Volar Records

03/08/2024

The Nerves were a groundbreaking power-pop group consisting of Paul Collins, Peter David Case, and Jack Lee who were only around for around a year and released one four-song EP. Among those tracks is one written and sung by Jack Lee, "Hanging on the Telephone," one of the most famous pop songs of all time after it was covered and made famous by Blondie on their Parallel Lines LP and later covered as well by the likes of CAT POWER, L7 Official, Def Leppard and more. Lee also wrote the track "Will Anything Happen" which was also performed by Blondie on that LP.

Back in 2009, my friend who was running I Hate Rock n Roll Records had been doing favors for Jack Lee, and one day Jack handed him both an audio reel and a film reel. We still need to digitize that film reel, but the audio reel revealed an unreleased song by Jack, which we assumed was called "City Lights."
We weren't sure what to do, so we gathered a bunch of our favorite bands to record the work of Paul Collins, Peter Case, and Jack Lee in the Nerves, The Plimsouls, and Paul Collins Beat titled here Under the Covers Vol. 2 following a split 7" in which Audacity and Darker My Love each covered a song by each other. We then hid "City Lights" as an unnamed "bonus track" only available on vinyl copies of the compilation.
After all this time, we figured it was time to go public with the stellar track, which you can check out on Youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YYWCyyL3Ck

Jack Lee passed away in early June 2023, and it feels right for everyone to hear this lost track by one of our great songwriters, power-pop or otherwise.

It wasn't until recently that I discovered that Jack actually sold this song to Australian pop singer Christie Allen and she performed it on her album of songs written by other artists, 'Detour,' in 1980. You can here her version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9sJ3Xqbci4

Volar Records is now repressing the tribute to the members of the Nerves on limited 180-gram vinyl, which you can preorder here for release this Fall.

https://hunxandhispunx.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-covers-vol-2-a-tribute-to-paul-collins-peter-case-and-jack-lee-of-the-nerves

18 track album

08/05/2024

F**k it. I haven't done this in a while. Not directing this at anyone like I did last time.

https://tvivant.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/f**kyou-to-san-diego-an-interview-with-craig-oliver/

This is it. We're at a revolution.

We've been witnessing a genocide in real time.

We're watching the students and parents and their professors protest in real time against the genocide.

We're watching them being beaten and arrested by the fascists Police State.

The same Police State that beat and arrested us during the Black Lives Matters protests after the killings of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, etc.

We're still being told to play their game. As we're brutalized.

After we've watched Russia try to genocide Ukraine.

After an attempted fascist insurrectionist coup by Trump and his cronies.

Some of them were put in jail by the DOJ and then pardoned by Trump.

As we've watched Israel genocide Palestine to the worst degree since the Holocaust. It's fu***ng live-streamed. It's driving us crazy.

Again, the students and their professors and their parents are protesting and being beaten and jailed for protesting the authority of the policy state and University mandate for these students to fall in line.

This is all so fu***ng absurd.

We've already lived though a fu***ng pandemic. That fu**ed up our psyches. This is fu***ng up our psyches further as we await news on the H1N1. It's a real thing. If it takes hold, it'll be worse than the Coronavirus pandemic. Bird flu passing from cow to human.

Get fu***ng ready.

We're fighting so hard for all of this to not be real while others are fighting hard to make sure we know it's real.

Stop fu***ng pretending.

I'm so fu***ng tired.

We wake up to videos of dead bodies of children everyday.

This is happening.

F**k your idea of success.

F**k your idea of normal.

That's over.

We're also living through modern disclosure thanks to the hearing with David Grusch, David Fravor, and Ryan Graves.

This is happening.

UFOs and Aliens, treaties, etc. This is all real.

Get used to it. Ask me whatever questions you have to. This is the tipping point of society. I'm tired of feeling crazy. I'm sure you are all too.

Again, Donald Trump's first day on trial began with him falling asleep and sh****ng his pants.

F**k them.

This is happening.

There's no easy explanation. I've already gone pretty crazy. And hopefully have come back. Don't know what your idea of that is. Stop acting like nothing has been happening. It's been a fu***ng decade.

