VG+ Records

04/21/2023

Doug McKechnie and the label get a nice shoutout in Jesse Jarnow's Grateful Deadcast regarding Doug and the Moog's work on the band's Aoxomoxoa LP (the ep focuses on former Dead keyboard player Tom Constanten). Doug and VG+ pop up around the 42-minute mark.

T.C. The Deadcast is honored to welcome Tom Constanten to discuss his remarkable tenure as Grateful Dead keyboardist from late 1968 through early 1970, his work on 3 classic albums, & his adventures before & after the Dead, including his current band Dose Hermanos. Guests: Tom Constanten, Bo...

12/21/2022

There are two color editions of Doug McKechnie’s forthcoming San Francisco Moog: an aqua pressing exclusive to this first run and a very limited (100 copies) bundle of a white-vinyl pressing that comes with a digital print of the psychedelic mandala art by Richard Winn Taylor. Those are Bandcamp-only and are going pretty fast so don’t delay. BTW, this is one of the rare surviving color images of Doug with the Moog inside SF Radical Labs.

12/15/2022

The preorder for Doug McKechnie’s San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 Vol. 2 is now live. The LP features the rest of the groundbreaking unreleased recordings Doug improvised live on the Moog he hauled from gig to gig around the Bay Area and beyond. Another chapter in the rewritten history of electronic music has arrived. The album releases on Feb. 14 and is also available in special limited color-vinyl versions.

8 track album

06/15/2022

At long last, after many, many delays, the repress of Doug McKechnie’s San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 is in my hands, going out in the mail, and, thanks to our distro pals, hitting the bins at fine stores all over.

03/22/2022

Susan Alcorn blowing the roof off of Union Pool with Patrick Holmes and Pedernal bandmember Ryan Sawyer!

*alternate audio

01/13/2022

Great news for heads in Europe: Thanks to our friends at Morr Music, VG+ titles will be more readily available on the other side of the Atlantic without insane shipping prices. The pre-order for the repress of Doug McKechnie's San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 Vol. 1 is now live, for a release date of late February. Check it out and spread the word.

San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 documents a missing link in the history of electronic music, as well as the little-known moment when psychedelic music went electronic.

12/16/2021

Coming on VG+ in 2022: the Sound Mechanic soundtrack album.

https://www.facebook.com/soundmechanicfilm SOUND MECHANIC is a feature length documentary about Neil Feather, an artist/musician/performer/sound mechanic who invents…

11/16/2021

There's a great piece from Susan Alcorn in the new Sound American in which she details what she's been up to since the advent of Covid-19. A lot of it, unfortunately, has to do with the vagaries of getting a proper diagnosis and healthcare in this country, but it's well worth your time either way.

Covid Confessions Of A One-Legged Pedal Steel Player For countless millennia, the Earth has turned on its axis and circled the sun, bringing days, nights, and seasons to our oxygen-fueled world. We build our lives, and they’re built for us, passing the days lulled into the fantasy that—unless we...

11/11/2021

Very nice interview with Susan. Check it out.

Susan Alcorn: Another Way article by Dom Minasi, published on November 11, 2021 at All About Jazz. Find more Catching Up With articles

11/05/2021

The preorder for the repress of Doug McKechnie’s San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 (now Vol. 1) is now live at long last. LPs shipping in mid-February.

5 track album

10/23/2021

VG+ has joined the 21st century, or something like that: Doug McKechnie's San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 Vol. 1 is now on Spotify and other streaming platforms. Hit play, share widely, put him on your playlists, and watch this space for updates on the long-awaited repress of the LP.

Doug McKechnie · Album · 2020 · 5 songs.

09/19/2021

I missed the actual anniversary by a day or so, but VG+ has been releasing music for two years now. I'm hugely proud of the records the label's released and deeply gratified by the chance to work with the musicians who made them. Things have slowed down a little bit due to the pandemic, etc., but there are more exciting things in the works. Thanks for your support.

08/01/2021

Kind of a cool full-circle moment: The most recent episode of the venerable Hearts of Space show featured a track from Doug McKechnie and San Francisco Moog alongside pieces by Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Laurie Spiegel, and other “Electronic Fossils,” which was the title/theme of the show. Not only did the episode put Doug’s music in the context of more renowned electronic pioneers, where it belongs, but Mr. HoS himself, Stephen Hill, is an old friend and compatriot of Doug’s and was kind enough to write liner notes for the first LP. Check it out.

Music from the Hearts of Space, Slow Music for Fast Times, spacemusic, space music, slowmusic, slow music, ambient, ambient music, electronic music, electronica, chill, chill music, contemplative, contemplative music

07/28/2021

After nearly two years of collaborating through emails, texts, phone calls, and Zooms, Doug McKechnie and I finally met up in person in San Francisco, and even took a drive by 759 Harrison Street, former home of the SF Radical Labs, Bruce Hatch, Doug, and the Moog back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s (up on the third floor). It was an honor and a great pleasure. San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 Vol. 2 is in the works as we speak.

03/19/2021

Due to the overwhelming response to Doug McKechnie’s instant-sellout San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 LP, we’re now working on a repress. There will also be an SF Moog Vol. 2. Watch this space for details t.b.a.

