The next release on our Forest Family imprint is the debut record from the soulful, “nomadic psychedelic folksinger” Earth Girl Helen Brown: a “unique mix of country, girl group, R&B, and ghoulishness,” brought to life by Sonny Smith of Sonny & the Sunsets, with help from Heidi Alexander + Grace Cooper of the Sandwitches, John Dwyer of the Oh Sees, Kelly Stoltz, and others. One of my personal favorite FF releases so far. Here’s Helen’s story, as Sonny tells it:
“Helen Brown was born in Vancouver, Canada, but raised in an Athens, Georgia-based religious cult, and was blinded in one eye from a childhood baseball injury. As an adult, she dropped out of Evergreen and traveled the country for a while as a nomadic psychedelic folksinger, before forming her first band One Eyed Tramps. For years, she lived alone in a mountaintop in southern Alaska, where she befriended a Cherokee Shaman (later revealed as a fake) who encouraged her to pursue a frustrating academic career. Rampant drug use, frequent fainting on stage, and occasional self-inflicted knife wounds on stage led to more interest in her stage antics than her music. However, a few sides did emerge in the late ’90s (recording dates unknown), which feature a unique mix of country, girl group, R&B, and ghoulishness. Crude and amateurish at best, these recordings are appreciated for their sincerity and intensity of feeling.”
mp3:
Earth Girl Helen Brown :: Hit After Hit
Earth Girl Helen Brown’s Story of an Earth Girl 10″ EP is limited to 500 copies on white vinyl. Check out the video for the title track below, and pre-order the 10″ here.
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woohoo!
Wow. added fake vinyl scratch? i have that protools plug-in too!
too bad, would be a really great song without that crap.
make an EP of songs this good, we’ll put our your record too
yeah, its good. we get it. nonetheless, the scratch is quite annoying.
oy, chrissy-poo, wanna “join the family”. where do Wii(I) send our stuff???
forestfamilyrecs@gmail.com
Our band would like to send you/Forest Fam a 7″ to check out.
Is there a physical address we can use?
SteveEugene@gmail.com
You ghey, Brian?
i am ghee.
This was recorded in the 90’s on the Mountains of Alaska. I doubt she had protools. Jeez.
Chris, I guess I just mean that it would be great if these songs were recorded without the scratchiness, and if truly done in the 90s in Alaska then reproduced. Too much of a gem of a song to have so lo-fi!
Uh? Why is it that the pre-order is North American only? A little unfair, don’t you think? I mean, I’d happily pay the extra in postage. So why am I excluded?
Sucks to be me.
In other news: tracks sound great.
Sorry about that, it’ll definitely be available soon at assorted distros (Rough Trade, etc.) for the rest of the world. We hate charging so much for shipping internationally, and the USPS has proven pretty worthless at actually getting the packages to their destination. We’ve had way too many lost orders, and this way you can get it without having to pay the ridiculous shipping costs.
Is this still available? Would you happen to have an extra copy layin’ around to sell? I would love to get this! Thanks Chris.