Craig Oliver is the booker at the WhistleStop, the owner of Volar Records, as well as a writer and musician. Back in July, he wrote a Facebook post that inspired this interview. I sat down with Cra…

22/04/2024

Hi friends! Sorry we've been so quite for a while. Just popping in here to announce that after many years, we're finally repressing our tribute to THE NERVES, Under the Covers Vol. 2: A Tribute to Paul Collins, Peter Case, and Jack Lee. Most known for writing the track "Hanging on the Telephone" famously covered by Blondie (and more recently by CAT POWER), the band only released one 6-song EP in their time only to achieve legendary status as Power pop icons.

https://hunxandhispunx.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-covers-vol-2-a-tribute-to-paul-collins-peter-case-and-jack-lee-of-the-nerves?label=2728841894&tab=music

When we started putting this together way back in 2009, we reached out to our friends and discovered a deep reverence for the work of Collins, Case, and Lee, and couldn't have been happier with the outcome. Eighteen tracks here, including a previously lost (and hidden on the initial pressings) of a Jack Lee track handed off to us one fateful evening.

1. Grass Widow - Walking Out on Love 01:56

2. Reading Rainbow - Stand Back and Take a Good Look 02:49

3. the White Wires - Letters to G 02:20

4. Hunx And His Punx - When U Find Out 02:10

5. The Mantles - A Million Miles Away 03:42

6. WHiTE FENCE - Gimmie Some Time 01:52

7. Personal and the Pizzas - Any Day Now 02:14

8. Davila 666 - Hanging on the Telephone 02:43

9. Tijuana Panthers - One Way Ticket 02:22

10. Neverever - Right Now 03:09

11. So Cow - Working Too Hard 01:46

12. The Moonhearts - I Need Your Love 02:03

13. Le Face - Paper Dolls 02:28

14. Shark Toys - I Don't Fit In 02:33

15. Ratas Del Vaticano - Are You Famous 01:25

16. The Forgery Series - You Won't Be Happy 02:20

17. Cowabunga Babez - Many Roads to Follow

18. Jack Lee (of The Nerves) - City Lights (previously unreleased)

18 track album

17/03/2024

Got to go see about some Little Buddies on Tuesday.

Hi! I'm Craig Oliver, I run Volar Records, and today I had the honor of attending the unveiling of two new Nazca tridactyl mummies in Beverly Hills. Here's a...

07/12/2023

Fun fact: Riz Ahmed was taught how to drum and about punk culture in general by Stephen Sean Powell of Ice Balloons / Surfbort / etc. Volar was proud to release Ice Balloon’s Fiesta LP in 2017.

https://iceballoons.bandcamp.com/album/ice-balloons-fiesta-members-of-tv-on-the-radio-samiam-surfbort-midnight-masses

During scenes in "Sound of Metal" (2019) where the character of Ruben is struggling to reconcile his hearing loss, Riz Ahmed wore auditory blockers deep inside his ear canal that emitted white noise. He told USA Today, "I couldn't hear anything, including the sound of my own voice." After some time, he decided to forego the sound blockers and simply immerse himself in deaf culture by communicating with the director and deaf cast almost exclusively through ASL.

"I found myself really physically getting emotional, you know, tearing up at times, in a way that I would not have if I was just verbally communicating."

Ahmed spent six months learning the drums for this film.

The scenes of Ahmed's character playing and teaching drumming with the deaf children were unscripted.

"Sound of Metal" was directed by Darius Marder, who wrote the story with Derek Cianfrance and who also wrote the screenplay with his brother Abraham Marder. The film originated as the unfinished Cianfrance project Metalhead, which centers on a metal drummer who suddenly becomes deaf. The film featured the members of the band Jucifer portraying themselves. However, the project was later scrapped, until Cianfrance's friend Marder took it up.

The filmmakers made immense effort to use meticulously thought-out sound design so that the viewer experiences the hardship of losing hearing, the ability to find joy in life in spite of hearing loss, as well as the reality of cochlear implants, just like the main character. (IMDb/Wikipedia)

Happy Birthday, Riz Amhed!

20/11/2023

Change is the only constant

20/08/2023

Looking to chill during calamity? Get a head start in this dead calm? The lovely debut LP ‘Poet Lies’ by one-woman dreampop/shoegaze moondaddy is out now on Volar Records. Limited edition of 250 black 180-gram vinyl at https://moondaddyband.bandcamp.com/album/poet-lies, streaming wherever else you do you do so.

11 track album

02/08/2023

Still beyond proud that Volar was part of the first two LPs by the indelible SOFT RIOT, the heavy and somewhat satirical one-man synth project of Jack Duckworth. Fans of Black Marble, Fad Gadget, and the Stranger Things’ composers’ group SURVIVE should take note.

It would seem that this album, "Fiction Prediction", was released 10 years ago as of today! It was I guess the first proper Soft Riot album, with the 2012 release of No Longer Stranger being a re-released, expanded version of the original EP that kicked off this whole project back in 2011.

The record started a transitional period out of the more esoteric, psychedelic experiment synth into a more beat-driven "darkwave" (for lack of a better term) project as things progressed on over the years.

