A year ago today marked the day that Dromedary’s re-launch became “official.”

It was the weirdest of circumstances. We’d spent the better part of the past year telling the story of Dromedary on our “blog”:http://dromedaryrecords.wordpress.com and had begun getting emails from people, asking where they could get the old music we were posting on some of our blog entries. One thing led to another and we were, suddenly, seriously kicking around the idea of becoming a record label again.

On September 5, though, at a surprise birthday party for me (I’m Al; I write most of these entries and articles and such), the great Footstone reunited for their first show in a decade.

It was, for me, a little weird – the band did not end well, and though much of the bad blood had become water under the bridge, it was still bizarre to see them all together beforehand. They were acting as if they’d never been apart (and really, these guys had been together as a band since they were in _high school_), and the normal pre-show jitters were present – Ralph a little bit pensive, Mark and Dave just a tiny bit goofier than normal, Eric just a little bit tense.

And then they hit the “stage” (actually, my lawn), and ten years of rust was shaken off within two songs. They played a set chock full of fan favorites, sounded fantastic, and by the time they closed with a cover of Cheap Trick’s “He’s A Whore,” the rebirth of Dromedary was complete.

Here, by the way, is that very cover.

It was a pretty special day, and it was one year ago today.

On the heels of Dromedary’s reissue of the classic Mommyheads CD _Flying Suit_, we’re ecstatic to announce that this fall, we will be releasing _Finest Specimens_.

Beginning with their incredibly creative and influential debut album _Acorn_ (Fang Records, 1989), the band has enjoyed a long history of creating incredible avant-pop and indie rock music. _Finest Specimens_ is a sort of “best of the Mommyheads” collection, containing 21 tracks that span the band’s entire career, right through 2008’s acclaimed CD _You’re Not A Dream_ (Bladen County Records).

With many of the band’s earlier works currently out of print, _Finest Specimens_ offers an excellent window into the band’s history. But that’s not all – the CD also contains four previously unreleased live tracks, including a spectacular version of the fan favorite “Needmore, PA” that was recorded on the band’s 2010 tour of Sweden.

And best of all, the CD contains a *brand new Mommyheads track* – the hauntingly beautiful ballad “When The Sun Breaks.”

Fang Records founder and NYC avant garde music veteran Chris Rael writes “I met the Mommyheads in 1988, when they were all still teenagers. They were child priests of progressive music, brilliant and ecstatic, richly talented and fearless in their pursuit of the new. They were sophisticated, funny, and shockingly cynical for their age, bending your brain and heart into pretzels. Soaking up sounds from the likes of XTC, James Brown, and Pussy Galore, they composed epic carnivals and jammed like banshees.

They have played some of the most exciting shows I’ve ever seen.

Everywhere they went, they left a trail of converts. The band relentlessly cris-crossed the country, built a devoted audience, and eventually broke up in the wake of an aborted major label deal in 1997.

Either together or as individuals, The Mommyheads will be heard from again.”

Out this October, _Finest Specimens_ is an excellent start.

It is with incredible happiness and pride that we announce that Dromedary has signed the mighty East Village noise pop quartet Jenifer Convertible!

This has been a long time coming. Dromedary Rev.1 flirted with JenCon for years, and ultimately was the last band that we worked with before beginning our hiatus.

Our hiatus, the impact it had on the band, and how the band moved forward was documented by guitarist Jim Santo in a guest entry in the Dromedary blog “here”:http://dromedaryrecords.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/a-guest-post-from-an-old-new-friend/

Jenifer Convertible released two critically-acclaimed 7″s on Puddle Records in the mid 90s, followed by the outstanding Wharton Tiers-produced CD _Wanna Drag_. In their wake, they left behind a host of _incredible_ music, and over the coming weeks we will be sifting through it with the band, eagerly anticipating the band’s *LONG* awaited debut on Dromedary Records!

Well, we’ve been back in business for eight months, and it’s time for us to do something we could never do back in the days before MP3 downloads: have a good old, honest-to-goodness *sale*.

So now, for the month of August, *every full-length download in our catalog* is on sale for *five measly dollars*.

Been listening to the Dromedary stream on your work PC, but haven’t wanted to pony up the ten bucks to download Footstone or Cuppa Joe? Well, we’ve just cut the price in *half* for you.

Wanted to contribute some cash to Haiti quake relief, but didn’t have the ten bucks it took to get _Make The Load Lighter_? Well it’s never gonna be cheaper. Five bucks.

And to sweeten the deal for Mommyheads fans, we’ve added a *concert video* to the download of _Flying Suit_. That’s right, for just _five dollars_, you get the complete, remastered _Flying Suit_ MP3, plus the three bonus tracks, _and_ a DVD-quality concert video of the band performing “Worm” this past May at the Cave, in Sundyberg, Sweden!

We will _not_ throw in a set of steak knives – this is the best deal you’re gonna get! Visit our “online store”:http://www.dromedary-records.com/store and download away!

Our good friend Jim Testa of _Jersey Beat_, _NJ.Com_, _The Jersey Journal_ and who knows how many other publications was nice enough to write about us last week.

He was mainly writing about the Stuyvesant show at Maxwell’s on August 26 (check it out; they’re playing with Varsity Drag, featuring Ben Deily of the Lemonheads), but the piece wound up as much a Dromedary interview as a Stuyvesant promo piece.

You can read the piece “here”:http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2010/08/hobokens_stuyvesant_helps_cele.html

And while we’re at it, _Brooklyn Vegan_ wrote about the upcoming Mommyheads show – this Thursday night at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn, in support of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

“Check it out”:http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/08/new_someone_sti.html#more

We’re proud to play you a new video from the Mommyheads’ May 22 show in Sundyberg – a brilliant version of “Jaded,” featuring guest vocalist Charlie Emm, who did an absolutely magnificent job.

Also, Tim Hinely wrote the following very nice review of _Flying Suit_ for Blurt Online. You can get _Flying Suit_ right here, or from your favorite music e-tailer.

“This San Francisco band, which existed from the late 80’s through the ‘90s, was quite underrated and confounded many. Though they wrote good pop songs, they were never able to garner any kind of momentum to bring them the respect that they deserved (possibly because each release was on a different record label). Flying Suit was record number three (after their 1991 release, Coming into Beauty on the Simple Machines label) and just might have been their best. In addition to the 8 songs that were on the original the label has tacked on 3 more songs that were recorded around that same time period and it’s been remastered as well.

Singer/guitarist Adam Cohen and his talented crew of art-damaged popsters (Mike Holt on keys, Jeff Palmer on bass and Dan Fisherman on drums) waste no time jumping right in on the first track, “Sandman”, with its jangly guitar and sky-written keyboards while “Saints Preserve Us” takes an odd time signature and runs with it. The cascading “Bottom Out” is one of the bands best songs with terrific lyrics (“I could fix your car and impress your friends and we could all drive around in my head”) while the quirky “Worm” shows a bit of a darker side. The three bonus tracks are all worth hearing as well (especially the soaring “Over”) and though a few of the songs are a bit too unfocused, overall it works well as a whole. With a sound not unlike another under-respected band, XTC, The Mommyheads were not long for this world.

However, wait, stop press: the Mommyheads are back! Playing shows and recording for (Portland’s own) Bladen County Records, so at the next gig you make sure they don’t forget to play some Flying Suit material. It deserves to be heard.

Standout Tracks: “Sandman”, “Bottom Out”, “Henry Miller is Dead”, “Over” TIM HINELY”

http://www.blurt-online.com/reviews/view/2286/

The Mommyheads – “Jaded” from Dromedary Records on Vimeo.