We're excited to share with you some of the many cosmic sounds coming out of Oakland, CA. Our releases are available on vinyl, tape, and as digital downloads. If you're interested in pre-ordering our forthcoming releases, check out the record subscription packages below.
MUSIC RELEASES
Desiree Cannon - Radio Heat (Vinyl)
Radio Heat is the sophomore album from Desiree Cannon and a step further into her world of constellations, waterways, and cosmic omens. Like her debut LP,Beach Sleeper, the album is a cohesive, yet diverse collection of songs that each act as a doorway to access the sonic multiverse of the record.
Levi Thomas - Shasta (Vinyl/Digital)
Shasta is the product of an experiment in limitations and creative self-control. Recorded with solar power on a Tascam 388 and remaining true to only the 8 available tracks, these sessions were often late nights around the wood stove in a small hillside studio in Big Sur. The sessions resulted in Levi’s most tender record to date; sung low and slow with vocals and acoustic guitar up front, and trading the double tracked guitar solos of earlier albums for syrupy pedal steel and piano. Shasta pays respect to the record in its truest form - a complete narrative from start to finish, meant to conjure the most terrifying human emotion and hopefully bring it some peace.
Dawn Riding - You're Still Here (Vinyl / Digital)
Dawn Riding’s newest record is steeped in intimacy and warmth with Sarah Rose Janko’s quietly fierce vocals and her powerful songwriting sitting front and center. You’re Still Here is a songwriter’s album and Sarah Rose Janko, in the tradition of great American folk musicians, is laying most of her cards on the table - endearing you to her portraits of American life, and leaving you thirsty for the stories that haven’t yet been told.
Co-released by Long Road Society and Speakeasy Studios SF on Nov. 11, 2022
Mikayla McVey - Time Turns Everything (LP/Digital)
Time Turns Everything is the first full-length LP from Mikayla McVey and her second studio collaboration with producer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, & deep space explorer James Wallace aka SKYWAY MAN. The album is a staggering work of heartache & healing that takes a spiraling & personal pass at answering a very old question: where does love go when it dies? And furthermore… can love ever die? It looks at the heart, the lover, and the process through a range of musical kaleidoscopes, and ultimately delivers a meditation on the power of time to transform pure grief into melody, poetry, vibration, and medicine for the future.
Sitka Sun "All The Way West" LP / Digital Download
All The Way West - Sitka Sun's sophomore release - is both a carefully composed instrumental jazz album and a spaced-out contemplation on the human condition. It exists at the intersection of rhythmic prowess, psychedelic experimentation, & jazz sensibility, intentionally asking more questions than it's willing to answer throughout its 32 minute lifespan. All The Way West is music for right now, as we come out of 2020 and hopefully into a changing world: it encourages reflection, inspires movement, & welcomes new growth.
Lost Demos EP - The Lost Days
In content, the Lost Demos EP is light-filled, melodic music about dark days & complicated relationships. But in its essence it approaches a simple euphoria - like the Pacific coast in the late summer, on a rare day with no wind, or a daytime drink in a good friend's backyard, laughing about what happened the night before. It may make you nostalgic for something that probably never happened, longing for some insight into those lost days.
The Lost Days = Tony Molina + Sarah Rose Janko
Dawn Riding - "The Light" (Cassette / Digital)
“The Light” is a 33 minute long, drama-noir love story – one that you may stay up too late reading, captivated by the characters, their struggles, and the rugged beauty that always seems to shine through. The seven tracks that make up Dawn Riding’s sophomore release ride the same mid-fi, hypnotic wave as their debut, with an ever-growing commitment to telling honest and personal stories, highlighting the beauty, comedy, and euphoria in even the toughest days.
Run With The Moon Compilation
The Long Road Society was born out of Run With The Moon, inside the walls of Starline Social Club (Oakland, CA), and this compilation was actually the first album we had intended to release when we started the label. While that didn't go exactly as we had planned, there's a real potency that this project is being released 3 years later - this record is now a time capsule of an era that will forever be very close to our hearts. It chronicles performances from the early shows (2016-2017) and marks the beginning of friendships, musical partnerships, and a long creative journey we were just embarking on.
The Run With The Moon Compilation features performances by: Desiree Cannon, Kit Center & the Hollow Bones, Aviva le Fey, Dawn Riding, Mikayla McVey, The Alternating Currents, Sam Doores, Quinn Deveaux, Paula Frazer & Tarnation, Zena Carlota, Salt Suns, & Ben Bourdon.
Dawn Riding - Last Spring LP / Digital Download
In their debut album Last Spring, Dawn Riding has crafted a project that is somehow fierce, intimate, outlaw, passionate, and psychedelic, all at the same time. Having cut their teeth in basements, underground venues, and punk houses around the country, it only made sense for Dawn Riding’s debut to come to life in a dusty mid-fi recording studio run out of a San Francisco garage. The eight psych-tinged songs that came out of the Last Spring sessions unveil the stories of songwriter Sarah Rose Janko’s fabled friendships, renegade icons, and uncompromising ethos, and serve as a perfect introduction to Dawn Riding’s dreamy, gritty sound.
Aviva le Fey "Lovesick" LP / Digital Download
Lovesick, the debut album from Aviva le Fey is both the dark end of the street, and the promise of a stunning sunset. It's the gut-wrenching feeling when you know that your love won't last forever. It's the song of the mourning dove - beautiful, somber, and resigned to a future of longing.
