Greetings All,
It's been a bit since our last post/update but rest assured, things are always (although often slowly) brewing at NotRock HQ. One of our biggest missions at NotRock has always been the documentation and preservation of music/art that has been made by our friends. It's always been that linking that strengthened each release by the ties and cross promotion of everything else in our catalog or on our roster. Having said that there's been a few projects, throughout our lifespan as a label collective, that the artists have released themselves. As time passes and bands become inactive that music and those releases have the sad potential to be lost to the ages. We do our best here to not let that happen. So where are we going with all this? Well back in March of 2023 a fan had reached out to us asking if we had any As A Bell (a musical venture by Thomas Klezcka of Adzam fame) music we could post, how that music was very important to him back in the day and he would love to hear it again. Being reminded of this release, we immediately recognized it's importance and for many reasons but the sake of preservation alone, thought it should absolutely be included in our catalog. John was certain he had it somewhere and assured the fan he would get it to him. After a small search followed by a larger search John recalled that the CD he had back in the day was jettisoned due to the fact that the block print ink that was used for the cover art had melted onto the disc, melding it into one unsalvageable mass. The search continued as John reached out to Tommy, to the respective members of the band, as well as some other NotRock alumni to see if anybody still had a copy. Nobody did. It was then brought up that our dear friend Joe of The Human Era and the person behind Missile Silo Studios was the individual who recorded the As A Bell session. Being the extremely responsible person that he is, had the audio files backed up on an old hard drive! With the audio now secured the hunt continued for someone that had the artwork or at least a picture of it but to no avail. We talked to Tommy and he said he would gladly recreate it if the original couldn't be located. After some reflection and thought about what the As A Bell songs meant to him, Tommy decided that the original art (of a cartoon hamster) wasn't really fitting and and in it's place a new cover image was created.
In addition to that, nineteen years ago (08/28/05) preceding As A Bell by about a year, Thomas Klezcka self-released an acoustic EP entitled "This Summer I Read Ten Books And Wrote Six Songs". All of the songs on that EP were carried over and served as the demo versions of what became the basis for As A Bell. Today, a hair before nineteen years later, (and roughly a year and a half after our search began to find the As A Bell recordings) we are proud to welcome both of these Klezcka classics into our catalogue for the first time. Art should be preserved. You never know who it may end up holding the most meaning or importance to. Thanks to the request of one fan, these two releases haven't been lost to the sands of time.
