Portland, Oregon’s Ten Dollar Recording Company has always been something of a family affair, for sure. With a close-knit roster of artists generating work often co-recorded by a crackerjack house band (consisting of label founders and multi-instrumentalists Mo Douglas and Mariya May) at an intimate home studio, TDRCO has created an insular and unique thing that is one-of-a-kind. Over the last several years, under the direction of Douglas and May and along with a growing cohort of like-minded musical hepcats and psychonauts, the label has tuned into its own center of gravity, promoting a steady stream of up-and-coming artists along with May and Douglas’ many projects of their own, and cranking out a consistently diverse catalog of releases.

And just in time for 2018, TDRCO celebrates their one hundredth catalog entry with recent single “TDRCO-100” performed by the newest group to the label’s roster: The Hot Breath, consisting of Douglas and May with TDRCO collaborator and jazz maven Peter QB on sax, flute, and organ. Put together, the trio coagulate a formidable slice of forward-facing funk, and “TDRCO-100” crackles with a retro flair reminiscent of gold-standard 60’s/70’s R’n’B, rocking out over a steady backbeat punctuated by QB’s sure-footed sax and flute maneuvering and hemmed up nicely with May’s sultry vocals. In true-to-form genre splicing, the track even manages to fall into its own dub remix at the end, further highlighting TDRCO’s bent toward experimentation and authenticity above all else.

Further, to complete the homage to 100 releases of TDRCO goodness, individual lyrical lines for “TDRCO-100” were contributed via a number of additional writing partners in The Hot Breath, all of them long time TDRCO artists themselves - Thomas Mudrick, Prince Joely, Chance Wiesner, Ryan Massad, and Reed Burnam, along with added content and arrangement from May and Douglas (full disclosure - the author of this here overview is amongst the participants). As such, we get lines like “A hundred records and mad street cred, a hundred hearts that beat blood red”, or “a hundred dogs chasing cats, wearing crowns and holding bats...”, as well as some lines that are easter egg references to past albums on the label’s back-catalog - how’s that for a rabbit hole, already?

At the end of it all, “TDRCO-100” is a strong, stand-alone track which is as diverse and inclusive as Ten Dollar Recording Company itself: lyrically strung together by various artists using the simple verbal prompt of “100”, sung over a track played by the label’s in-house band, expertly produced by production wiz Douglas, and created to reflexively celebrate the label and the artists on it while still standing as completely approachable by those not in on the story. There’s more, but you gotta get in there for yourself and check it out.

Now that the label is squarely in triple digit territory in the release department, there is no excuse not to be aware of these good folk and the jams they are kicking out on the daily. “A hundred sighs in one hot breath” - celebration-worthy indeed. Here’s to a hundred more. (Reed Burnam)

For his debut album Lava Party, Anthony Mudrick rallied his energies to create twelve cuts with a cross-section of moods, from feel-good psych pop tracks to outer-space experimental voyages. Anthony is the youngest of three Mudrick brothers, all purveyors of authentic psychedelic music. Making up his mind to search out his own style, Anthony dug deep into the day-trip remnants of countercultural tracers, the crevices where the high tide of the 1960’s left its mark. Anthony leisurely conjures the lava lamp undulations and eerie psych-folk sounds of 1960’s London or San Fran, trotting out the ghost of Syd Barrett for yet another dance in the pale moonlight. To be real, Lava Party plays heavy on the early psych-folk spectrum, while bringing along for mixed company elements of the Paisley Underground 80’s, trash-pop 90’s, and freak-folk 00’s, but arriving at what is (now) a timeless, immediately recognizable idiom. Lava Party is out July 11, 2017 on Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Highlighting Ryan Massad’s oft road-weary take on golden-era stone washed folkie warble and fuzz country strum, Alone & Overdressed is a mellow yellow rabbit hole of texture and vibe, replete with hummable/strummable front porch ditties, classic folk run through the reverb blender, and late-night, red-eyed bedroom psych excursions. Weaving in and out of the whole deal is Massad’s grounded take on simple, melodic song structuring and orchestration. With Massad at the helm of all the record’s instrumentation and vocals, Alone & Overdressed is peppered through with some fine self-made psy-folk moments graced with the nostalgic cadences of dusty eight-tracks gone by, the album’s thirteen pieces echoing the battlecries of battalions of DIY bedroom recording enthusiasts from the hippies to the millennial nation and beyond.

