Category Archives: News

Dromedary to Reissue The Mommyheads’ “Flying Suit” CD!

The Mommyheads were the biggest and most popular band ever to release a record on Dromedary. The _Flying Suit_ CD, initially released in 1995, sold out of three pressings within months, as the band toured the United States in Canada with the likes of The Posies and Guided By Voices. The CD went on to become an indie rock classic, receiving stellar reviews and college radio airplay everywhere.

When we reconnected with the band in mid 2009, we began talking about a re-release of _Flying Suit_ on Dromedary. Perhaps a European tour. And some additional tracks, to flesh out _Flying Suit_ with some additional songs recorded and released during that period – including “Day Job,” the song that rocked our world throughout 1993. And the songs were all remastered beautifully, bringing out elements of the music that we’d never heard before. What a fantastic album.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that this May, we will be re-releasing the classic _Flying Suit_ CD, *completely and beautifully remastered*, with *three additional tracks*. Even if you own the original _Flying Suit_ you’ll owe it to yourself to pick up the 2010 version – each track sounds phenomenally better, and the three additional tracks – each one an early ’90s classic from the band – round out this incredibly-crafted, articulate pop masterpiece.

For a sneak preview of the beauty of the remastered _Flying Suit_, check out the track “Spiders” from the Dromedary compilation _Make the Load Lighter: Indie Rock for Haiti_. Then sit back and wait patiently – we’ll have the new version streaming this Spring.

And for you Mommyheads fans in northern Europe who have waited for years to see the band, your wait is almost over. We’re proud to announce the The Mommyheads will be *touring* Scandinavia this Spring!

Dromedary In The News!

Dromedary and Dromedary bands have been all over the place the last few weeks. Check out what people are saying!

*FOOTSTONE*

The release of Footstone’s _Lippy_ has generated quite a bit of interest.

The _Aquarian Weekly_ wrote a blurb on the Dromedary and _Lippy_ re-launch, as well as the Footstone/FRC/Dark Brothers show at Maxwell’s. You can read that “here”:http://www.theaquarian.com/2010/02/02/dromedary-records-getting-over-the-hump/

Jay Lustig of the _Star-Ledger_ in New Jersey wrote a nice piece on Dromedary, Footstone, _Lippy_, and _Make The Load Lighter_ that can be found “here”:http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2010/02/dromedary_records_jersey_indie.html

The literary blog _I Just Read About That_ wrote about _Lippy_ “here”:http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/roberto-bolano-alvaro-rousselots-journey-new-yorker-november-26-2007/

On March 1, the track “Toothpick” from the _Lippy_ CD was offered by eMusic as their *Free Daily Download*. Right after that, the track “Mad-G” received a ton of coverage, starting with _Brooklyn Rocks_, who offered the track for free and wrote all about Footstone “here”:http://brooklynrocks.blogspot.com/2010/03/footstone-reunites-and-reissues-1995.html

The *POP! Stereo* blog called “Mad-G” one of the “Ten Tracks You Need” that same week, offering it for free download “here”:http://popstereo.blogspot.com/2010/03/ten-tracks-you-need-58.html

The _Quirky NY Chick_ music blog offered it for free “here”:http://www.quirkynychick.com/2010/03/footstones-lippy-gets-re-released.html and _NJ.com_ offered it “here”:http://www.nj.com/bands/index.ssf/2010/03/free_footstone_download.html

*MAKE THE LOAD LIGHTER: INDIE ROCK FOR HAITI*

Although the Haiti tragedy was two months ago, the people of Haiti still need our help. The blogosphere is well aware of this, and they’ve been kind enough to give our awesome compilation quite a bit of coverage.

Jim Testa wrote about it on the _Jersey Beat_ blog “here”:http://jerseybeat.blogspot.com/ and the Boston-based music blog Bradley’s Almanac covered it “here”:http://www.bradleysalmanac.com/ (check the Feb. 22 entry).

The Scottish indie music blog Jockrock wrote about the compilation in their “March 2 entry”:http://www.jockrock.org/news.shtml

The indie music blog “Heroes of Indie Music”:http://castleqwayr.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/make-the-load-lighter-indie-rock-for-haiti/ offered the Mommyheads’ “Spiders” as a free download, as did “The Devil Has The Best Tuna”:http://besttuna.blogspot.com/2010/02/make-load-lighter.html

“Spiders” seemed to be a popular download earlier this month, as it was also featured on the “Mad Mackerel music blog”:http://madmackerel.blogspot.com/2010/03/dromedary-records-release-indie.html and “POP! Stereo”:http://popstereo.blogspot.com/2010/03/ten-tracks-you-need-59.html

We were also mentioned on “Under The Radar”:http://www2.jpscotland.co.uk/musicblog/2010/03/newsbits-scottish-alt-awards-aberdeen.html back at the beginning of March. The Scottish indie music press have been very kind to us.

