror Picture Show, two songs written on a video game system, one theme from a video game for a different system, four songs written on a computer (not a video game system but close enough), one song about Waterworld, one four-second excoriation, one hit single, two "remixes" of said single, and one super-secret "variation" on a mid-nineties mid-range mid-alternative one hit wonder. Mike describes himself as smart, sweet, and responsible, and his hobbies include videography/amateur filmmaking, electronics, and playing videogames. Tracklisting: Lochanside / I'm Your Hero / American Myk / I Don't Wanna Eat My Mule / Rygar / Shitty Smorg / You Ain't Good For Bummin' / Mike Wowzers / Don't Do That (Theme From Waterworld 2) / Last Song On Side One / Basically / Creepy Mule Harmony / The Mike Warp / Less-Shitty Smorg / Theme From The Mikey Horror Picture Show / Myk-Techno-Dot-Acid / Myk-Style Music / I Don't Wanna Eat My Mule (live) / The Haunting / The Sophomores Check out a different album.  NFR 010 The Accident That Led Me To The World
CD - - - $10Sea chanteys filtered through bluegrass and late-twentieth century singer-songwritery, performed by the crew of a ghost ship sailing in a sea of ennui, the passengers of which have been sentenced to a manner of solitary confinement that is in many ways self-enforced. Instrumentation of upright bass, acoustic guitar, banjo, clarinet, violin, and cello. Often one or two voices and sometimes many. Songs by Mark Mandeville, the lone survivor of the most calamitous of shipwrecks. Additional players include Raianne Richards, the voice of a siren and the mouth of a sailor, and Zack Ciras, with skills in bowsmanship that are unmatched on the eastern seaboard. Recorded in the ghost ship's cabin by Jerry Fels. Will disappear into the horizon in the blink of an eye, leaving your panoramic ocean view fathomless and without object. Tracklisting: Tell Me Something / Broken House / Small Way / Long Nights Long Days / Mars / Care / Watermark / Below / Sunday / The Accident That Led Me To The World / All My Ghosts / Take My Life Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 009 The Jena Campaign self-titled CD - - - $10The Historical Dictionary of Napoleonic France espouses the view that The Jena Campaign, the series of military victories whereby the French army brought the Prussian Empire to its knees, exemplified the persistent, unyielding manner in which the diminutive emperor waged war. Thus it is an apt name and an apt album title for a band whose music imparts the feeling of an appro priate sonic accompaniment for steady, relentless marching through tribulations and travails. There is always a sense of foreboding underneath, a notion of impending disaster, one which, in a strictly musical sense, only fully surfaces in one very discernable instance, the rest of the time being content with fermenting underfoot. While The Jena Campaign never entirely sets up camp under the flag of sub-genres slow-core or sad-core, it maintains elements of each, while imbuing both with an impression of rootsiness and folkiness not normally associated with those down-tempo approaches, at times almost expressing joyousness, but the presentiment of imminent misfortune always returns, as expected and as dependable as misfortune itself. Tracklisting: Holiday / A View From A Window / The Wheel To Your Siren / Should I? / You Lie / If You Sing, Sing It Softly / Cut the Cord pt. 1 / We Dig Our Own Graves / From Here To North Dakota / If These Walls Weren't Here, I'd Tear Myself Down Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 008 Jerry Fels "How To Make Enemies And Influence Strangers" CD - - - $5Jerry spent late 2003 and all of 2004 and even a little bit of early 2005 writing and recording this album. Some may say that he still didn't spend enough time, but they're just the haters and there's no pleasing them anyways. There's a lot of singing on it (don't wince, it's not as bad as it used to be, but if you were hoping for Justin Timberlake then personally it's my opinion that you should rethink what you are doing in life). There's some bad words on it so maybe you'll want to wait until your parents are out of the house before you crank it on your stereo. There's more guitar on it than usual and less keyboard than usual. There's also some drums. If you're a dork then you may be interested to know that most of the album was recorded almost entirely with SM57's (at times even ONE SM57 micing both guitar and vocals), there's a few large diaphragm bass drum mics here and there, and the only condenser mics used are on the fingersnaps in Track #9. But don't be fooled