It’s been so long since I’ve had a blog post. I have been so busy with life, children, taking time for self care, you know the usual. Anyway, enough with that. Lets get on to cool stuff. Our friend Robert Sullen is hosting another year of San La Muerte fest. Sadly, we were not able to attend last year or the year before but we are planning to go this year. One of the reasons I love going is because it’s like a little getaway for us, also we love Texas especially San Antonio. This year it will be held again in Austin. WHY? I’m really not a fan of Austin anymore, it’s so congested and busy but I will manage. San Antonio is super mellow, I believe the city motto is Keep San Antonio Lame. I really like that motto, I’ve always been the underdog and never the popular person, so I feel like I fit in more with San Antonio, I digress.

So far Ana Curra and The Vanishing have been announced to play SLM2020. Also, Virtigo from Santa Ana will be DJ’ing the event, so we need to represent.

I’ve seen The Vanishing many times, I have been going to shows for what seems like forever, they were very popular here during the white belt phase of the Locust. I seriously remember them being kind of wacky dark.

Go to http://www.sanlamuertefest.com to purchase tickets.

I also wanted to take this moment to talk about Annex from RGV Texas, I really feel a kindred spirit with Nikole from Annex / Her Corrosion. I was so excited when I heard that they started playing again after a bit of a hiatus. They even went on a little tour and played a last minute show at Johnny Germ’s house in Santa Ana. I was so glad I got to go, because it’s very hard for me to get a sitter around here. Anyway, they were amazing they were actually better than they were before and they were already great!

Also Nikole has brought back Her Corrosion zine in printed format which is amazing! I love stuff so it’s great to be able to have something tangible in your hands to look at rather just on our computers and phones.

You can order Her Corrosion here https://hercorrosion.weebly.com Nikole is currently working on issue #2.

Ok so now with some news about the label and what’s going on. I have taken a lengthy break from releasing records. It’s been very nice and stress free. What people don’t talk about publicly about doing a small DIY label as that it is a labor of love and there is NO money to be made at all, you don’t even break even. It’s just something you do because you love the music and you want to be supportive. As I’ve taken this break I have seen so many of my label friends also stop releasing records. I think it’s due to a number of factors. One being record store day really screwed things up for small labels, the plants put our releases on the back burner for extremely long completion times, this led to bands getting frustrated and releases being released through online formats or tapes and that just really has an impact on the demand for the vinyl release. I also think that not many people are buying records as much as they did in the past. I know this to be true as I was a big time record collector bordering on hoarder. I remember years ago going to a PCH records swap and spending $1000 in an afternoon, I mean I buy records just not as much. I think we have changed how we consume music, I spend time in the gym desperately trying to lose my baby weight listening to music on my headphones. When I am at home I am listening to people’s spotify playlists and working or gardening. Mostly just dancing along to https://www.instagram.com/aranivah

So with all that said I don’t see myself releasing records in a vinyl format for the time being. I think that bands should release their own material in vinyl format if they truly want to have a release. You get to invest in it and then tour on it and it just seems like a better way to distribute records. When people go to shows they want to be supportive they want to have a souvenir from the show so they are more prone to buy your record right there. Anyway, this is super nerd record stuff that is not that interesting to many people. I still plan on keeping the website and picking up releases from bands and labels I love to distribute and also still sell the releases I have in stock. http://massmediarecords.bigcartel.com I also plan on offering free domestic shipping on all items.

Oh and one last thing I came across Obscura Undead on instagram. I really like what these ladies are doing. Check them out https://youtu.be/t6C2WrN963g

That’s about it for now. I plan to be more active on this more. Hope everyone has a super Valentine’s Day! Keep Goth Cool!