Altered Zones

By Kenny Bloggins

MP3: Outer Limits Recordings: "Burnin' Through The Nite"

MP3: Outer Limits Recordings: "$20 Dollar Bill"

An old Chinese proverb (or curse) reads, "May you live in interesting times"-- and indeed, we do. Today, for example, old media like radio and television embrace music from artists who spare no expense in multi-track digital recording and multimedia viral advertising, while the blogosphere gravitates to those who've reverted to the cassette and VHS formats. It’s a hell of a thing. Altered Zones readers are no strangers to this phenomenon, and an artist like Outer Limits Records brilliantly encapsulates it.

Outer Limits Records is one of many, many sides of the prolific Sam Mehran (ex-Test Icicles), one that sometimes includes hypnagogic hero James Ferraro and members of Jared Leto's favorite new band, Big Troubles. Sam spent much of 2010 leaving a breadcrumb trail to his woozy full-length, Foxy Baby, in the form of incandescent, humorous, tape-warped music videos. Sam just wants to have fun, as our conversation below suggests, while seeking out investors who believe in his business model.

AZ: Where in the world is Outer Limits Recordings based right now?

Sam: I'm in Little Port Morgan, New York City.

AZ: Last time I checked, you were involved in something like five different projects. What makes Outer Limits Recordings different?

Sam: "Outer Limits Recordings" has been the umbrella name for most of the music I've made. It's the only thing I'm involved in right now, other than building a “School for Confused Digital Teenagers and Twenty-Somethings” in Vermont, which has differently shaped rooms and whatnot. One is pyramid-shaped, one is modeled after the shape of a goat's head. They have all been commissioned to be painted by the editors of ArtForum and Mad magazine, respectively.

AZ: "Outer Limits Recordings" almost sounds more like a label than a band. What's the title's origin?

Sam: The name has always been like a label and artist name in one, as I don't really write music with other people or play in a traditional band. It's also the name of a popular science fiction TV show from the ‘60s that was remade in the '90s, the winter of our Homo sapien angel's discontent. I do recall it being a fine time for myself, however, and I've been meaning to change the name for a long time but can't come up with anything other than The Sweethearts, which is already a nonexistent project that I am involved in.

AZ: Some bloggers lump OLR in the same "nostalgic" '70s AM pop category as Ariel Pink, but there seems to be a lot of other things going on in Foxy Baby. What are some of your actual influences, musical or otherwise?

Sam: Some. Bloggers. Throw. Stones. In an. Empty. Candy store. S.B.T.S.I.E.C.

AZ: Dig it. What is the appeal of the VHS and cassette aesthetic for you now? Do you feel like it's a revolt against the digital world?

Sam: I imagine all of this as a reefer-soaked revolt to the burgeoning “digi-mortal” age that awaits us. I don't want to sound sarcastic here, because if there really is some kind of aesthetic revolt or revolution in the making I will be fighting on the front-lines with pride-stained dog tags on. I imagine for any cognizant, self-loving person, the lack of magic and realness out there can be quite a depressing thing at times, even though we all try to be generally happy. At the same time, we must allow the world to take us somewhat seriously, which means less throwing of things from all types of blindfolded messiahs out there. Myself included. I'm learning.

AZ: The videos are brilliant. Are those all produced in-house?

Sam: Thank you. Yes, they were all made in-house-- on VHS, appropriately enough. In the space of about seven days, or what earthlings call "a week”. Doesn't the lo-fi quality look great? I am now banking on an investor to boost my profile and self-esteem to a place where I don't have to make promotional videos on outdated equipment, and can be a relevant figure of the new exciting culture that awaits us.

AZ: What's on the horizon for Outer Limits Recordings?

Sam: Again, banking on this investor I mentioned... You see, the recordings I've released this past year were honestly low fidelity because they were recorded on a 4-track and there was nobody to put me in an ideal situation where I could record something for modern people. So my fingers are crossed hoping that somebody out there will believe strongly enough in me as a postmodern commodity to finance an album that will hopefully come out by summertime this year or even earlier.

After that, I see no reason not to tour, as it's a fun way to make your bread and butter, and I see nothing wrong in keeping your magical and aesthetic dignity pure and beautiful inside the rolling holographic waves of this dimly lit thing people around me have been calling "the rat race”-- all along remembering that this is all a dream, and we are all beautiful lemmings waltzing through the day's burgeoning beat. And I don't necessarily see anything wrong with that if you don't. Brothers and sisters, come together now.

Foxy Baby is out now on Not Not Fun. Julie 7" is available from Olde English Spelling Bee, and I Need My T.V. 7" is available from Olde English Spelling Bee and Transparent