Bladen County Records:
Joe Bowden and Matt Brown, Owners
Mike McCluskey, Project Manager
Matt King, Production Assistant
Josh Spacek, Production Assistant
Colin Howard, Production Assistant
Casey Burns, Art Director
James Mitchell, Graphic Designer
Here’s an article from the Willamette Week about BCR:
When their friends’ bands needed a record label in 1993, Omaha’s Robb Nansel and Mike Mogis started Lumberjack Records. Their friends were in little-known Omaha bands with names like Bright Eyes, Cursive and The Faint, and Nansel and Mogis started soon changed their label’s name to Saddle Creek Records. And everyone got rich and famous and lived happily ever after on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Last fall, Matt Brown and Joe Bowden stepped up to fill a similar void for their friends here in Portland and around the country. “We put out a couple records, realized how difficult it is – and kept doing it,” Bowden says. Since October 2006 Bowden and Brown’s label Bladen County Records have released albums for locals The Builders And The Butchers, Kurt Hagardorn, PDX-to-SF transplant Dakota Slim, and they’re about to unveil new releases by Autopilot, Oh Captain, My Captain, New York’s Anders Parker, and a Builders And The Butchers split with local chamber pop powerhouse Loch Lomond.
Both Saddle Creek and Bladen County share geographical names – a road in Omaha and a county in Matt Brown’s native North Carolina. But beyond that, Bladen County shares a solid line-up with an indie-Americana slant with their label elder.
Bladen’s spearhead act are morbid blues and gospel band The Builders And The Butchers, whose intense, crowd-involving live show and polished Bladen debut have got the local scene buzzing. Autopilot are the flip side of the dark blues coins on the Butchers’ eyes, the Bright Eyes to their Cursive, showcasing the shaking voice and accordion of Adrienne Hatkin.
But as far as Brown and Bowden are concerned, four-piece rockers Oh Captain, My Captain are their secret weapons. Evoking three different branches of the pop family tree – the Beatles, Queen and Radiohead – Oh Captain, My Captain (not to be confused with fellow locals Oh! Captain) officer distinct vocals and a gripping live show. Meanwhile, North Carolina transplant Kurt Hagardorn is a throwback to the brilliantly-simple pop songs of the ‘50s through the ‘70s, when bands cut straight to the point, and the point was to stick in your head.
Outside of Portland, Bladen’s roster also includes Dakota Slim, who transplanted to San Francisco in early 2007 and whose new Bladen album Hitherto the Animals mixes folk with electronic experimentation. And the new live album for New Yorker Anders Parker, veteran of popular alt-country act Varnaline and experimental rockers Space Needle, hits just in time for his show with most of Bladen County’s line-up at Slabtown.
Only time will tell if Bladen County proves to be the Saddle Creek of Portland – but after only a year they’re already off to a good start! The Builders And The Butchers, Oh Captain, My Captain, Kurt Hagardorn, Dakota Slim, Anders Parker, and Invisible Rockets play Slabtown at 8 pm Friday, Sept. 7.