Stick around – there’s lots of stuff going on, and we’ll tell you all about it right here!

Dromedary Inks Friends, Romans, Countrymen!

On February 6 at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, a capacity crowd saw a blistering set by the Dark Brothers, followed by outstanding, long-anticipated reunions from Friends, Romans, Countrymen and Footstone.

FRC took the stage with the song “The Day Footstone Died,” an homage to the influence and power of Footstone. The song was the lead track on their CD _I Am Spartacus_, which was released just a few years ago. Due to the band’s hiatus, however, the CD never saw wide release.

We’re proud to announce that we’ll be making that release available digitally in April, and will also have real, live, physical CD copies that you can purchase right here at the Dromedary website.

Stay tuned for more info about how you can get your hands on a copy of this fantastic, unheralded pop-core release!

Digital EP Giveaway – Cuppa Joe’s Busy Work!

In advance of the digital rerelease of Cuppa Joe’s outstanding CD _Nurture_, we’re proud to offer you a *FREE* copy of the band’s 1993 debut, the _Busy Work EP_.

_Busy Work_, initially released on 7″ vinyl format, was a special point in Dromedary’s history. A true beacon of the DIY/indie movement of the mid-90s, _Busy Work_ featured all the things that made DIY music great – outstanding songwriting, home-spun artwork (hand-colored in crayon by the band, in homage to the EP’s title), an initial pressing on cherry-red vinyl, and sequential numbering for the first thousand copies.

The initial pressing sold out within months, and a second pressing just about sold out as well.

With just a few copies remaining in existence, _Busy Work_ has been unavailable since 1993. If you didn’t buy a copy then, you couldn’t get one.

Until now.

To acquire your own digital copy of the EP, *all you need to do is sign up to be on Dromedary’s email list*. It’s simple. Look in the upper-right corner of this page, and you’ll see a box to enter your email address. You’ll then receive a confirmation email where we’ll ask you to give us a little more info about yourself. Before the end of February, we’ll send you a link where you can download the EP for *FREE*.

Before you freak out about being added to our email list: we promise. We won’t give your email address to ANYONE else, and we’ll only use it to send you periodic emails about what we’re up to. It’s tough for an indie label to reach you with news, and having your email address is a great way for us to communicate with you, let you know about new releases, shows in your area, and that sort of thing.

Here’s what _Popwatch_, our favorite ’90s pop zine, had to say about _Busy Work_:

“…I think I’m the only one here who’s noticed how neat these three songs are, combining northeast USA nerdy-boy accents and heavily-British record collections. Cuppa Joe remind me of very early Primal Scream (but with a more normal vocal range) and of recent Wimp Factor 14 (minus the banging-on-buckets angle). ”Bottle Rocket” is a frenetic, earnest, jangly description of suburban guilt, “Surface Area” lopes up and down the well-worn slopes of a failing romance, and if the words aren’t exactly full of new ideas, the inherent rightness of the various tunes more than makes up for it.”

A Night of Rock and Reunion

Our good friend Steve Bailey, scenester, zinester, and Cultural Exchange Advocate, attended the Footstone and Friends, Romans, Countrymen reunion show at Maxwell’s back on February 6, and was kind enough to write an awesome review of the night.

It was great to see Steve – it had probably been fifteen or sixteen years since we’d spent any time with him, and although we _were_ worried that we wouldn’t recognize him, he hasn’t changed a *bit* and we picked up right where we left off.

The night was spectacular, the club was filled, and rather than review the show ourselves, we’ll let Steve’s review do the talking:

“February 6, 2009. Maxwell’s, Hoboken.

Seeing these people, hearing this music after all of these years thrilled me more than even I had expected. Oh sure, we’ve aged a little and we’ve seen our share of knocks. Some have kids. Some are still searching for life’s answers. The one thing that has not changed is our connection to something special. The music we made nearly two decades ago meant something.

