THE ABSOLUTE COMPLETE NOT LAME
PRINTED MAIL ORDER CATALOG COLLECTION
CONGRATULATIONS on being part of Not Lame’s never-before-available collection of a important part of power pop history. I am bias, of course. I created all of these catalogs and wrote these thousands of different entries that you’ll see inside of these PDFs.
These 13 files contain a ‘secret history’ of power pop and independent music. While other genres(like punk, indie rock, alternative, etc.) had outfits in the 90s and 00s that went to the expense and effort to create printed catalogs for the music fans on their mailing lists, there was never – then or now – an organization that printed countless thousands of catalogs to get them into the hands of the fans of power pop. To this day, in late 2019, there has never been a printed catalog for power pop fans that highlights stunning talents that have streamed through the genre over the last five decades.
The work contained in these catalogs took countless hundreds of hours of time to write, edit(well, uh, sort of!),graphically design and lay out, label, stamp and mail out to destinations all over the world. When each one was finished and I would be dropping off 5,000-10,000 catalogs to people like you at the post office, it was immensely satisfying.
Why?
Because a large majority of the releases inside of each catalog, quite literally, had no other form of distribution or representation in the machinations of the music industry beyond the releases appearance in the Not Lame catalog and web site – at least, for a little while. These catalogs brought the music into the hands and ears of…YOU.
I wrote the information you’ll see inside of the PDFs of these catalogs from the informed heart of a true fan. Yes, they are filled with lots of hyperbole and a over use of exclamation marks(guilty!) but I never made apologies that these were reviews designed to elicit emotions, excitement and entice the reader to consider matching up the dropping of ‘sounds like’ bands and ever-expanding application of of descriptive adjectives.
Not Lame had to sell music to keep the doors open, after all, right? Yes, it did. I saw a bill for the last one here, the full color 2004 128-page mini-tome and I guestimate, in backward glancing, that this catalog cost close to $15,000 to design, print and mail and over 150 hours of work from me.
This passion was in my plasma so I am incredibly, sincerely honored that you have giving me a little bit of your hard earned money to now enjoy this work.
A thought occurred to me as I gathered up all these printed catalogs from my yesteryear. It’s this: these are historical documents that capture, like a time-capsule, a time and place where there was a real Renaissance going in the ‘power pop’ idiom in the mid/late 90s and into the early 00s. In the mid/late 80s and into the 90s, there just were not any artists(let alone labels or distributors) who proudly declared themselves ‘power pop’. It was a rare event when, upon reading a fanzine(other than YELLOW PILLS), where a band touted clearly their ‘power pop’ credentials and inspirations.
The period on display inside these simple, but info-packed catalogs presents the happenings of the times where bands and small labels were popping(sic) up all over the world, staking a claim inside the explosion of the internet to have their ‘musical say’ and declare that Beatley melodies and hooks were, along with ‘the kids’, all right.
You know, one part of the definition of ‘renaissance’ states: ‘a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.;rebirth; revival’. I’m comfortable from my own experience of living, working and being inspired through this period to say that definition works for me.
I am bias again, naturally, but I do believe there’s a strong case of history for the genre contained in these PDFs from the original catalogs.
All of this said, you’ll notice that after this catalog, no more followed from 2005-2010. It’s a point of great sadness for me and a point of judgement against my personal failure to not have more of them follow. I blew it. I allowed the issues of keeping up with the stresses of economic downturns, post-Napster meltdowns, changing attitudes towards the physical receptacle of music(CDs), a ridiculously, incredulously unjustified lawsuit, a betrayal of a trusted employee and long hours of over-work to not keep a resolute focus on what worked, what mattered a lot to many and was a source of personal pride for me.
I just let the web site do the work – do the talking. While it did that, certainly, it was not the physical, personalized touch that made Not Lame work best. At least, in my opinion as I look backwards.
When Not Lame closed down in November, 2010, I heard from hundreds of power poppers who waxed nostalgically about these catalogs and their memories connected to them. Today, they can be fully enjoyed, all together in this one place.
You may have received some of these from ‘back in the day’, I doubt hardly any of you have ’em all. If you do, “WOW, dude!”. 🙂
IMPORTANT DECLARATION: Sustained, sincere and massively HUGE thanks go the best friend Not Lame ever had, in all things, but notably here in the design efforts that went into the catalogs below go the Sir Jim Horan. To call him the M.V.P. of Not Lame’s label and mail order catalogs is agross under-statement. Words fail. I have never known a more decent, kind and gracious friend in my life. I wish to you all you have at least one Jim Horan in your life and thank the heavens for him or her. (Note: you’ll see his catalog work from Catalog #3 onwards. Your truly did the gawd-awful, limpish work on #1 and #2. Seriously, get a load of the first Not Lame logo in the first year of Not Lame. You’ll laugh…and wince.)
Last Thing: You are the special kind of music fan the work of Not Lame Recordings lived and breathed for between 1994-2010. Thank YOU….
TIME TO DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY!
CATALOG #1 – Spring, 1995
Click HERE
CATALOG #2 – Summer, 1995
Click HERE
CATALOG #3 – Winter 1995/1996
Click HERE
CATALOG #4 – Spring, 1996
Click HERE
CATALOG #5 – Summer/Fall, 1996
Click HERE
CATALOG #6 – Summer, 1997
Click HERE
CATALOG #7 – Winter 1997/1998
Click HERE
CATALOG #8 – Fall, 1997
Click HERE
CATALOG #9 – Winter/Spring, 1998
Click HERE
CATALOG #10 – Summer, 1999
Click HERE
CATALOG #11– Blank Pages fanzine
Click HERE
CATALOG #12 – Winter/Spring, 2002
Click HERE
CATALOG #13 – Spring 2004
Click HERE
====================================================