11/14/2020

Pedernal, by Susan Alcorn Quintet

The Susan Alcorn Quintet’s Pedernal is now out on CD via Relative Pitch Record, up for preorder and coming in early January on LP from VG+, and available digitally now from both via of our Bandcamp pages. I’ll be sharing more of the glowing press it’s getting in the days to come. Listen and/or order at the link below (there’s a link to the RP page there, too).

5 track album

11/10/2020

With 'Pedernal,' Susan Alcorn Expands Pedal Steel Guitar's Range

“Susan Alcorn isn't the first to expand pedal steel guitar's range, but she's taken it farther than most, putting the instrument on a broader map.” Kevin Whitehead reviewed Pedernal today on Fresh Air. Very perceptive reading. Check it out.

Pedal steel guitar is a staple of country music, but Alcorn bends it around odd corners. Her quintet's new album is beyond category — roaming betwixt jazz and improvised music and rock and country.

11/08/2020

Crepuscule with Nellie - Susan Alcorn

Susan plays Monk.

Thelonious Monk's "Crepuscule with Nellie" performed by pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn at home on November 6, 2020

11/06/2020

Doug McKechnie

"San Francisco Moog is a welcome surprise—an uncovered gem from very well-trodden territory. . . . Finding something so novel opens a small new pathway into the history of electronic music—an odd node from the US to Germany by way of San Francisco hippie culture and emerging modes of listening." There's a fantastic review of San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 by Geeta Dayal up now on 4Columns. Check it out.

4Columns arts criticism weekly.

11/05/2020

Pedernal, by Susan Alcorn Quintet

Pedal-steel explorer Susan Alcorn returns with her boldest and most ambitious recording yet—five originals, a killer band, and a sweeping survey of her musical world. "Alcorn's melodic and textual visions come to the fore . . . it's delightful stuff." —Whole Note. A co-release with Relative Pitch Records, out 11/13, limited-edition LP up for pre-order now. tinyurl.com/saqpedernal

5 track album

11/01/2020

People say they can’t name a favorite child, but there’s always something special about the first one. It’s been a little over a year since Picks & Lighters’ TVA/Starvation—VG+ 001–made its way back into the world and changed my life, and I’m really gratified that people are still (re)discovering it. And I still get a kick out of making a new batch of covers.

10/30/2020

There’s a fantastic review of Doug McKechnie’s San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 in the most recent Electronic Sound magazine. The LPs are slightly delayed at the pressing plant, but they’re up for order now via Light in the Attic in the US, Shiny Beast/Clear Spot in Europe, and the VG+ Bandcamp page.

10/19/2020

San Francisco Moog: 1968-72, by Doug McKechnie

“Astonishing stuff, pure early Moog electronics . . . vibrating with the joy taken in the discovery of the new sounds this machine was capable of.” —Electronic Sound

“Presages both Tangerine Dream’s soundtracks and, in its most grimy moments, “Acid Tracks.” —The Wire

“A half century after the recordings were made, most everything on San Francisco Moog: 1968-1972 still sounds out of this world.” —SFWeekly

Limited edition LP out Oct. 23

5 track album

10/17/2020

The Wire reviewed San Francisco Moog in the November issue. The album is out Oct. 23.

10/14/2020

Live From My Living Room with Tarotplane

Tarotplane will be performing live (in his basement) for *only the sixth time ever* via streaming this Thursday at 8 pm Eastern. Talk about a rare treat. Details below.

Baltimore-based recording artist plays a rare live performance for us.

10/14/2020

Coming soon: PEDERNAL by the Susan Alcorn Quintet. After a number of solo, duo, and trio recordings, the Baltimore-based pedal steel maven makes the most of a killer band (Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Mark Feldman, and Ryan Sawyer) with five wide-ranging original compositions that draw from all the many musical worlds she’s passed through. It’s so good. This is a co-release with Relative Pitch Records—RP will be releasing the CDs, out in November, and VG+ will be releasing the vinyl version t.b.a. More details soon. Get excited.

10/13/2020

‘San Francisco Moog’ — Pioneering Synth Tracks - SF Weekly

Great story today on Doug McKechnie and San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 in SFWeekly. "'The only way I could make anything musical with this instrument was to create little riffs with the sequencers, then play along with them.' The idea that he was doing something unprecedented never occurred to him."

In 1968, the year Wendy Carlos released "Switched-On Bach," a San Franciscan named Doug McKechnie took a more psychedelic approach to Moog music.

10/06/2020

Q&A with composer and musician Susan Alcorn, one of the world’s premiere exponents of pedal steel guitar – Blues.Gr

A nice interview with/overview of Susan Alcorn.

"Humans are social creatures, and musicians are human beings (at least I think they are), so especially when they are playing with and for other people, music is a social act."

10/01/2020

San Francisco Moog: 1968 72 | Light In The Attic Records

Doug McKechnie’s San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 is now available for preorder via our friends at Light in the Attic. Get at it.

San Francisco Moog documents for the first time a critical missing link in the history of electronic music. In 1968, a young singer named Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first Moog Modular Series III synthesizers ever made—serial number 004—and began experimenting with it. Soon, he was h...

09/29/2020

"Music as time-lapsed landscapes." Tarotplane's The Feedback Sutras LP delivers new-school kosmische done in an old-school way to create two sides of psychedelic bliss. Limited edition of 200. tinyurl.com/fbsutras