Mint 400 Records compilation albums
| Mint 400 Records compilation albums | |
|---|---|
 Cover art for Our First Compilation. | |
| Compilations | 5 |
| Tributes | 6 |
Since 2011, Mint 400 Records has released eleven promotional compilation and tribute albums.
History[edit]
Mint 400 Records compilation albums showcase unreleased artist material, as well as tributes to Lou Reed, Link Wray, Nirvana, and a full album cover of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.[1] Commenting on the compilations in The Aquarian Weekly, columnist Bob Makin notes that Mint 400 Records "harkens back to the days when labels got their rosters involved in fun, interesting projects to generate creative new visions of classic songs."[2]
Compilations[edit]
The first compilation album, entitled Our First Compilation, was released on 7 June 2011, and contains unreleased tracks, demos and live recordings from label artists and friends of the label.[3] On 13 November 2012, the label released the twelve-track A Very Merry Christmas Compilation which features original Christmas songs and covers by Mint 400 Records artists and friends of the label.[4] The seventeen-track album Patchwork was released on 9 November 2014, and showcases unreleased lo-fi, acoustic, grunge, post-hardcore and rockabilly songs that were previously unreleased by the artists.[5] 1967 was released for free, on 30 March 2015, and features songs that were written or made popular in the year 1967. The live, mostly acoustic compilation, In a Mellow Tone, was recorded over the summer of 2015, with most of the recordings made at The Lumberyard in Nutley, New Jersey, and the Forest of Chaos in Hawthorne, New Jersey. The album contains mellower, more delicate acoustic renditions of the artists songs.[6]
The label released a eighteen-track promotional compilation on 14 September 2018, dedicated to the bands who played the 2018 North Jersey Indie Rock Festival, entitled NJ / NY Mixtape. The album contains three previously unreleased tracks, "Company Man" by Cyclone Static, "Off Ripped" by Guilty Giraffe and "Truth is My Identity" by Tony Saxon.[2] It also features songs by aBIRD, Ancient Babies, the Bitter Chills, the Brixton Riot, the Clydes, the Components, Fairmont, Sink Tapes, Shithead's Rainbow, Tri-State, Ultra Major, the Vice Rags, Shane-Michael Vidaurri, Yawn Mower and Young Legs. The double-disc album At the Movies features songs written for movie soundtracks, or featured prominently in a feature film, and it was released for free, on 31 August 2018.
Tributes[edit]
The full album cover of Pet Sounds was released for free, on 5 November 2013. On the labels first tribute album, Jersey Beat notes "[this] can be a trick proposition[,] stay to faithful to the originals and you're doing karaoke; stray too far and you're desecrating the memory of a beloved classic, [however] it works."[1] The five-track tribute to Lou Reed was released for free, on 14 October 2014, and contains covers of Lou Reed's songs.
On 15 November 2016, the label released a mostly instrumental tribute to Link Wray for free. In a review of Mint 400 Records tribute to Nirvana's In Utero, Jim Testa asks "what can we learn from a tribute version? Without Kurt Cobain's voice and Steve Albini's controversial production, what remains are the songs, and some damn good ones at that, especially as interpreted here by the likes of the Duke of Norfolk, Fairmont, aBIRD and the Maravines."[7] It was released for free on 27 January 2017, and is the first compilation to feature artists from Sniffling Indie Kids record label.[8]
Discography[edit]
- Our First Compilation (2011)
- A Very Merry Christmas Compilation (2012)
- Mint 400 Records Presents the Beach Boys Pet Sounds (2013)
- Patchwork (2014)
- Transformed: A Tribute to Lou Reed (2014)
- 1967 (2015)
- In a Mellow Tone (2015)
- Guitar Rebel: A Tribute to Link Wray (2016)
- Mint 400 Records Presents Nirvana In Utero (2017)
- At the Movies (2018)
- NJ / NY Mixtape (2018)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Carradini, Stephen (19 September 2014), "Mint 400s Patchwork Shows Its Diversity Of Sounds", Independent Clauses, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Makin, Bob (4 September 2016), "Makin Waves with The North Jersey Indie Rock Festival", Courier News, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Makin, Bob (19 July 2018), "Makin Waves Scene Report With Mint 400 Records, A Tribute To George Theiss, & Etherius", The Aquarian Weekly, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Makin, Bob (13 September 2018), "Makin Waves with Yawn Mower: 'Hey Babe, It's Local Summer", Institute for Nonprofit News, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Pirate! Staff (2011), "Our First Compilation", Pirate!, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Pirate! Staff (2012), "A Very Merry Christmas Compilation", Pirate!, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Pirate! Staff (2015), "In a Mellow Tone", Pirate!, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Testa, Jim (2013), "Mint 400 Records Presents the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds", Jersey Beat (Jersey Beat Consumer Guide), retrieved 8 March 2019
- Testa, Jim (2017), "Mint 400 Records Presents Nirvana In Utero", Jersey Beat, retrieved 8 March 2019
