A compilation of local bands is one thing, but a compilation of local bands pressed on vinyl? You’d have to go back to the early 1980s to find such a thing, with vintage slabs of wax like Sonoma Soundtrack and Sonoma Gold highlighting such bands as Osage, Jim Corbett and the Subz from the days when turntables were king.
The just-released Atlas Amped keeps that tradition alive. Pressed on splattered pink vinyl and featuring over a dozen local bands, the collection contains recordings almost exclusively made at Atlas Studios, a small space owned by musician Jesse Wickman in the South A district in Santa Rosa. Atlas attracts a wide range of styles—Atlas Amped begins with a one-two punch of blistering hardcore by Snag and honky-tonk storytelling by Shelby Cobra—and the record’s variety is impressive: the Eastern Europen punk of Brothers Horse, the accordion of JD Limelight, the cinematic rock of Snipers.
What’s fascinating is that Atlas Amped represents just a small cross-section of the hundreds of bands in Sonoma County; what’s novel is you can file it next to your Abba records on the shelf. Find it at the Last Record Store in Santa Rosa, or at www.selltheheartrecords.com.
