Sad but true. The founder and popaholic-in-chief Bruce Brodeen is closing up shop at www.notlame.com on November 24th. This is the label and brand that got me really inspired as a power pop fan and music blogger. As a music resource, Not Lame was one of the best places to get all your power pop and related artists in one shot, but as the modern music consumer is shunning CDs in favor of downloads, it made business extremely challenging. But I’d hang on to those CDs, they are rare collectors items now.
He recorded a special goodbye message to fans here. He is now promoting an online community, rockandrolltribe.com and new site www.popgeekheaven.com. I wish him well and look forward to his new endeavors.
I started purchasing from Not Lame back in 1998 and it's been my exclusive source for buying music since then. Without Not Lame my collection would be smaller and my life a little less joyful. Thank you Bruce for all the enjoyment you've brought. Good luck to you.
John Krause
Mike,
Despite positive critical press with most of the bands Bruce featured, the lack of sales really only means that the niche of "power pop" remains a small dedicated group of audiophiles, and very little "breakthrough" to the mainstream media.
Unless a band is championed by a taste-maker the media pays attention to, these hard working musicians need to do it for love (not money). Imagine if Snookie was a Shazam fan — then it would be a different story!
NOT LAME CALLS IT QUITS
What is this, some kind of sick joke? Not Lame, the world’s greatest power pop store and record label is calling it quits after fifteen years. Bruce Brodeen conceived Not Lame while working in Denver .
For years Brodeen had been trading tapes of great bands that couldn’t get label deals. Brodeen, scion of a long line of Lutheran preachers, studied theology in college, but ended up in LA doing band and concert management and promotion. “The last four years in LA I was becoming psychotic. I couldn’t deal with the crime, density of people, the vicious display of scarier characteristics of human behavior. My wife and I literally sold everything we had and moved to Aspen on a lark.”
Not Lame comprises three labels: Not Lame Recordings, Not Lame Archives (reissues,) and Not Lame Limited. “My passions are completely unharnessed. I have no idea how many bands are on the label,” Brodeen says. Anywhere from fifteen to seventeen, the most significant of which are Jellyfish and The Posies. Not Lame has produced handsome boxed sets for both bands, featuring previously unavailable material. The double-paged photo spread in the center of the Jellyfish booklet, which must be seen to be believed, took six days to shoot and cost fifteen hundred dollars. Not Lame sold 7000 copies of the Jellyfish box, an astonishing number for such an upscale item. Their Posies boxed set sold out.
Bruce’s most significant discoveries were The Shazam, a powerfully melodic Nashville trio, and Myacle Brah, Andy (Love Nut) Bopp’s one-man show. It is pointless to describe these bands as hook-laden. By definition, all Not Lame bands are hook-laden. Not Lame bet the farm on The Shazam, investing a heretofore unheard-of twenty-five grand in their 2007 recording,Tomorrow the World. Not Lame recording artists were seldom heard on radio. There were exceptions. Scot Sax had a hit on the American Pie soundtrack, the swooningly gorgeous “I Am the Summertime.” Brodeen moved to Fort Collins in 2001, and the store jumped from location to location, finally ending up in his own house to save money.
“Yes,” Bruce said, “it is a mission. There is a principle at work here. It is that this style of music will not be marginalized or ignored without some struggle to be heard. We feel that what Not Lame is doing has important artistic merit and relevance, for music fans, as well as for the music industry at large.”
Now I learn that the Shazam’s last record, the brilliant Meteor, will not be commercially available. After the initial 3000 pressing, despite the overwhelmingly positive press, not enough consumers expressed interest. There are many inexplicable failures to launch throughout the history of pop music. Barry & the Remains, for example. One of the greatest Brit invasion post-Beatles acts ever, that in fact opened for the Beatles on their first American tour. Add Shazam to the list. I trust that Hans Rotenberry and crew will reboot and carry on.
–Mike Baron
thanks for bringing this to the attention of the power pop community. i agree, very sad. not lame was part of my life. bruce and notlame will be sorely missed. great job bruce. we love you