The New Indies: Captured Tracks @ MBV

Captured Tracks logo

Captured Tracks is a Brooklyn-based label founded and operated by Mike Sniper, the man also known (musically) as Blank Dogs. Technically, the label was begun in late 2008 with the release of Blank Dogs’ Captured Tracks Volume One CD-R, but it only truly kicked into gear in 2009 (indeed, within the first 9 months alone, Captured Tracks put out nearly 25 releases). Sniper also runs the power-pop reissue label Radio Heartbeat, and Captured Tracks’ primary base of operations is Brooklyn’s Academy Annex record shop, also home to kin-label Sacred Bones (as well as Academy’s own reissue label, Academy LPs). Sniper has stated that Captured Tracks releases are to remain in print, with both singles and 12-inches getting first pressings of at least 1000, and represses as needed. Only the cassette releases are considered “limited-edition” items.

Discography
CassetteCT-060Blank Dogs
Leaves
12″ EPCT-053Girls Names
Don’t Let Me In
7″CT-052La La Vasquez
“Mexican Ghost” b/w “Hello”/”Claire Savage”
LP/CDCT-051Dignan Porch
Tendrils
12″ EPCT-050Blank Dogs
Phrases
7″CT-049Wild Nothing
“Cloudbusting” b/w “Drunk Punks”
7″CT-048Minks
“Funeral Song” b/w “Drunk Punks”
7″CT-047The Soft Moon
“Breathe The Fire” b/w “Phantoms”
LP/CSCT-046Fresh & Onlys
August In My Mind
LP/CDCT-045Hanoi Janes
Year of Panic
PosterCT-043Matt Volz
Beets/Christmas Island/Beach Fossils Tour Poster
7″CT-042Beach Fossils
“Daydream” b/w “Desert Sand”
LP/CDCT-041Wetdog
Frauhaus!
7″CT-040Cosmetics
“Soft Skin” b/w “Black Leather Gloves”
7″CT-039Wetdog
“Lower Leg” b/w “The Burry Man”/”How Sweet The Sound”
7″CT-038Hanoi Janes
“Across The Sea” b/w ?
7″CT-037Dignan Porch
“On A Ride” b/w “The Day Things Changed”
7″CT-036Veronica Falls
“Found Love In A Graveyard” b/w “Starry Eyes”
7″CT-035Wild Nothing
“Summer Holiday” b/w “Vultures Like Lovers”
12″ EPCT-034The Girls At Dawn
7″CT-033Led Er Est
“Poll Gorm” b/w “Man and Tree”
12″ EPCT-032Silk Flowers
As Above So Below
7″CT-031Beachniks
12″ EPCT-030German Measles
Wild E.P.
7″CT-029Christmas Island
“Nineteen” b/w “Twenty-Nine”
7″CT-028Spectrals
12″ LPCT-027Thee Oh Sees
Dog Poison
7″CT-026The Bitters
“East”
7″CT-025Ganglians
“Blood On The Sand” b/w “Make It Up”
12″CT-024The Fresh & Onlys
Unreleased On the Captured Tracks website, the “Captured Tracks/Woodsist Festival” is now listed as catalog number CT-024.
12″ EPCT-023Grass Widow
12″ EPCT-022Gary War
Galactic CitizensTracks also appear on the Sacred Bones Horribles Parade/Galactic Citizens CD
12″ EPWBL-000Woods
Acoustic Family Creeps Play Live In The WoodsLimited(?) “Fake Bootleg”
12″ EPCT-021The Mayfair Set
Young One
Dum Dum Girls/Blank Dogs collaboration
12″ EPCT-020Brilliant Colors
Collects tracks from 2 7-inches (CT-005 and their Make-A-Mess 7-inch), plus 1 new song.
Digital/CDCT-019Captured Tracks
Curated MixDownload →
T-ShirtCT-018Captured Tracks
T-ShirtDesigned by Matt Volz. Available only with batch order of CT-011 – CT-019
7″CT-017Little Girls
“Youth Tunes” b/w “Venom”
7″CT-016The Beets
“Don’t Fit In My Head”
b/w “It’s Okay To Lose”
7″CT-015Der Teenage Panzerkorps
“Arc de Triomphe” b/w “Knut Hamsun”/”Corpse on an Empty Stage”
7″CT-014Roman Soldiers
“Warmer” b/w “Yuppie Fires”Gary War/Blank Dogs collaboration
7″CT-013Blank Dogs
“Slow Room” b/w “Anywhere”Was originally titled “In Here” and slated for release on the Down In the Ground label
7″CT-012Kid Romance
“Fuck Punx” b/w “I Use Electricity”300 copies available bundled with a Kid Romance cassette titled Thriller
CassetteCT-011German Measles
Demos SorryEdition of 300. Sold Out
LPCT-010The Beets
Spit In The Face Of People Who Don’t Want To Be Cool
12″ EPCT-009Blessure Grave
Learn To Love The Rope
12″ EPCT-008The Bitters
Wooden Glove
Cassette EPCT-007Gary War
OpensRecorded live on WFMU. Edition of 250
Download @ Free Music Archive→
7″CT-006The Mayfair Set
“Already Warm” b/w “Desert Fun”Dum Dum Girls/Blank Dogs collaboration
7″CT-005Brilliant Colors
“Highly Evolved” b/w “Takes So Little”Songs also appear on the CT-020 12″. Sold Out
7″CT-004Woods
“Sunlit” b/w “The Dark”
CassetteCT-003Repairs
Edition of 250
12″ EPCT-002Blank Dogs
SecondsSold Out
12″ EPCT-001Dum Dum Girls
CD-R EPCT-000Blank Dogs
Captured Tracks Volume OneEdition of 200. Sold Out