Reed Burnam is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter, currently involved in numerous working bands in the Austin, Texas area (Khali Haat, Ouiness, Many Birthdays). Originally composed in a flash songwriting session over a couple of days back in 2005, Another Switchback was finally properly recorded and produced in 2016 in Portland, Oregon for Ten Dollar Recording Company. Regarding the album, Reed tells us, "For my influences, I was listening to a lot of Guided By Voices and especially Tobin Sprout at the time, along with Leonard Cohen, Capt. Beefheart, Brian Eno's 70's lyrical albums, BJM, Townes van Zandt, Dan Johnston, Nick Drake, and others, so they work in a little bit here and there in either sound or feel. I'm a huge fan of Bill Callahan, and that later informed how I decided to strip these songs down when we recorded them for TDRCo."

Mama Owl Can Hear It is a windows-open collection of (mostly) instrumental songs offering mesmerizing, groove-laden rhythms with heavy doses of hummable, layered melodies. The songs are tasteful cocktails of a myriad of influences from the ‘60s and ‘70s that meander through different styles and moods. As a whole however, and under the careful mixologist’s eye of Douglas, the tracks hang together like a well-chosen wardrobe, sharing tones and colors.

Thomas Mudrick's single "Grindfather" gently wafts an East Asian background veneer over some nicely interlocking pieces of polyrhythmic guitar funk that are one part Fela and one part P-Funk, with a dash of world-psych-trance-rave-up thrown in for measure, whatever the hell that means. At his best when effectively layering the weird alongside the ass-shaking, "Grindfather" is Mudrick in his element, sending up another space jam that's likely to rattle around in your head for a spell. And this one is all tune and no vocal cords, dig? So let the groove get'cha high as the sky. Out September 6, 2016 on Portland's Ten Dollar Recording Company.

Finds the soulful, Portland-based songstress helming a deft concoction of lush neo-soul, rafter-rattling dub reggae, and verdant folk-addled adages to love and loss, all shot through with a keen pop sensibility. Call Me Back if You Can Dig the Music manages to listen as both vintage and modern at once, familiar and yet fully in its own element. With May’s haunting flute lines and strong vocal presence, the total musical package comes off with an ease and timelessness that is a giddy, memorable listen and yet another great addition to the TDRCo catalogue.

Silvertron Youth Choir have cobbled together a gem of a record that’s both hilarious and strange, often at once. Our God is a Possum God isn’t short on inanity, assembling a pinwheeling, day-tripping, hipping and hopping, skipping and jumping ramble through the worm hole into a range of delightfully visual and guffaw-inducing ditties. The crux of Silvertron Youth Choir’s tune-wrangling is in their ability to spool out numbers that make liberal use of deft musicianship and pop/folk song craft while remaining ridiculously irreverent and often wickedly funny. Our God is a Possum God is firmly indebted to the Old Masters’ use of dada-inspired non-sequitur as a way to contort the quotidian nature of mainstream pop and rock. Out July 28th 2015 on Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Thomas Mudrick's familiar tropes of pirouetting randomly from acid-washed country to hip-hop laced rave-ups to swelling folk strummers are all here, and Abiqua’s strongest features may reside in an underlying thread of the (somewhat) serious nestled squarely amongst the silly and the sardonic. There are party-on tracks such as the blues-soaked "Take It Cheesy", the surf-funk house party of "Shania", the strutting pop steps of "Bipolar Bear" (“It’s never maybe with my bipolar baby” - classic stuff), the hippie throw-down of "Keep on Keepin On", and the jiggly-giggly tandoori buzz of the aptly named "Earth Nipple Ripple". Humor and a distinct unpretentiousness are never very far away on any of Mudrick’s varied releases, both solo and in his group projects, and Abiqua is thankfully no exception here. Available October 16th 2014 from Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Oregon’s frequently prolific prodigal son Thomas Mudrick is back with his single "Over the Hills", a meandering rural swirl of a tune that’s one part whimsy and one part sand in your walking shoes. Taking it back to the back roads, "Over the Hills" is all easy folk flow that lets itself unravel as it wants, with nowhere in particular to get to and longer still to hang out. Upbeat and hum-worthy, what "Over the Hills" boasts by the handful is a fluent country-fried cadence crossbred with a languid swagger that walks the line somewhere between road-weary grit and bright-eyed optimism. Available August 29, 2014 from Ten Dollar Recording Co.

