Long ago, there used to be a lot of small indie labels that produced the most amazing, mind-blowing music you ever (but more probably never) heard. There were thousands of them that sprung up to release garage rock, psychedelic, and blues records. The good news is that technology and social media make it possible for the little guys to have a voice again. And that’s where Not Aloud Records enters the story. We opened our doors in 2006 because we had some cool archival music from an underground pop-punk band called Continental Crawler that featured some semi-legendary guys from the punk rock hotbed of Lodi, NJ. The resulting CD was named one of the year’s best by WFMU in NYC.
That got us thinking that we should try again, and subsequently we put out CDs by The Sear, Monkey With A Gun, The Cheap Vibes and Zoo Nitro. All are records with integrity, passion and great songs. The label is currently a micro-indie and probably will never get much bigger than it is now. We encourage our artists to put everything they’ve got into a recording, then put it out there on the line for the public to digest. We love garage rock with psych and bluesy overtones, with a protopunk DIY attitude. Fuzzy guitars. Pounding drums. Passionate vocals. A primal feeling. We want to capture the sound and ethos of an era that is hopefully in your head, if you’re still reading this far. These are little audio movies meant to make your day a little better.
And so, we move on and stretch our boundaries a bit (but not too much!). Please check out the new releases by The Cheap Vibes, The Sear and Paul Mauled. Our artists are currently performing in support of their new releases, which are chock full of tasty garage rock nuggets. It’s been a great journey these last 13 years. Enjoy!