I started Royal Rhino Flying Records in the last semester of my last year of high school. Looking back, I was probably way more ambitious than I had any right to be. At the time, I was using music – as so many of us do – to escape feelings of isolation, a mostly vacuous education, and creative constipation. Morgantown isn’t really that isolated, but introverts are usually the last to get the memo, so I decided to emulate my Elephant Six idols. Through a handful of musician friends I knew via the interwebs, I started to network and make contacts.
The first albums I put out were all on duplicated CD-Rs – they look as good as anything else, but the quality’s a little lower and they can be cheaply manufactured in much smaller quantities. I hadn’t really developed any sort of media-aesthetic at the time, outside of an intense love of hardbound books, so the format decision just made the most sense. They ranged in quantity from as few as 50 in one case and 400 in another, some were honest-to-God releases that I promoted from start to “finish,” and others were tour only. My interest in Elephant Six has held and in the middle of my “CD period” I was able to release albums with two of the more obscure original members, Von Hemmling and Midget & Hairs. The Midget & Hairs album actually has most of the label’s mainstays – Jeff Mangum, W. Cullen Hart, etc – playing on a few of the old recordings it collected.
I don’t know if I’ve ever told Jheri (from Get Off the Coast) this, but my entire vision of the label changed when I saw his blog for the first time. Starting with the discovery of Visions of Trees, whose Sometimes It Kills EP was my first really successful release (it should have been a 12” EP instead of the CD that it was). We even made posters. I shored up the success of the EP by starting to blog dedicatedly on the main page of the Royal Rhino website. Shortly after, Cecil from GOBBLE GOBBLE found me and made me damn near the happiest tot in toyland by letting me release the first vinyl edition of debut LP Neon Graveyard and his first bits of “flu-pop” on the Lawn Knives/End of Days 7”. My relationship with both bands has been so positive that more than just my perspective on the “music industry” has improved, my view of humanity has as well.
Right now, I’ve got a limited edition cassette release of Jaded Hipster Choir’s Pill Weekend LP that’s so fresh off the presses it isn’t even on them yet, and we’re planning for a split single with Banjo or Freakout and His Clancyness. Who knows what else’ll come down the line, but we can all rest easy knowing that it will at least not involve witch-haus or whatever the fuck they’re calling it now. It’s probably not going to be cassettes either… don’t want Royal Rhino becoming redundant now that Jheri and I are running a cassette label.
More importantly, I’m now looking for fulltime employment, preferably in downtown Washington DC. I have extensive experience in publishing and media, as well as keeping house, and am both compact and easy-to-read.
Stream an exclusive Royal Rhino Flying Records Sampler below or download it en mass here.
Catalog
•RRFR-000, King of Prussia “Save the Scene” CD LP
•RRFR-001, Michael Fitch “Yes, To The Boastfully Bright” CD LP
•RRFR-002, Electric Mystical Soul Vibration “Soundscape Of A Modern Myth” CD LP
•RRFR-003, Space Station Lounge “Across the Astral Plain EP” CD EP
•RRFR-004, The Inflatable Orchestra “The Inflatable Orchestra: Volume One” CD LP
•RRFR-005, Von Hemmling “La Guerre Est Muertra” CD LP
•RRFR-006, Von Hemmling “99 From 1999″ CD LP
•RRFR-007, Translations “Investigations Into The Subconscious” CD EP
•RRFR-008, Electric Mystical Soul Vibration “Transmissions From The Green Orchestra” CD LP
•RRFR-009/Ache034, The Winks “Chorus Girls” CD EP
•RRFR-010, Midget & Hairs “S/T” CD LP
•RRFR-012, Various Artists “Build Your Army With Potatoes″ CD Compilation
•RRFR-013, American Watercolor Movement “The Moustacio Suite” CD EP
•RRFR-014, Amo Joy! “Theophrastus Bombastus” CD EP
•RRFR-015, Juna “YesNo” CD LP
•RRFR-016, Visions of Trees “Sometimes it Kills” CD EP
•RRFR-017, Fox Hands “S/T” CD EP
•RRFR-018, Seamonster “Two Birds” 7″ EP
•RRFR-019, Various Artists “The Queen’s Jew” CD/Digital Compilation
•RRFR-020, GOBBLE GOBBLE “Neon Graveyard” 12″ LP
•RRFR-021, Devices Disguised “True Tides EP” CD EP
•RRFR-022, Mellows “It’s In The Stones/Ghostriding” 7”
•RRFR-023, GOBBLE GOBBLE “Lawn Knives/End of Days” 7”
•RRFR-025, His Clancyness/Banjo or Freakout “TBA” Split 7” EP
•RRFR-026, Weed Diamond “TBA 12” LP
•RRFR-027, Coma Cinema/GOBBLE GOBBLE “TBA” Limited Edition Cassette
•RRFR-028, Jaded Hipster Choir “Pill Weekend” Limited Edition Cassette
•RRFR-030, Cough Cool “Slow Fuck EP” Digital EP
