Plastic 350 Records And Infinity Cat Recordings – Willing And Label #03

Nashville is a pretty happening place from what I can gather.  One needs to look no further for evidence than the tandem of Plastic 350 Records and Infinity Cat Recordings.  Infinity Cat is at the top of the hill when it comes to the current wave of garage-punk-fuzz excellence.  Acts like JEFF The Brotherhood and Cy Barkley & The Way Outsiders (previously covered on this here blog) have seen to that. But did you know Infinity Cat has a cool little subsidiary called Plastic 350 Records where there is a modest stable of pop oriented artists?  While I had heard of Plastic 350, I didn’t know much about them until my new e-pal Bob, trusty label employee, responded to the post on Cy B. & TWO.  He was nice enough to send a package of some records so I could do this spotlight. Included were copies of the two latest offerings from Plastic 350- “Space” by Monkey Bowl and “Apples And Oranges” by Art Circus.  Monkey Bowl has lush, spacious pop tunes where piano is a prominent fixture while Art Circus’ pop-craft bounces along with electronic flourishes.  These albums are a nice change of pace and sound quite fresh in a world where many of the best pop intentions get ruined by overproduction.  The gem of the package for me was “Album” by Skyblazer, released earlier this year on Infinity Cat.  Skyblazer was a short-lived project featuring JEFF The Brotherhood and a couple pals.  They recorded album in 2006 and it lay dormant until the cats at Cat pressed it to vinyl.  Think Deep Purple Mach II with a healthy dose of female vocals and you’d be in the right neighborhood.  Much appreciation goes to Bob for sharing the rad music.  Check out the Q & A below for more insight into these two fine labels.

Thanks For Reading... 

Three Random Queries For Bob Of Plastic 350/Infinity Cat 

1. What's been the best thing to come out of having Plastic 350 be the home of the pop-oriented music?

“When Infinity Cat started there was a very eclectic mix of rock and pop and punk, just whatever we thought was good. But about five years ago, we decided to laser-focus Infinity Cat on bands like Heavy Cream, JEFF The Brotherhood, Diarrhea Planet, etc.- in other words, bands that would actually tour together. We wanted fans to know that if they liked our core bands, and we put a Hell Beach record on the site, they'd probably like that too. And that's exactly what happened. In the meantime, I was still producing cool indie pop like Art Circus and we needed a home for those records. So Plastic 350 was born, named after the first Monkey Bowl album. And we've got all kinds of good stuff coming!”

2. What is your least favorite thing about doing a record label?
“There's nothing I don't like about it- except when the Post Office lets a package sit in the sun and the vinyl warps!”
 3. Who made the Infinity Cat logo?

“Jake made that up when he was in high school. It was before we had a label- he drew 100's of them. We named the label after the drawing and picked one to be the standard.”