Engine Room all over year end “Best Of” lists!

Engine Room Recordings — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:50:10 +0000

2009 was by far our best year yet and it’s very humbling that many blogs and magazines also agreed. Wow, where to begin! Hmm how about alphabetically, that’s very diplomatic, which means The Bloodsugars will kick things off. In the Fall of ‘09 the guys released their debut album I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, and quickly gained lots of attention with the premier of their single Light At The End Of The Tunnel on Stereogum. One new fan was Russ at Soldout who named the band as his best new band of the year, and this upcoming February 10th The Bloodsugars have been asked to perform at the Soldout launch party at NYC’s Santos Party House…buy tickets here. Next Nora at I Rock I Roll has been a great supporter of the band for a while now and listed the album in the #20 spot of her year end wrap-up. Then Blurt asked several artists who their top ten albums were this year in a piece they called The Artists Have Spoken and the kind folks in Girls In Trouble placed I Can’t Go On as their #8 of the year. And it keeps going with Spinning Platters‘ Gordon Elgart giving them 14th best album of the year and Berkeley Place, who after sorting their iTunes playcount (cool idea), came up with The Bloodsugars cover of Self Control from Guilt By Association Vol 2 among the top played songs for 2009 and they also placed the entire GBA album as the 15th best of the year. Finally, Atlas And Anchor, who interviewed lead singer Jason Rabinowitz back in November, listed Pedestrian Boogie as their #7 song of the year AND I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On took the #3 spot for best album of the year! This then leads us nicely to Israel Darling who were also found on Atlas And Anchors’ year end lists with their debut album Dinosaur Bones & Mechanical Hands making it to #6 AND their single Samson The Mason in the #8 spot for best songs of 2009. The album also made Chris at The Battering Room’s favorite of the year list!

Next up – Middle Distance Runner. We released this DC outfits sophomore album in October titled The Sun & Earth, which is currently in heavy rotation at WOXY and many other radio stations across the country. It was picked as one of the albums to shop for this holiday season by QRO Mag, and QRO writer Michael Gutierrez listed The Sun & Earth in his top ten albums of 2009. Plus This Mornin’ I Am Born Again said MDR’s “The Unbeliever” was one of the best music videos of the year AND listed The Sun & Earth as the #7 album of the year AND included three songs in their best songs of 2009 list! This then brings us to Deli Magazine who every year host a Best Of NYC poll. Out of hundreds of bands who submit for this honor we’re very proud to announce that this year Porter Block was selected as a Runner Up in the Alternative Rock category. And their ‘09 release The Gowanus Yacht Club was named the 21st best album of the year by Mothpod!

Last we have fellow DC band U.S. Royalty and their EP Midsommar. This was our very first vinyl release and let me speak frank for a moment, what a pain in the ass it was. I’m pretty sure every single step in the manufacturing process there were problems, but it turned out great so well worth the hassle! And the critics agree, Midsommar was listed as the 26th best album of the year by The Couch Sessions and Duke Chronicle named Keep It Real as the 6th best song of 2009, followed by 32 Feet Per Second who put the single Every Summer as the #23 spot in their Top 50 songs of 2009. Then a big supporter of Engine Room in 2009 was BreakThru Radio, they played lots of our music and invited a bunch of our bands into their studios to perform live. I guess they really loved the guys in U.S. Royalty cause they named them one of the best In Studio performances this year! Maybe it had something to do with how well they dress, J/K.

Oh and the awesome people at Stylecaster asked Engine Room Label Manager Chris Hacker to recap his favorite songs of 2009. While he wasn’t allowed to pick any ERR songs it’s still a good list and can read it here.

Happy New Year everyone and here’s to a great 2010!

-Engine Room

First GBA 2 Review In

Engine Room Recordings — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:55:00 +0000

GBA 2 Release Parties Announced!

Engine Room Recordings — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:11:00 +0000

We’re lucky to be celebrating this record twice at two of the best venues in the City!

The first one is at Music Hall of Williamsburg (see the beautiful flyer below that was hand painted by Engine Room’s own Joyce Chan) on Saturday January 31st. The night features Robbers On High Street, Jukebox The Ghost, Takka Takka and Lowry. Plus we have some prizes to hand out and free chocolates courtesy of Brooklyn’s own The Mast Brothers (while supplies last)

Then on Thursday February 5th we are at Bowery Ballroom with Francis and the Lights, Savoir Adore and The Bloodsugars!

For complete details on these shows and to buy tickets head over to Bowery Presents

Guilt By Association Vol. 2 Is Here!

Engine Room Recordings — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:56:00 +0000

Folks, it’s time! Guilt By Association Vol. 2 is here. Pitchfork just announced its release and hits the nail on the head! For round two, the comp seems to have evolved from a collection of covers of guilty pleasures to an unabashed celebration of pop, probably since nobody should ever feel ashamed for liking something (unless that something is Ted Nugent in 2008). (Full article here.) Stream the whole record below and hit the iTunes button on the player to make it yours!

Engine Room Recordings » Guilt By Association Vol.2

Engine Room all over year end “Best Of” lists!

First GBA 2 Review In

GBA 2 Release Parties Announced!

Guilt By Association Vol. 2 Is Here!