Never Land EP - Kit Center & The Hollow Bones
Never Land is the debut EP from Kit Center & the Hollow Bones, recorded in a strange & perfect neon-lit cave. On the edge of both americana and psychedelia, the songs & sounds of Never Land were made for getting lost on the road, or for slowing down on a warm spring morning. It is lonesome & hopeful, like the dry, rolling California hills. Limited edition of 100 tapes. All tape orders come with a digital download, delivered at the time of purchase.
Desiree Cannon "Beach Sleeper" LP / Digital Download
In her debut release, Beach Sleeper, Desiree Cannon leaves everything on the studio floor - the studio, in this case, is the living room of a 1920s Oakland house littered with records and a variety of 1970s and 80s analog recording equipment. The album is heart-worn, complicated, and raw - it's recommended for anyone who understands the complexity of human emotion and isn't afraid to cry.
Mikayla McVey - Holy Golden 10-inch
The beautiful, acid-tinged debut 10-inch vinyl from Mikayla McVey. Holy Golden is 6 songs of love, moon landings, and the blissed out state of California - warm and thwapy, like it was meant to be when recorded to tape. 10x10 art by Adrienne Swan. A painting of a photograph, cut into collage, photographed on film, digitized and proofed onto paper for your viewing pleasure.
"Spin Right Round" 45 by Moses Cadillac
The first Long Road Society 45 from the elusive Moses Cadillac featuring "Spin Right Round" b/w "A Thousand Times." Reminiscent of old sedans and shared cigarettes, dusty wine bottles and early Sunday mornings, black & white movies and lo-fi hip hop.
Print Releases
"Racing For Pink Slips", The Long Road Society print division, is committed to putting out high quality, far-out publications about art, music, and the condition of the human spirit. The "Racing For Pink Slips" imprint has existed since 2010, and is philosophically focused on the idea that you go for broke on your dreams, ready to give it all away in the name of authenticity.
PRE-ORDER // No Man Is An Island 2: A Guide to More Choice Studio One Pressings
“No Man Is An Island” is a community, not-for-profit project aiming to help people navigate the mind-numbing record pressing maze of the legendary Studio One label. This second guide in the series (No Man Is An Island 1 was released in 2019) serves as a resource for those on a journey to find the best quality pressings of critical Studio One tracks.
Nigeria Nicer 1980-1991
Zine and Cassette
Nigeria Nicer is a high-quality 29-page risographed music zine featuring write-ups about rare and out of print Nigerian music. The zine includes a free 70-minute mixtape of the featured tracks, recorded at The ZineLab in Honolulu, Hawai'i to a high-end Tanberg cassette deck, and dubbed to the best quality Chrome Type 2 high bias cassettes available. Music selections curated by Moman / design by Jeremy Wirth.
Born In A Car Crash: A Guide to 1950s and 60s Rhythm & Blues 45s
“Born In A Car Crash”, written by Morgan "Moman" Nixon, is a guide to 1950s and 60s rhythm and blues 45s - artifacts of an incredibly fertile period of Black American music and a time of significant cultural upheaval. R&B was a constant thread through the complex tapestry of racial segregation, international conflict, and the civil rights movement. One could argue that rhythm & blues music was "born in a car crash", and instead of being crippled by the weight, used the experience as inspiration to create beauty & joy. We owe so much to these musicians & this struggle, and it's our hope that the artists & labels featured in the book may someday become as heralded and well-known as all the popular musicians who stole from or built upon their sound.
No Man Is An Island : A Guide to Choice Studio One Pressings
“No Man Is An Island” is a community, not-for-profit project aiming to help people navigate the mind-numbing record pressing maze of the legendary Studio One label. The book is the result of many years of collecting records, comparing fidelity and sound quality of pressings, and digging into Jamaican music history to understand the context of the sound production. Includes over 180 entries on crucial Studio One Tracks with record label scans.
Nigeria Nice 1980-1990
Nigeria Nice is a high-quality 20-page art zine featuring write-ups about rare and out of print Nigerian disco music and original hand-painted artwork by Travis Weller.
Record Subscription Packages
Our next round of subscriptions is now available for purchase! We are so grateful to the many people who supported the label through the initial subscription program starting back in 2017, and are excited to now offer new packages for 2021/2022..
Our subscription packages are a way to purchase records from our label in advance to help support the label and the artists that we are representing. Think of it like a "Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)" model, only for records. You pay the money in advance, so that you receive the fruits and vegetables when they are ready to be harvested.
Feel free to email us for more details at lisa@longroadsociety.com
The Long Road Society Artist Support Subscription Package
In purchasing The Long Road Society 2020 Artist Support Subscription Package, you are not only helping to fund future projects, but offering some additional relief to several of our artists who have been hard hit by the current state of the world & not able to make the income that once sustained them. This option is similar to the standard record subscription package, however, in purchasing the Artist Support Subscription, you are also investing (donating) additional money beyond the cost of the records, books, & zines you will receive.
You can expect the following if you order The Long Road Society Artist Support Subscription Package -"Born In A Car Crash" by Morgan "Moman" Nixon, "All The Way West" by Sitka Sun, "Time Turns Everything" by Mikayla McVey, a 8x12 subscriber-exclusive matte print from experimental analog photographer Bryan Lovett (product picture), one (1) additional full length vinyl LP, and two (2) zine or cassette projects.
If you order a subscription today, you will receive anything that has been previously released upon placing your order; upcoming albums will be sent to you as they are released.