Hmmm. Do I need to make a “full disclosure” statement like my pal Neil? I don’t know.. You see, a good friend of mine started BMN a couple years ago but got a bit overwhelmed and was going to fold it. It was a nice outlet for my label Pyrrhic Victory Recordings, especially when we did smaller DIY press campaigns instead of hiring a publicist, so I figured let me give it a go instead of just letting it fold. He let me take it over and I created the new site and social media pages, salvaged the old twitter. While I certainly didn’t need another project (3 bands and a label were quite sufficient), it was not only intriguing for me to see what I could do with it, who I could help promote and who I could get to contribute, but since being quarantined for months the timing was ideal as I needed something other than playing baseball on Ps4 to keep my mind occupied as the world burns down around us. My bands can’t perform or even practice. Obviously it also impacted the level of activity with the label as well. This was all around 6 weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been able to recruit some great help from friends and fellow label heads, I’ve made new friends, and have and plan to make more collaborations with others as well. I guess this is as good a time as any to say to bands and labels – submit to us. We aim to be the most unpretentious outlet there is, and are more than happy to help promote your project as long as it is a quality release. We want the small labels in the tri state area (and beyond) to know they can come to us for that extra press piece, and we are working on our reach which is growing, and we feel will continue to grow. All that said, we have been and will continue to at times feature PVR releases and content. I’m happy to share this playlist of 40+ songs that capture many highlights of the first 7 years of our label’s existence. From the country twang of Philly’s Bug Martin, to the dark post-punk of Kingston NY’s Galanos and France’s Elvyn Rhud, to the horror punk of Voice of Doom and the punk/hardcore of NJ’s Scary Hours…we are proud of what we’ve accomplished and invite you to take a listen, especially if you’ve never been exposed to us before. I didn’t include influence tracks like Neil does in his playlists, although I may in the future as it’s a fun idea and makes for a good listen. Feel free to comment or write us at info@bloodmakesnoise.net if you have ideas, complaints, or have a PhD in indie rock conflict of interest/ethics. So please, pour yourself a drink or light something up, try (however hard it is) to relax, and listen to some great tunes! Thank you and enjoy...
- Joe Pugsley