Narco States Tour Diary - Part 1: Temper Tantrum Rock n' Roll

Narco States have just released their new LP, Temples into Tombs. As they bop across the rust belt, lead singer Michael Meyer has been sending us his thoughts and concerns. 

Narco States “Illuminati Death Trip 2017” Tour diary.
Day 1.

Woke up late…set my alarm for PM on accident and had to rush out of the house without fully packing. I picked up Aaron 40 Minutes late but we got on the road on time.
Morale is high. We have spent much of the trip so far discussing Occultism, Ghosts and the Amazing James Randy. We are heading to Madison to play an in studio at WSUM 91.7FM followed by an on air interview. Then we are off to Milwaukee to play High Dive with Faux Fiction.

Narco States' Psychedelic Opus: Wicked Sun

Narco States Wicked Sun Release Party

Friday December 5th, 9 PM

Triple Rock Social Club

with L'Assassins, Violent Shifters, Filthy Cheaters

$6 / 18+

Sponsored by Pabst

First of all: this record sounds so good. It sounds exactly like a "heavy freak" psych-rock band should, in my opinion. I love that Aaron has a realllly long organ solo. The drums sound muddy and bloody, but you can hear everything. Nick's bass propels the music more than accompanies. I love that Mike's lyrics are sometimes goofy to counteract the surrounding dust storms of drugged-out noise ("He wore the sweater that you gave me last year/ I wouldn't wear it cuz it was too square"). From the opening count-in to Nate's crushing guitar solo 3 minutes into "Wicked Sun", I love this record. Buy it, and see these guys play.

photo by Katie McGuire at Piñata Hit Parade

There's a story I love to tell about Narco States and how they came to be aligned with Piñata Records. In August of 2012, after I sent the masters for Southside Desire's Songs to Love and Die To to United Record Pressing, I started a Facebook page for Piñata Records, in an effort to make it look legitimate. The whole point of starting a record label, and designing a logo, was to try and trick critics and radio people into looking twice at the album. Within a day of making the Facebook page, we received a message from our old friend Mike MacBlane-Meyer. Would we be interested in putting our logo on the back of his new band's 7" EP? We could get another record in our catalog, further legitimizing our "label", and we'd get the opportunity to try to promote another release, getting our name out there as well as providing support to a band we liked. We said yes, and just like that, we had an actual record label.



Some assorted things about this album:

• Wicked Sun was recorded in basements (I can't remember whose, but I think either Justin's or Aaron's). 
• The first song "Lost in Time" also ends their first EP as a live version of a then-new song at the Hexagon bar on September 29, 2012 (Southside Desire shared this bill. It was a fun night).
• The pressing plant sent lots of bad test pressings and kinda jerked the band around on this one. In the end, they told them that the records may not arrive until 2015, so we all started planning for a winter release party. Then suddenly, they were shipped in October. Thus the long delay between the record coming out and the release party.

The release party for this album is like this...

Narco States Wicked Sun Release Party

Friday December 5th, 9 PM

Triple Rock Social Club

with L'Assassins, Violent Shifters, Filthy Cheaters

$6 / 18+

Sponsored by Pabst

We have worldwide distribution via Darla Records!

A quick, but big one. Our future releases will be distributed worldwide exclusively by Darla Records out of southern California. We're very pleased by this news, and by the potential for increasing the number of ears exposed to the beautiful sounds made by the great bands we have the pleasure to work with.

Narco States' soon-to-be-released debut LP Wicked Sun is our first album with Darla, and it's currently available for wholesale preorders. Narco States are the first non-Southside Desire band Piñata worked with, and it's very fitting that their album is the first to receive larger-scale distribution. Stream their single "Lost in Time" here.

Piñata Records Field Day! August 16 at The Nomad in Minneapolis!

We're having a huge year! Along with the releases of Black Diet's Find Your Tambourine and Mystery Date's "You And Your Sister" single, we have five more records coming before the year's end. They are...

PIN-007: Narco States. Wicked Sun. 12" vinyl LP (September 2014) 

PIN-008: Grolar Bears. Midnight Stew. 7" vinyl (August 16, 2014) 

PIN-009: Sex Rays. Midnight Caller b/w Where's the Tambourine. 7" vinyl (Fall 2014) 

PIN-010: Southside Desire. Southside Desire. 12" vinyl LP (Fall 2014)

PIN-011: Mystery Date. New Noir. 12" vinyl LP (Fall 2014) 

...and the long lost PIN-005 Mr Hide Hide and Seek CD! 

To celebrate and preview these upcoming releases, we will be hosting our second showcase of 2014, with sets from all 5 bands releasing music before the year's end. 

Radio K, Pabst, and Piñata Records present:

Piñata Records Field Day!

Saturday August 16

3 PM- 9 PM

Outdoors at the Nomad World Pub (Minneapolis)

FREE and ALL-AGES

featuring live music from:

The Sex Rays!

Grolar Bears (7" Release Party!)

Southside Desire!

Narco States!

and...

Mystery Date!

In the slightly different and more personal spirit of Piñata Records, this event will slightly different and more personal. Field Day will be held Saturday, August 16th outside of the Nomad World Pub. It will be a free and all ages event. There will be food, both gourmet and not so gourmet, games for kids of all ages, prizes, beers, and more fun stuff to be determined soon.

Field Day will also be the release party for Grolar Bears' "Midnight Stew" seven inch. More on that soon, but here's the video. Dig Kramer's wicked bass-face!

