But that’s not all. Following the release of Neverland / Ben Son Ben Son Beatrice, The Swoon continued on as a quartet, writing songs and playing the college and Minneapolis club circuits until disbanding in the summer of 1991. That October, the band reunited at Control Sound Studios in Minneapolis to record its swansong, Spectacular Illusions, live to quarter-inch tape. Featuring ten of the last songs the band wrote together, the album has never received an official release. Only about 100 cassette copies were made, some of which were sold at the Renaissance Festival under the title Piss and Vinegar…one of several names the recording has carried over the years. This will be your chance to own the album on download, CD and Vinyl.

We’re building a package that finally tells the full story. THE SWOON made a lot of noise, and then they were gone. But the songs stuck around. This project is about finishing the story. Not rewriting it. Not polishing it into something it wasn’t.” See the fundraising campaign for more details.

SECOND, so the short backstory is we actually recorded these songs in 2025, as usual we are a little slow, but super stoked on how these turned out. We took a minute mixing ours, Teeth For Eyes took a minute finishing theirs, so we ended up having the songs finalized first quarter of 2026, then manufacturing said they needed 6 months, yuck, then in September they said they are running about two months behind, double yuck. We don’t love a preorder but we had decided we would do a short preorder in October. ANYWAYS, we are stoked on the songs from both bands. If you preorder the vinyl you’ll get The Blamed songs before anyone else, should hit the streaming services after the vinyl ships. We ask you not to post the songs from your digital download, but if you share them with your friends, sweet, ask them not to post them and let them know where they can grab a 7 inch, after all listening to music with friends is the best.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening and thanks for y’all

The Blamed”

Instead, the band dissolved.

The songs were finished, and left dormant burned on a CD until two years later in 2006 when ALLALOM, a indie label from Portland Oregon, took them, and every other unreleased Pacifico track, compiled them together, and created our Anthology and Side B albums.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of those releases we decided to take the original recordings and have them finally mixed, mastered, and compiled together into the full-length album they were originally meant to be.

What you hear is everything we we found, some parts we didn’t remember creating and some parts were lost to time. Together, they form a snapshot of Pacifico at a particular moment: a collection of songs written, recorded, abandoned, rediscovered, and finally given the chance to exist as they were always meant to.

We invite you to hear the story for yourself.

This is Pacifico’s
The Weight of California

Out 12.04.26
The first single, “Shake It Up” is available everywhere you stream music
Pre-order the album today!
available for a limited time on cassette tape, CD, and vinyl!”

“What happens when your taste is real but your world is fake? When your longing is legit but channels for expression have been defanged and sanitized?

RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE is a novel built from the recorded cassette tape monologues of Anderson Humphrey, a music obsessive and aspiring snob known curiously as The Christian Humper in a vast but isolated underground scene in the 1990s. The stories are oral but recall zine culture at its photocopied peak, when music was still a total identity machine.

A chance encounter with a wildly unsuccessful punk band and a newfound zeal for life beyond church camp lead The Humper and his friends on a chase for selfhood, status, and cool inside a world designed to stifle all three.

Andy’s tapes are a vulgar comedy of compromise peppered with micro-economies, status games, moral codes, humiliations, delusions, and little bursts of joy as he and the band attempt to cover up their scarlet letter and avoid paying the Christian Rock tax.

For the three years he records, Andy’s dispatches are conversational, breezy, and funny, but the jokes belie the depth of The Humper’s project as he wrestles with doubt, shame, and embarrassment while seeking adventure, autonomy, and validation.”

Our musical lives also include Jars of Clay, The Choir, White Heart, The Imperials, and The Eaglemaniacs, as well as work with Sixpence None the Richer and the music of the television series The Chosen.

We came to this band from different musical paths, different histories, instincts and experiences. Some of us had worked together before, while others were getting to know one another for the first time. What brought us together was the chance to write songs, follow a few ideas and see where the music might lead. Before long, the collaboration began to feel like a band.