Bands
Beach Fossils
Brooklyn, NY Myspace →
Beachniks
Brooklyn, NY Fuzzy bubblegum four-track pop, featuring members of German Measles and Crystal Stilts. An LP is due in 2010. Myspace →MP3: “Coney Island” (from CT-031)
The Beets
Jackson Heights, NYRelaxed, reverby garage rock. The band’s “artistic muse” is Matt Volz, who designs all of their posters and album art (he also designed the Captured Tracks T-shirt). Lead singer Juan Wauters has both a cassette and a 7″ slated for future release on Captured Tracks, and bass player Jacob Warstler’s band Gutsies has a 7″ due as well. Myspace →MP3: “What Did I Do?” (from CT-010)
MP3: “Don’t Fit In My Head” (from CT-016)
The Bitters
Toronto, CanadaThe Bitters are the duo of Ben Cook (also of the band Fucked Up) and Aerin Fogel, and they deal in catchy slack melodies that penetrate the scratchy lo-fi haze. They have a 7″ for “East” due on Captured Tracks, and also have releases lined up for Woodsist, Sacred Bones, True Panther, Drone Errant (a split cassette with Little Girls), Hi Shadow and Wild World. Myspace → MP3: “Warrior” (from CT-008)
MP3: “Can You Keep A Secret?” (from CT-008)
Blank Dogs
Brooklyn, NYBlank Dogs is the nom de guerre of Mike Sniper, the man behind the Captured Tracks label. Blank Dogs’ bedroom new wave post-punk cave pop, with its 100 fathoms-deep layers of processing, feels like the proto-sound for the entire Captured Tracks, and fittingly so. Impossibly prolific, in addition to the Captured Tracks material, there are also Blank Dogs releases on Sacred Bones, Sweet Rot, HoZac, Drone Errant, Troubleman, Fuck It Tapes, In The Red, and at least 4 or 5 others. Myspace →MP3: “Calling Over” (from CT-002)
MP3: “Keeping All The Time” (from CT-002)
Blessure Grave
San Diego, CADark dark dark post-goth duo, unfortunately probably less known for their music, and better known as the band of the guy who founded Down In The Ground Records, a record label that reportedly pre-sold a lot of different records, but went on to ship very few, if any, of them to the buyers. Myspace →MP3: “Stop Breathing” (from CT-009)
Brilliant Colors
San Francisco, CA Janglish female-fronted indie rock reminiscent of the Raincoats and/or super old-school K material. They have a sold-out 7″ on Make-A-Mess in addition to their sold out Captured Tracks 7″ (CT-005). Both of these are collected on the CT-020 12″. Myspace →MP3: “Highly Evolved” (from CT-005/020)
MP3: “Takes So Little” (from CT-005/020)
Christmas Island
San Diego, CA Scrappy lo-fi pop not unlike a sort of SoCalified version of The Television Personalities or The Clean. Their first full-length, Blackout Summer is out on In The Red, and they have a split with Meth Teeth due for Sacred Bones, as well as a 12″ EP for Woodsist. Myspace →
Cosmetics
Vancouver, BC Myspace →
Der Teenage Panzerkorps
San Francisco, CA/Berlin, Germany Gothdrone Industrialist post-punk. Surprisingly, the band is a member of San Francisco’s folk/psych Jewelled Antler Collective (Jewelled Antler founder Glenn Donaldson reportedly plays in the band under the alias ‘Edmund Xavier’). The band also has material out on Pink Skull and Skulltones, as well as a full-length, Harmful Emotions, that was released by Siltbreeze in 2007. Myspace →
Dignan Porch
London, UK Myspace →
Dum Dum Girls
Los Angeles, CADum Dum Girls is “Dee Dee,” aka Kristin Gundred of Grand Ole Party. She is married to Crocodiles‘ Brandon Welchez. Captured Tracks artist The Mayfair Set is actually a collaboration between Dum Dum Girls and Blank Dogs. In addition to the Dum Dum Girls Captured Tracks 12″, there’s also a 7″ on HoZac, a cassette and a 4-way split 7″ on Art Fag (w/ Crocodiles, Pens, and Graffiti Island), a split 7″ with Frankie Rose due on Hell Yes, and a split 7″ with Crocodiles due on Needless. Dum Dum Girls recently signed to Sub Pop, who will be releasing the Jail La La LP, preceded by a 7″. Myspace →MP3: “Catholicked” (from CT-001)
MP3: “Yours Alone” (from CT-001)
The Fresh & Onlys
San Francisco, CAHallucinogenic lo-fi/garage/psych with a slightly chilly vein. Also has releases on Castle Face, Woodsist, and Hozac, with a full-length due on In The Red. Myspace →
Ganglians
Sacramento, CADamaged/perfect hissy/clean noisy/melodic ramble/shamble pop. Has LPs out on Weird Forest and Woodsist. Myspace →
Gary War
Brooklyn, NYÜber bedroom synth/psych, inhumed in a shroud of processing a thousand light years deep. Classic rock for a distant post-apocalyptic future. Releases include the New Raytheonport LP for SHDWPLY, the Zontag 7″ and Horrible’s Parade LP for Sacred Bones, and the one-sided Anhedonic Man 7″ for Hell Yes. 12″ for Woodsist due soon. Myspace →MP3: “Everynight” (from CT-022)
MP3: “Using” (from CT-022)
German Measles
Brooklyn, NYShambolcoholic goofball party punk featuring members of Cause Co-Motion! and Beachniks. Myspace →MP3: “Patty Girl” (from CT-011)
The Girls At Dawn
Brooklyn, NYFuzzed-out girl pop from Brooklyn, marrying jangle and old-school doo-wop in a sweet lo-fi pop honey. Self-described as “another idiot boner stoner bedroom garage punk jangley band.”Myspace →MP3: “It’s The Only Time” (from CT-034)
Girls Names
Belfast, UK
Myspace →
Grass Widow
San Francisco, CA An all-female trio from the Bay Area that delivers catchy Raincoatsy post-punk, and must, one would assume, share some sort of amazing cosmic kinship with labelmates Brilliant Colors. Myspace →MP3: “Tattoo” (from CT-023)
Hanoi Janes
Saschen, Germany Myspace →
Kid Romance
Boston, MAReverbed-out fuzzy punksters whose “favorite bands ever are Germs, The Raincoats, and um Nirvana.” Myspace →
La La Vasquez
Brighton/London UK
Myspace →
Led Er Est
Brooklyn, NY Synth/Drum-Machinia with an organic, warm core. A full-length is due in 2010. Myspace →
Little Girls
Toronto, Canada Fuzzed lo-fi bedroom popistry. The band also has releases out on Mexican Summer and Paper Bag, and will split a cassette on Drone Errant with the Bitters, titled Bitter Girls. Their full-length on Paper Bag is due out in October. Myspace →MP3: “Youth Tunes” (from CT-017)
The Mayfair Set
Los Angeles, CA/Brooklyn, NY Blank Dogs + Dum Dum Girls = The Mayfair Set. The duo has future 7-inches slated on both Slumberland and Mexican Summer. Myspace →

