Five Years of Gravy: Celebrating 5 years of Fluff and Gravy Records

FLUFF AND GRAVY RECORDS – A History

Trust Your Label

Some time in the summer of 2011, as Portland-based Drunken Prayer was busy recording their sophomore effort, Into The Missionfield, the groundwork for what would become Fluff and Gravy Records was being set, unknowingly. Frontman Morgan Geer was beginning to toss around ideas about how to roll the finished product out to the public. Problem was, most of the band funds were quickly being used up for the recording itself, leaving little to nothing to work with once the record was finished. John Shepski, who at the time was singing harmony vocals and playing acoustic guitar in the band had an idea. Earlier that year, his now defunct band WhistlePunk! (featuring Chad Lanning on bass) had recorded a demo. As part of an inside joke (really, the whole band was somewhat of an inside joke) they slapped the imprint of a fictitious record label, Fluff and Gravy Records, on the DIY cd. When the short run of FnG001 sold out at shows within a few months, that should have been the end of the joke. However, when Morgan Geer decided to shop his upcoming record around to labels, the gears started turning. “What if Fluff and Gravy Records were a legitimate label”? Over a few beers and perhaps a bourbon or two at The World Famous Kenton Club, John made quick work of convincing Chad Lanning that starting a record label in 2011 was a sound business decision. By November of that year, the first official Fluff and Gravy release, Drunken Prayer’s It’s Christmastime 7” (FnG002), was unveiled and the there was no turning back.

In addition to Drunken Prayer, over the course of 2012, Fluff and Gravy Records provided a home to Jack Wilson, Mike Coykendall, and Sassparilla. The family continued to grow throughout 2013, adding Nick Jaina, The Horse’s Ha (featuring Janet Bean of Freakwater), Kenny Feinstein and his acoustic remake of My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, Hong Kong Banana, and The Harmed Brothers.  2014 opened with the addition of The Evangenitals and their tribute to Moby Dick, and Hillstomp, and continued with a series of Indie Folk musicians – Anna Tivel, Jeffrey Martin, and Kevin Lee Florence.  2015 came along with the additions of Catherine Feeny and Fernando Viciconte (whose studio band features Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey), and 2016 followed suit with Dan Stuart (of Green on Red) and Richmond Fontaine.

Over the course of all of this, two things became clear. First, Fluff and Gravy wasn’t just dipping their toes in the water. With 35 releases from 18 artists in 5 years, this label was aiming to leave its mark. And second, it would be very difficult to pigeonhole Fluff and Gravy Records, or to predict where they would be heading next. With releases that range from traditional British Folk Revival and Garage Punk to Indie Pop, Americana, and whatever you want to call The Evangenitals and Hillstomp, the idea was to grow a family of artists who are complimentary to each other – without getting bogged down by the constraints of genre.

Even so, there is an underlying commonality among this diverse community of artists. There’s an honesty, a sincerity, to each of them that defines their art. And at a time when music is more plentiful and accessible than ever, this sincerity is what separates them from their peers. For John and Chad, it’s a constant reminder of the integrity that’s expected from the label itself.

It’s only fitting that Morgan Geer suggested the slogan, “Trust Your Label”. On the surface, it is a reflection of the integrity of the artists, but it is also more than that. It harkens back to a time when everyone knew the label that their favorite artist was associated with. Coltrane was with Blue Note, Cash was with Sun , Mudhoney was with Sub Pop, and Superchunk was with Merge. It was a time when you could walk into a record store and see the logo on the back of the jacket, and you knew it was going to be a quality record, even if you weren’t familiar with the artist.  That trust, in essence, is what Fluff and Gravy has been building over the past 5 years, one record at a time.