Label
Jim Eno – founding member of Spoon and noted producer – created Public Hi-Fi Records in March 2013 as an outlet for music projects he loves: for the unsigned artists he’s recorded, and as a place to issue special pressings of previously unreleased tracks from his array of artist sessions. He curates the entire label, producing and engineering each release with an aim for the highest sound quality possible. All releases are on 12-inch vinyl with accompanying high quality digital downloads.
RELEASES
Between full-band sessions at Public Hi-Fi for Dana Falconberry’s forthcoming LP, she and Jim Eno spent a few days in December collaborating with different techniques and sounds for a few extra songs. This experiment birthed “Palmless” and “Seven Hills,” two ethereal soundscapes that create a bed of synthesized tones and rhythms to underpin Falconberry’s gently persuasive vocal delivery. “Palmless” was inspired by the first flight of two baby great blue heron birds, and “Seven Hills” is a contemplative piece about the woes of leaving magnificently inspiring places while on tour.
Eno produced, engineered and mixed both tracks and also provided most of the arrangements and drum sequences. The vinyl release’s custom packaging includes silk-screened artwork by Falconberry for the cover.
“Rejection #5” and B-side “Screen Door” were both recorded straight to 2” tape and then mastered directly to acetate from the ½” mix tapes. While “Rejection #5” is a song Lerche tinkered with for nearly 10 years before finally recording it here, “Screen Door” came together just a couple months prior to his impromptu sessions with Jim, who also plays drums on the tracks.
The Public Hi-Fi Sessions series will release limited edition singles on 12-inch vinyl approximately three times a year and, as with all releases from the label, will be entirely curated, produced, and engineered by Jim Eno.
B3 trio Dupree’s debut album Nuestro Camino is the first release from Public Hi-Fi Records. The band – Mike Flanigin, Jake Langley, and Kyle Thompson – is a fixture in the Austin music scene, and carries on the organ trio tradition of the 1950s and ‘60s that blends swing, blues, boogaloo, and pop with a little country and rock to create their own uniquely Texan sound. Nuestro Camino was recorded live in a single afternoon and laid directly to 2-track analog tape with no post mixing or overdubbing.