MP3: “Already Warm” (from CT-006)
MP3: “Desert Fun” (from CT-006)
MP3: “Junked!”(from CT-021)
Minks
Brooklyn, NYMyspace →
Repairs
Victoria, AustraliaEerie, krauty, lo-fi sonic doom from Down Under. Myspace →MP3: “Lottery” (from CT-009)
Roman Soldiers
Brooklyn, NYA Blank Dogs/Gary War collaboration mixing the former’s lo-fi used-wave with the latter’s Deep-Space Warped sound. Myspace →

MP3: “Warmer” (from CT-014)
MP3: “Yuppie Fires” (from CT-014)
Silk Flowers
Brooklyn, NY Electronic/experimentalists, staples of the NYC live scene. Primarily record for Post Present Medium, who have released two 7-inches and a full-length. An LP for Captured Tracks is due in 2010. Myspace →
The Soft Moon
San Francisco, CAMyspace →
Spectrals
Leeds, UKThis one-Brit show does fuzzy, (budget) wall of sound doo wop’d pop. Has a cassette release out on Suplex, and a split with Fair Ohs due on Tough Love. A full-length for Captured Tracks is due soon. Myspace →
Thee Oh Sees
San Francisco, CAExemplary nu-garage/psych. They have nine-hundred trillion other releases out on every record label that has ever existed.Myspace →
Wetdog
London, UK Myspace →
Veronica Falls
London, UK Myspace →
Wild Nothing
Blacksburg, VA Hazy bedroom pop, with wistful melodies and gorgeous arrangements. A debut LP on Captured Tracks due in 2010. Myspace → MP3: “Summer Holiday” (from CT-035)
Woods
Brooklyn, NY Masters of a unique ghostly psychy pseudo-folk, Woods is a band to which the currently-thriving nü lo-fi scene owes a great deal. With their consistent recorded output, their dedication to the scene, and TWO amazingly proflific and important labels (Fuck It Tapes and Woodsist), they are, if not quite the grandaddies, at the very least the great-uncles of this current scene. Myspace →MP3: “Sunlit” (from CT-004)
MP3: “The Dark” (from CT-004)