Piñata Hit Parade occurred, and it was fun!

All photos by Katie McGuire. 

The 331 Club hosted the first ever Piñata Records Hit Parade on Saturday. We gave away CD samplers and donut holes, and we all had a lot of fun.

News for the undead of winter.

Whoops! No updates since September? Well, we're still a record label. And we're looking forward to a flurry of activity coming very soon.

Black Diet > most other bands!

Black Diet was selected for the Best New Bands Showcase of 2013 showcase at First Avenue! This is really exciting for us, because it's proof that hard work can really go recognized. They've been averaging like 7 shows a month for the last year, and getting better every time I see them. A lot of years the Best New Bands showcase feels stacked with bands stuck together from parts of old popular local bands and just put out their first press release, but Black Diet have seriously been paying their dues. Hats off! They'll be sharing the mainroom on Thursday Jan 30 with Allan Kingdom, BBGUN, Frankie Teardrop, Fury Things, GRRRL PRTY and Southwire. It's going to be a great night.

Piñata Records Hit Parade February 15 at 331 Club!

We're doing our first label showcase! Come see all of the bands directly associated with Piñata on one night at the 331 Club in NE Minneapolis. We will have a very limited edition of CD compilations of songs from our 7" releases and new tracks from all the bands, too. And there will be no cover! Here's the rundown:

331 Club (University and 13th Ave NE)

Saturday February 15 

9:00 PM

No cover!

(in chronological order)

Mystery Date

Black Diet

Narco States

Southside Desire

New Releases!

No firm dates yet, but we do know that PIN-004 will be Mystery Date's new 3 song seven inch "You and Your Sister" b/w "Lightspeed Romance"/ "The One That You Really Want". I love Mystery Date and am very proud to be putting out this record. Over a year ago, Trevor and I saw them play at Memory Lanes bowling alley with Narco States and when we heard "Lightspeed Romance" we immediately knew it was time to expand our label roster. Black Diet have finished recording their debut LP Find Your Tambourine, and it sounds just as fresh and live as you would hope. That should be out in the spring or early summer. Narco States and Southside Desire have also been spending a bunch of time in studios getting ready for new records. 

Narco States just put out an awesome little 4-way split 7" with Fuck Knights, Mary Allen & The Percolators and Mystery Train on Sir Gregory Records. All those bands are great and the record is absolutely worth checking out.

News: spilling forth like so much candy from a beaten piñata.

Damien sez:

Whoa, it's been too long since I've checked in. Let's get to it.

We changed our webstore. It's now being hosted via Big Cartel, so it has nicer cart features and things like that. If you look at it now, you'll be excited to see a new product...

PIN-003!

Don't Quit Your Day Job - Narco States' Michael McBlane-Meyer

By Damien Tank

One of the great appeals of truly independent music is that the artists are pretty much regular people. They just use their free time to write, rehearse, perform and record music instead of joining bowling teams or taking pottery classes. More often than not, original music doesn't fully finance their lives, so they keep jobs to pay the bills. Let's take some time to celebrate the musician at work.


Minneapolis band Narco States just made a 7" EP full of reverb, organs, and shouting. Obvious musical touchstones include psychedelia of The Stooges, 13th Floor Elevators and The Animals with a strong dose of 70's funk and soul and a psychobilly undercurrent. Their live performances are inspiring, with singer Michael McBlane-Meyer writhing on the stage, dropping his guitar for full-bodied maraca shakes and back again. I sent him a few questions about his other professional life.

Where do you work and what's your job title?

North Memorial Hospital in Minneapolis: Pathology Dept.

What do you actually do there?  

I am a Histotech. I work with human tissue in order to aid Pathologists in the diagnosis of diseases such as Cancer. I do a wide range of things from grossing in tissue, cutting tissue blocks, and staining the tissue elements with a variety of chemicals and dyes. I also sometimes assist in autopsies. Weigh organs, hold the brain bucket...normal every day things like that. 

What are your hours like?  

Usually 4am - 12:30pm. Doesn't everybody get up a 3am?

Have your coworkers heard Narco States? What do they think?They've heard it. It's not really their bag but they are supportive...for a bunch of middle aged women anyway. Although one co-worker told me the music was great except for the singer...she said the singer was terrible. I agreed and agreed we should replace him. I just didn't tell her I was the singer.
 

How does your job affect your availability to focus on Narco States?  

It makes me a party pooper during the week as I cannot practice late...but otherwise it's a "leave the job at the door" type career so I can concentrate on rocking and rolling. I also get most weekends off and it's easy to take time off for shows...so I can't complain about that at all.

How does your work inspire your music or lyrics? 

 I don't really think it does...If all I sang about was blood and gore or the fragility of life that may be true (although some of those elements might filter in). I think my music and lyrics are an existential expression of being human. I sing about fear, anger, contempt, humor and pop culture reverberations swirling together in my dimly lit brain...and normal every day things like that.

Narco States 7" Release Party 

Nomad World Pub

Friday January 25/ Doors at 9 PM

$5

Mary Allen and the Percolators (12:30)

Narco States (11:30)

Liquor Beats Winter (10:45)

Fret Rattles (10:00)

Narco States! 7" EP!

Narco States have a finished product on their hands! Their debut 7" EP on Piñata is out now in stores and available on their Bandcamp page for digital download. Celebrate its release with them at The Nomad Pub on January 25th with Violent Shifters Mary Allen & The Percolators, Liquor Beats Winter and Fret Rattles! $5/ 9PM/ 21+.