We found an easy camaraderie in the studio. Songs began taking shape. The more we made music together, the more excited we got about this album.

That fellowship became an important part of the record. It shaped the way we wrote, played, listened and encouraged one another. We each brought our own musical history to the table, but the sound of The River Cryers came from what happened when those experiences met.

No one was asking for this band.

We made it anyway, and we are glad we did.

The music of The River Cryers draws from jangly guitar-based rock and roll, folk, Americana and harmony-rich pop.

You may hear traces of Tom Petty, the Eagles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the Traveling Wilburys, Fleetwood Mac, and the musical traditions that have shaped each member over the years. But as the songs develop, they are taking on a character and sound all their own.

Now we are inviting you to help us carry our debut album across the finish line and release it on vinyl, CD and digital.”

And to tell me what your favourite song is and why.

UN-POP Music is a full album with new Bram Cools songs (and some old ones that are reworked), in a lot of different styles. Some of it is weird, some of it is angry at evil and abuse, some of it tries to find new musical styles or a better world…And then the melodica takes revenge!

But I can say what I want, the only way to find out how it sounds is to listen to it yourself… UN-POP Music on BandCamp (All composition, recording, instruments, vocals, programming and noise by Bram this time.)

Peace

Bram”

The cover art you see is deeply personal — it features a special painting that was created for us at the beginning of our marriage by our friend, Marc Ludena. It has sat safely with us all these years, waiting for the right moment, and it finally found its perfect home as the face of this album. Because my music leans into that nostalgic, vintage style, having these songs live on a physical, tangible CD wrapped in this meaningful artwork feels good.

Most of these tracks have only ever lived digitally, and only three are currently on major streaming platforms. I wanted to give you a quick peek at the stories behind the track list:

• The “Old”: “Say I Do” and “How Lucky Am I” from my very first solo EP back in 2012. I have completely re-mixed them so they sound better than ever.
• The “New”: A brand new song called “If I Could Do It Over,” which I recorded using a beautiful, weathered 1930s parlor guitar that was a special gift from my son.
• The “Borrowed”: A song written by a dear friend called “I Love The Way You Love Me,” alongside a cover of Christine McVie’s “Songbird,” deeply inspired by Eva Cassidy’s version.
• The “Blue”: A lonely, vulnerable track called “I Just Want To Be Loved.”
• The Celebration: To close out the album, I included “You Didn’t Have To”—a light, upbeat tune celebrating the beauty of unconditional love.

Because I rarely manufacture physical CDs, the copies of this collection are highly limited.

The digital and physical release drops for Bandcamp Friday — meaning 100% of your support goes directly toward helping me keep making music. (Of course, if you miss a Bandcamp Friday, you can still purchase my music there any day of the year. Click the music tab on my page to see everything.)

Thank you for listening, for supporting independent music, and for being a part of this journey with me. (And even if you don’t choose to buy a copy right now, you can still follow me on Bandcamp by creating a free account. You can also stream our songs several times for free and discover lots of other great independent music there.)

With so much gratitude, Michelle

Here’s the links

https://theblamedofficial.bandcamp.com/album/rumors-are-true-family-benifit

https://theblamedband.com/album/4086285/rumors-are-true-family-benifit

Here is the link to the episode that featured me, in case you’re really bored

https://www.therumorsaretruecast.com/bryan-gray-the-blamed-left-out-mortal-six-feet-deep-the-satire/“

So if you are a collector we have collaborated with Thumper Punk Records and here are two variants of the CD, ours is a double sided sleeve with short essays and pictures inside, I did some fun deep cuts with the artwork, but you’ll need your readers to see it, haha. The Thumper Punk Records CD is a Kunaki version with a slightly different inside panel. This is super fun.

(The version on The Blamed’s website appears to be sold out, but the Thumper Punk version is still available)

We also did a limited edition run of shirts.