The album was released on Volar Records (US) and Other Voices Records (Russia/EU) in LP, CD and Cassette formats. I will always hold much appreciation to those two labels for putting their time and efforts into that one.

I actually uncovered some LPs in stock of which there's two left in the shop.

Some reflective writing on this release from a few years ago back here: https://www.softriot.com/2020/06/fiction-prediction-at-7-years/

Moving on from the past, there's a surprise coming a week from today so KEEP YR EYES ON THE PRIZE (this space).

SHOP LINK : https://softriot.bandcamp.com/album/fiction-prediction

23/06/2023

It would seem that this album, "Fiction Prediction", was released 10 years ago as of today! It was I guess the first proper Soft Riot album, with the 2012 release of No Longer Stranger being a re-released, expanded version of the original EP that kicked off this whole project back in 2011.

The record started a transitional period out of the more esoteric, psychedelic experiment synth into a more beat-driven "darkwave" (for lack of a better term) project as things progressed on over the years.

The album was released on Volar Records (US) and Other Voices Records (Russia/EU) in LP, CD and Cassette formats. I will always hold much appreciation to those two labels for putting their time and efforts into that one.

I actually uncovered some LPs in stock of which there's two left in the shop.

Some reflective writing on this release from a few years ago back here: https://www.softriot.com/2020/06/fiction-prediction-at-7-years/

Moving on from the past, there's a surprise coming a week from today so KEEP YR EYES ON THE PRIZE (this space).

SHOP LINK : https://softriot.bandcamp.com/album/fiction-prediction

03/03/2023

This month is the fourteenth anniversary of the inception of this here little label. Shoot me an email at [email protected] to name your price for a stack of records.

www.volarrecords.bandcamp.com

24/08/2022

Still incredibly proud of the two SOFT RIOT LPs released on Volar. Limited color copies still available at www.volarrecords.bandcamp.com

SOFT RIOT "Your Own Private Underworld" from the album "FICTION PREDICTION" out on Other Voices Records (Europe) and Volar Records (North America). A WILD BE...

08/06/2022

Ten years ago, I released the "Gremlins Crawl"/"White Rabbit" (Jefferson Airplane cover) by my friends Shannon and the Clams on Volar Records, and I'm happy to announce a new ten-year anniversary edition on limited color vinyl due out in September. The entire vinyl industry is facing an extreme supply shortage, so there'll only be 300 copies total. These are going quickly, and I might order a different color to be released this winter.

https://shannonandtheclams.bandcamp.com/album/shannon-and-the-clams-gremlins-crawl-white-rabbit-jefferson-airplane

2 track album

26/05/2022

I've been honored to know, work with, and be inspired by Chris McQ, releasing the debut LP by hardcore greats Therapy that they front as well the debut LP by The Passengers with whom they play keys and backup vox on Volar Records. Chris is a real gem of a person and is very suddenly battling quick onset lymphoblastic leukemia and starts chemo tomorrow and can use all the help they can get. Gofundme link below as well as links to both LPs.

https://gofund.me/3b507475

Our awesome friend Chris who is always there to help others is in need of help… Bridget McGee Houchins needs your support for Help Chris Get Through Leukemia

06/05/2022

It's Bandcamp Friday again, which means that 100% of proceeds go to artists and labels on the platform. Lilly Wachowski, who along with her sister Lana, was behind The Matrix movies, V For Vendetta, Cloud Atlas, Speed Racer, and more, just picked up the Volar Records benefit comp Presence Not Absence: A Benefit Comp for BIPOC Trans Housing Assistance. 20 artists across the gamut of post-punk, q***r and trans experimental electronic, solo woman acts, and more. Pick up the cassette or DL at the link below, and feel free to check out the rest of Volar's recent releases by The Passengers, D.WREX, Lady , Cat Scan, Therapy, Shannon and the Clams, and plenty of others.

***r ***rpride

https://volarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/presence-not-absence-a-benefit-compilation-for-trans-bipoc-housing-assistance

27/10/2021

Uno Lady's new video for "Wild Child" from her 'Osmosis' LP on Volar Records is finally here. Copies of the album on clear green vinyl available at

https://unolady.bandcamp.com/album/uno-lady-osmosis-lp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuKLRBqkIvk

Uno Lady presents "WILD CHILD" from the OSMOSIS LP, released with Volar Records. Get the limited edition green vinyl at https://unolady.bandcamp.com/album/un...

23/08/2021

Beyond stoked to have released the amazing debut EP by genderfluid avant-doom artist D.WREX. Eight super limited box sets left, plenty of cassettes w/ lyric zines also available.

https://volarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/d-wrex-s-t-ep

4 track album