Now, as bands like Green Day and Guns N’ Roses are touted as “highly influential”, I find myself longing for a time when bands of talented musicians created cutting edge sounds underground. Apart from the corporate machine, we struggled to be heard. In the end, that music was more original and far better than anything the American Idol generation tells us is original or good today.

Along with the music was the friendship. While some relationships over the years did not last, most did. The hugs and kisses flew as I walked into the back room at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St, Hoboken). Al Crisafulli of Dromedary Records—the catalyst behind this night—was shocked that we recognized each other. Hobbling on his recently broken legged, we hugged. His wife Sandy gave me a big hug and kiss. Immediately, the reminiscing began.

Stories flowed from years gone by. More importantly for me, there was this feeling of hope. So many of our comrades were regrouping to toil in the arts once again. Who says the future of rock ‘n’ roll belongs to the young? Fuck that! These days, so many newbies have been brainwashed to believe that the status quo is now the benchmark for greatness. I say we seasoned old farts are the future!

As the shock over how much time had past and Al and Sandy’s oldest child being fourteen (they had no children the last time we hung out), it was time for the thing we came for. The music. I made my way to the stage.

First up; time to ride your pony into a dark, greasy garage because southern rock was about to collide with pop/punk. I never heard The Dark Brothers until tonight. Before they played, Ralph (singer for Footstone) and several others told me that I could not miss them. They were right.

Next came a sorta revolving-door reunion of Friends, Romans, Countrymen whose history spans from 1990-2005. Players changed to help relive various points in the band’s history. Including their ‘hair’ era, helped by the inclusion of ludicrous wigs. Self-described as burly pop-core, they rocked thru an emotional set in front of an enthusiastic crowd. A crowd that included fans and family, young and old.

No offense to the other incredible bands, but closing the night was the reunion I was waiting for. Footstone was a beacon for me back in those early days. A band whose passionate, rhythmic, loud precision defined their multifaceted songs.

Standing in front of that stage and watching something I had not seen in over ten years, a lump formed in my throat. Partly from the memories and partly from the hope, but mostly from the fact that Footstone always affected me this way. This was, in fact, their first show in ten years. With but a handful of rehearsals and a nervous energy that was palpable, they simply rocked.

Fans of Footstone and Friends, Romans, Countrymen have been lucky thanks to the formation of Stuyvesant. A hybrid of the two bands bringing the best of each to a new forefront. I honored that hybrid this night by wearing my Stuyvesant t-shirt. I called it my in-between shirt.

What now? Onward and upward. Will there be more shows like this one? I’d like to think so, but it almost doesn’t matter. The seal has been broken on a longing for quality. Friends have already started to get pumped about whatever may be next. With Dromedary Records back in the game, several more bands of that era will be resurrected—even if only in recordings—to bring real music back.

Al has promised great things on the horizon for new releases as well. Much of that promise can be heard on the compilation ‘Make the Load Lighter: Indie Rock for Haiti’, proceeds of which will go to benefit Haitian relief.

Stay tuned for more.”

Steve’s blog can be found at http://www.stephenbailey.com/ – check it out!

Up Next: Cuppa Joe’s “Busy Work EP!”

Back in 1993, we released the _Busy Work E.P._ – a wonderful slab of vinyl goodness from cuppa joe. The record contained three tremendous tracks: the classic “bottlerocket,” fan favorite “french toast,” and the beautiful “surface area.”

Pressed on cherry-red vinyl and numbered from 1-500 with artwork individually hand-colored (in crayon) by the band, the first pressing sold out within a few months. A second pressing (on black vinyl) sold nearly as quickly.

Within a few months, the band and Dromedary were hard at work on what would be the band and label’s masterpiece up until that point – the incredible CD _Nurture_. And once _Nurture_ was released, the _Busy Work EP_ became a collector’s item for cuppa joe fans, becoming tougher and tougher to find.

Eventually the band self-released some more music, put out a few 7″s and comp tracks on other labels, and began producing the revered indie zine _Science Geek_. As Dromedary faded and eventually went on hiatus, the _Busy Work EP_ disappeared from circulation.

Now, Dromedary is preparing to release an all-digital copy of the _Busy Work EP_ – and, in anticipation of the re-issue of an exciting new all-digital _Nurture_ CD this coming March, the _Busy Work EP_ will be made available for *free*, on this website, for your listening and downloading pleasure!

Keep coming back for it – we’ll be making it available for you within the next few weeks!