We had fun making these songs with our friends, if you have been following our What if… videos on social media you’ll see this, fun fact the bridge guitar part in “Mindbender” is played by Greg Minier from The Crucified and Applehead, it’s so cool hearing him, the solo was played by Rocky Gray from Living Sacrifice, Rocky said how much he always loved this song, and some gang vocals by Greg, Mike, and Paul from Teeth For Eyes, so cool.

Anyways, as always thanks for listening, happy shopping to the collectors, and we know times are tough and we definitely don’t care about money, this will be streaming and will be available for free on the Thumper Punk Records BandCamp soon, we love your support, but more importantly we love y’all

It’s a Crucified party and y’all are invited

Bryan”

If you were actively involved in church and then left later in life, I think you would love this record. Or if you are deconstructing or just have a lot of questions during all of *shrugs looking around* THIS, then you might also enjoy this record.

And I’d love to answer any questions about Pushstart or my deconstruction.”

“Thank you for your interest in Powderhead—the album that nearly wasn’t. As some of you know, my Nashville home burned during the great ice storm holocaust of early 2026. Among the critical belongings saved from the flames were the master recordings that are now Powderhead. A few of these songs were born in dark times. And back in January, clouds turned to smoke bent on keeping them quiet. But, thanks to Nashville’s firefighters, here they are in all their smokey glory.

Violent family blood, betrayal, murder, humor, and redemption . . .

all in the stew of Dave Perkins’ thorny epic of the unbleached South,

POWDERHEAD

Powderhead, the Southern backwoods homestead from Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away, is the stage from which the book’s actors explode into the imagination. Along with William Faulker’s Sanctuary, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, and Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night, the gothic sensibilities of The Violent Bear It Away inspired the songs of this album. The result is a mélange of Southern Gothic sensibilities and emotions expressed in a first-person voice that is alternately uncomfortable and engaging.”

Here’s where you come in.

Every part of this campaign requires a collective effort. The goal is (and has always been) the highest quality product that we can put out. The best source material, the best mastering work, and the highest quality recordings that we can release. If we can’t make it the very best, then we’d prefer not to do it at all.

But we can and we will – with your help.

So, please look through the campaign items, choose the ones that speak to you the most, and proceed with the checkout. In anticipation of a successful campaign, we’ve already begun the process of mixing, artwork prep, and working with vendors. The plan is to get the album off to manufacturing before the campaign even concludes! Fingers-crossed.

We decided early on that we wanted to go back to the source recordings – the 2” reels themselves – and remix the album all over again. This isn’t about “fixing what was broken” – the goal is to remix as near to the 1996 version as possible – but rather to improve upon the original sonically, with greater energy, and to release those mixes onto high-resolution streaming, CD, and, of course, 180g premium vinyl. The result will be the best-sounding version of A Picture of the Eighth Wonder that we’ve ever had – and every order for the 8th Wonder CD or Vinyl will also receive a digital, downloadable copy of the album as well.

But wait… there’s more!

We are also giving everyone who orders the CD or Vinyl a digital, downloadable copy of the yet unreleased “live” audio from our Seattle show in September 2025. Aptly named At The Showbox, our complete Seattle set has been mixed and mastered for wide-release, but campaign backers who have purchased a CD or Vinyl will get the download first. How cool is that?

Is there a stretch goal? Absolutely. If we reach the $24,000 stretch goal, all backers who have purchased the 8th Wonder on CD or Vinyl will receive the At The Showbox album on CD and digital! Awesome.”

The first single is out today! It’s the title track, Lethal, and it’s available on all streaming platforms as well as BandCamp. The band is also releasing their first legit music video for the song which is now live on YouTube and below. More singles (and videos!) to come in the months ahead! That’s the cover, isn’t it fun?! :)

The physical pre-order for vinyl (available in green or orange eco-mix) and CD is now available. US only for now. If you live outside the US and are interested please reach out using this contact form. Vinyl and CD’s are expected to ship around the release date of September 18, 2026.”