To say that Ryan Michael Block’s Folk Tunes In Dub EP cannot be easily boxed in is kind of putting it lightly. As the title so aptly implies, Block’s characteristic songwriting manages to transcend any preconceived genre parameters, transmuting musical lead into gold with an eccentric and completely localized admixture of freaknik folk, filmic soundscape, dub reggae, and lo-fi aesthetics that rattles and hums with the bohemian vibes of his home base of Portland, Oregon. Out May 4th 2014 on Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Swaying with a hazy veneer and swaddled in island vibes, Prince Joely’s debut single "Catch a Whiff" rocks steady. Alight with spot-check dub overtones, smoky horns, and a telltale namesake residue (the moniker “Prince Joely” is a reference to the famed dub producer Prince Jammy), there’s little doubt as to what kind of fire the listener might catch here, and Prince Joely’s space-dub hits you right between the ears on the first pull. Out December 31st 2013 on Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Filled with lush melodies, lyrical secret gardens, and achingly emotive forays, What in Your Heart Can Put You in a Trance know well the answer to the question posed by their lengthy namesake, though they’d prefer you take a listen and decide for yourself, rather than just give away the ending. We Are In It is a full-length CD by What in Your Heart Can Put You in a Trance, available December 17th 2013 from Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Somewhere there’s a filmmaker with a melancholy disposition and a lonesome, 35mm black-and-white movie about hope for the broken hearted, searching madly for that one piece of music that will bring his or her film together at last. Thankfully, Mariya May’s single “Out of the Dust” is here to lay that poor filmmaker’s never-ending search to rest.

Simple, soulful and sweet, this is a love song that is scored through with sadness, sung as a plea from one damaged lover to another. The slow, walzing march of this piano and bass driven lament is the ideal framework for May to exhibit the varying vocal styles she has cultivated over the years. Beneath the surface of the performance is the resilient optimism of a truly romantic heart, counterbalanced with a foreboding tone. May’s voice is continually captivating, but never more so than when she croons the song’s refrain: “Don’t let me down / I won’t let you down.” The longing in her lead vocal is visceral and it is laid even more bare by some of the best and most precise harmony work of her career. Out November 5th 2013 on Ten Dollar Recording Co.

Out September 17th 2013, Duncan Calver’s debut solo single "I’ve Been Smiling" is awash in funneled sounds both current and dated, saturated with the psych-streaked sea foam optimism first birthed through oracles such as the endless summer of Pet Sounds, refracted through a veritable oil and liquid light show of more recent acts. Calver’s "I’ve Been Smiling" sports some nifty a cappella vocal harmonies, buttressing an understated melody that swirls around the heels of the song’s gentle up and down dynamic and life-worn lyrical expressions. Amidst the gentle swirl of Calver’s crystalline vocal delivery and the track’s overall subtle harmonics, boy meets girl and loses the same.

Backed with the supplementary b-side "Animalia et Oceanum", which acts more as a watery, ambient refrain of the flipside track than as full-fledged song per se, "I’ve Been Smiling" is yet another reason to get on the boat already and get yourself over to Ten Dollar Recording Company; these cats are tying one on like it’s 1969. Or 1999, 2199, whatever. All aboard.