by cosmetics and semantics - if you are then you're just a vapid trend-follower and a poseur and all your friends talk behind your back about you're a lot less cooler than you think you are - anyhow, these tracks are hot. Tracklisting: The Things You Need To Do / The Things We Are Made Of / The Things People Value The Most / The World Is Flat / You Have To Want / E.L.T.S. / The Only Pair Of Wings / We Are Going To Die / Oh When Oh When / I Bet They Were Fucking / I Don't Know What To Do / I Thought Things Could Make Sense Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 007 Raianne Richards self-titled CD - - - $5Her name may sound like that of a country singer, and her self-produced recording methods may remind some of the lo-fi four-track techniques typically employed by lonely boys, but trust me, Raianne is neither country nor a boy. Nor is she lonely, for often on this collection of bedroom folk she is joined by playmates Mark and Dean. But Raianne can still do the DIY multi-instrumentalist one-woman band thing, at times getting down with her bad self by means of acoustic guitar, bass and...clarinet? Eight songs in all, mostly about falling and being in love, but Raianne's more than a few cuts above the typical coffee shop chanteuse expounding upon matters of the heart. And we wouldn't be doing our jobs (sic) if we didn't mention that Raianne was only 18 when she wrote and recorded this. Raianne later went on to flaunt her eminent skills in The Accident That Led Me To The World. Tracklisting: Blood Runs Deep / Close Your Eyes / Tired Eyes / Crazy Boy / Linger / Expectations / Luna / Commotion Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 006 Mark Mandeville "Leaf Tornado" CD - - - $5Straight from Mark's four-track to your CD player. Nine stripped-down acoustic numbers about driving and loneliness. And people driving away from you, thereby leaving you...alone. And also about doing some driving yourself, because the only way to get away from the loneliness is by leaving it behind and the fastest way to leave something behind is by driving and maybe when you get where you're driving to there's something there that will make you feel not so lonely. Or maybe it's just the drive itself that's what you're looking for. And then there's also a little bit of Britney Spears thrown in for good measure, because everyone knows that sex sells. What more can we say? Mark later went on to much greater things in The Accident That Led Me To The World but nonetheless it is still important to examine Leaf Tornado as an important stepping stone on the path towards what was to be. And by "examine" we mean shell out your hard-earned five bucks and purchase it. Tracklisting: Wishing And Whining / Driving To To Maine / News Anchor Man / Red Pickup Truck / Steering Wheel / Big Baby / Guardrail / Stereo Rain / Story & A Stick Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 005 The Short Happy Life "The Album Is Also Called 'The Short Happy Life' " CD - - - $5
Jerry Fels had a band before he became Jerry Fels. It was called The Short Happy Life, only The Short Happy Life wasnmt really a band, but more like a moniker, pseudonym, whatever. In other words, it was still him, but instead of calling himself Jerry Fels he called himself The Short Happy Life. This phase did not last for very long, but it did last long enough to produce an album, surprisingly not also called The Short Happy Life, but instead The Album Is Also Called The Short Happy Life. Oh, those self-produced bedroom aesthetes. So clever. Anyway, the results are a little more band-oriented than usual than what youmd come to expect from Jerry Fels, so maybe he was onto something with this whole TSHL motif. Or maybe not, seeing that he saw fit to drop the whole premise three months after the albumms release. Nevertheless, Slightly Confusing To A Stranger called it "An album that you will either love instantly or painfully reject", and, while we honestly could not have said it any better ourselves, we really just donmt want this record sitting around here anymore, being a constant reminder of one of our principal artistsm wandering, erratic muse. Staring at us. Laughing at us when we turn our backs. Constantly plotting our imminent demise. So buy it. Please? Track Listing: Be Good To Yr. Self / Oh Carrie Brownstein / Do You Wanna Be My Girlfriend? / What The Body Wants / We Are Just / We've Been Taught / Loving You Is A Waste Of Time / Love Is For Losers / You Call That Love / It's Almost Time For Bed / Oh Jerry / If You Could / At First It Will Be Hard / I'm Not Giving Up On This Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 