“Actually, Records.”
“Actually, Records.” is a record label specializing in releasing limited-run innovative and exceptional records regardless of genre labels or commercial restraints. Comprised of musicians and visual artists from Chicago, San Francisco to New York City, “Actually, Records.” is committed to issuing inventive and vital music, blurring the lines between the electronic/acoustic, linear/entropic and tonal/atonal.
XYZR_KX
Secession in Astropolis
Bandcamp | CDBaby | Spotify | ITunes | YouTube
“XYZR_KX takes his love for crafty songwriting and turns it into slight-retro-but-very-modern music that I feel will hold up quite well for pop music fans in 30 years.” – This Is Books
Jon Monteverde, aka XYZR_KX, completes his trilogy of releases on “Actually, Records.” with “Secession in Astropolis”, an exploration of futuristic impressions and soundscapes, imagining electro-pop music as conceived in the distant future. Monteverde frames all of the music within the futuristic and dreamlike environment of a floating city, Astropolis itself, building a fully realized world of sound and vision.
act15 | CD | 2011
JOEL WALTER
Nowhere in Fiction EP
“Honest and heartfelt. Joel wears these songs on his sleeve. There is no second guessing as to who this person is. He writes and sings from his heart. You believe it.” – Damien Jurado
Walter continues his tradition of straight forward storytelling on ‘Nowhere in Fiction’. The three-song EP was produced by Damien Jurado, who collaborated with Walter and engineer Kory Kruckenberg on the recording sessions over a 12 day period at VU Recording in Seattle.
act14 | CD | 2011
KITE OPERATIONS
Festival
“With its deep lyricism and carefully constructed accompaniment, ‘Festival’ is an unparalleled mixture of celebration, emotion and passion.” – Lucid Forge
Filled with visceral noise spirituals, “Festival” is less a collection of songs than a joyous exaltation for the no-wave set; an exhilarating testament to the band’s ability to infuse dissonant experimentation with the emotionally incisive.
act13 | CD | 2009
JIENAN YUAN
We Saw Everything EP
Bandcamp | CDBaby | Spotify | ITunes | YouTube
“Yuan’s melancholy pop makes rainy days, messy breakups, and shitty jobs beautiful.” – Giant Robot
Reflective and bittersweet, Jienan Yuan’s music glimmers with the fragments of unrequited love and faded memories; an electro-acoustic current of sound over which Yuan’s delicate melodies float and tremble.
act12 | CD | 2009
THE GOLD MEDALISTS
The City Lights Us on Fire
PART ANIMAL PART MACHINE. Those are the words scrawled across professional skateboarder Jason Jessee’s back and a phrase well suited to describe San Francisco’s Peter Nguyen AKA The Gold Medalists. Famed as the drummer monster behind noise/metalheads Total Shutdown and indie-rockers eE, Nguyen is releases his debut album, The City Lights Us on Fire, to the world, and woe to those who turn a deaf ear.
act11 | CD | 2007
OISHI
No In Between EP
Out of Print
Oishi is the collaboration between Jon Monteverde AKA XYZR_KX and singer/songwriter Carly Oishi. Playing electro-acoustic songs of heartbreak, loss, and longing, they try to live up to the Everything But the Girl and Portishead comparisons. Now renamed ‘Jon and Carly’.
act7x2 | 7″ | 2007
JOEL WALTER
Heart of Branches
“Full of folk’s trans-generational power … Walter is no novice, as his thick, intricate picking shows, digging in on a set of… songs that are meant to get under your skin, and do.” – All Music Guide
Armed mainly with a guitar and harmonica, Central Ohio-based singer-songwriter Joel Walter examines the core of blue-collar life via portraits of broken souls worn down by hard living and the lost dreams that are often buried within them. “Heart of Branches”portrays these lost souls unsparingly, illuminating their fractured desperation and frustration yet always celebrating their fiery will to get by and survive.
act10| CD | 2007
HOPE IN GHOSTS
All Your Departures
CDBaby | Spotify | ITunes | YouTube
“The band’s brand of slow-building, shoe-fazing, atmospheric, and instrumental rock made me recall the places I rented and people I hung out with. With a little bit of jangling guitar to balance the somber tempo, the results are savory and bittersweet.” – Giant Robot
The debut full-length, ‘All Your Departures’, arrives from guitar anti-hero Ted Flynn’s Hope in Ghosts project. Flynn uses differing guitar tones, layers and arrangements to represent the cycle of emotions involved when losing someone, leaving, or being left.
act09| CD | 2007
EE
Capital Plans
“A sense of departure pervades Capital Plans – the seven-song release brings together a sense of weariness about current surroundings and situations, yet fearing the unknowns of change.” – Venus Zine
The legendary San Francisco rockers returned with their long-awaited third album ‘Capital Plans’. Combining indie-pop, slowcore and noise to create beautifully crafted textured post-rock pop, EE redefine the indie rock status quo with their new sonic masterpiece.
EE are Tobin Mori, Che Chou, Pete Nguyen and Sooyoung Park.
act08 | CD | 2007
THE RED WHEELBARROW
Homemade Life Raft EP
The first release in the 7×7 series is a three song collection of The Red Wheelbarrow’s most heartbreaking songs, recorded in his home studio between 2003-2005.
act7x1 | 7″ | 2006
XYZR_KX
Inanomie Op.221
Bandcamp | ITunes | Play | YouTube
“One-man band Jon Monteverde includes a cast of contributors in his latest indie-electronica opus, which ranges in sound from metal-machine free jazz to Star Wars droids talking … acoustic Tropicalia.” – Giant Robot
‘Inanomie OP.221’ is a three track 28-minute decisive opus that functions as both an extension of ‘Falls’ and a statement against cultural imperialism.
act07 | CD |2006
MARIA PHOTOPULOS
S/T EP
Out of Print
“This is a nice, funky album. It has the pauses and breaks of modern slow music, echo’s and all.” – Altar Magazine
Maria Photopulos’ debut self-titled EP conjures up images of emotional displacement, a bittersweet sense of nostalgia and a sardonic recognition of romantic impossibility. This first release reveals her skills at writing insightful lyrics paired with irresistible melodies.
act06 | CD | 2005
XYZR_KX
falls off the curb, chump style.
“Quietly earnest folk-pop, narcoleptic electronica… jaw-dropping power” – Splendid
Hushed vocals. Serrated Guitars. Chaotic Beats. The debut full-length album from XYZR_KX represents a cross-section of his stylistic range, utilizing traditional rock sounds and electro-virtuosity to create a fresh, emotionally taut soundscape firmly situated within a classic pop structure.
act05 | CD | 2004
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Homecooked EPs
Out of Print
In the initial stages of the label, we home-pressed four initial EPs to assist in spreading word-of-mouth. Each of these limited edition EPs contained songs from future releases and unreleased demo/ workshop versions.
act01 – “Actually, Sampler.”
act02 – XYZR_KX ‘Demo EP’
act03 – The Red Wheelbarrow ‘S/T EP’
act04 – Maria Photopulos ‘3 Song Demo’
act01-04 | CD-R | 2003-04