004 The Brands "Ballads For Stairs And Transparencies" CD - - - $5Mark Mandeville had a band before he was in The Accident That Led Me To The World. It was called The Brands. Of course, hems been in other bands besides The Brands and The Accident That Led Me To The World, but those are the only ones that have released albums under the Nobodyms Favorite Records black+white banner and so those are the only ones that count. Only The Brands wasnmt a band, but instead it was just him, with a little (OK more than a little; in fact maybe a lot, or a least a considerable amount of) help from Jerry Fels. Also, for some unknown reason, Michael Thibodeau and Kayla Daly make brief appearances on backing vocals. Maybe itms a Worcester thing, and if you donmt know what we mean when we say a "Worcester thing" then maybe this will help you (as we quote directly from Worcester Magazine): "A long time coming from this coffeehouse darling, Ballads features 13 acoustic tunes full of angst and anguish...Great stuff, but be careful not to listen too long if you're pining for someone, recovering from lost love, or upset about the news. Then again, it might be good therapy." Sniff, sniff. We're pining for a loved one right now just thinking about this album. And we still canmt believe that Mark was once referred to as a "coffeehouse darling" - we have to remember to pick on him for that one at the next NFR post-show get-together. Anyway, if you have a hole deep inside you too (and we know you do), fill it with Ballads for Stairs and Transparencies. Track Listing: Ballad For Stairs And Transparencies / Mr. Pony Man / The Sun Left A Black Spot On My Eye / Emo's Kitten / Rusty Head / Monster / Tonight I Sing / Dear Confident / Masquerade / Sheri's Song / The Impossible / In Stereo / Alone Boy Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 003 Jerry Fels "I've Made My Bed and Now I'm Lying In It" CD - - - $5
Personally, when I think of Nobody's Favorite Records, I think of Jerry Fels' I've Made My Bed And Now I'm Lying In It. Probably our best seller, and definitely our most well-known, not that we keep track of those kinds of things (editor's note: both The Accident That Led Me To The World and The Jena Campaign have probably invalidated the previous sentence) (editor's second note: Jerry Fels' own Live In Your Bedroom has also, at the time of this writing, just about surpassed IMMBANILII in terms of sales and noteworthyness). Anyway, if you still don't own a copy of the album that put NFR on the map, then I just don't know what's going on with you, and if you want one you better act fast because these babies are priced to move and they're moving fast and once they're gone we're probably not making anymore. Track Listing: Shake It Around / Left Right Left / I'm Gonna Do Something Stupid / What You Own / The Size of Your Head / Bury The Boyfriend / Never Leaving The House / Sleep Forever / Cliche Broken-Hearted Song / I Blew It / 1+1=2 / Battle of Two Boys / I'd Do This For You / To Be A Salesman / The Birds And The Bees / The E-mail Song / Never Like TV Read the reviews. Check out a different album.  NFR 002 The Brands "The Sun Left a Black Spot On My Eye" CD - - - SOLD OUTMark Mandeville's 4-track demos, recorded by himself in an apartment and in a barn. Someday we might make more. On the other hand, we probably won't. Check out a different album.  NFR 001 Jerry Fels "Music For Stick People" CD - - - $3 The solo debut. It's emo-synth. You say you've never heard of emo-synth? That's because you don't have this album yet. It was ahead of its time when it was released and it still is today. There's REALLY not very many of these left so if you want one act fast, like, today. Track Listing: Number / Who Are You Trying To Fool? / Everybody / Distance / The Other Side Of The World / Don't Quit Your Day Job / 25 Candles / Upstairs / Nothing To Say / Sun / Six Year Anniversary / Lose Check out a different album.  NFR 000 Blood Donors "Blood Donors" CD - - - THROWN OUTThat's right, the first offical foray of Nobody's Favorite Records into the music making biz has suffered a rather ignominious demise. It so happened that one day one of the Nobody's Favorite elves was on a routine inventory check and discovered, much to his dismay, that the night cleaning crew had accidentally THROWN OUT the remaining copies of this now-collector's item. Looking for a copy? We suggest eBay. Track Listing: Carnival / Stuffed Frog / Chocolate Milk / Beavers For Breakfast / Don't Taunt The Monkey / Leeza / Taco Love / Practical Like A Well-Used Dishrag / Wood / Kitty-Kitty-Kitty Cat Check out a different album. |
