New Orleans Underground: Sounds Below Sea Level is a compilation of New Orleans bands that is being produced by former Louisiana residents who now live in Brooklyn, New York. ALL of the funds generated by the CDs will be donated to hurricane relief.

The purpose of this project is to give people in New York (and hopefully other cities) a taste of New Orleans that will generate relief funds for hurricane victims, and exposure for the N'awlins musicians who are going through such a rough time.

We are not making any money off of this. All production costs are out of our pockets. The compilation is produced by us D.I.Y. style (unless we can find a company that will do it free), and we will try to find friends in other cities who will produce and distribute the CDS, and collect the funds for charity.
 
The price of the CDs are $10. We will drop off copies at local record stores, coffee shops, etc. to be sold on consignment. All of the money we collect from these sales will go to charities of our choosing. Possible charities we're considering are Americares, Habitat for Humanity, and the New Orleans Musician's Clinic.
 
The CDs will be sold at benefit shows and parties here in NYC. We will either be there selling them, or provide them to the organizers who will sell them at their fund raiser with all proceeds going to their charity of choice. The stipulation is that they keep track of how much money the cds raised and where it went, so we can keep everyone involved informed.
 
We want to get friends in other cities to do the same thing. We send the artwork, info, and mp3s or cd audio to them so that they can produce copies to be sold at benefits. The stipulation again being that the proceeds must go towards hurricane relief and they must keep track of how much they raised and where it went, again so that we can keep everyone informed.
 
Thanks to everyone involved in this. Let's help get New Orleans back on its feet.

Posted: Thursday, May 4, 2006

We are no longer taking orders for the compilation. Due to our busy schedules involving work, school, and our own musical pursuits, we have not been able to invest the time needed to properly market the cds and generate the donations we anticipated. Thanks to everyone who purchased a cd. Your payments have been donated to New Orleans Musicians' Clinic and Habitat for Humanity. And a very special thanks to all the bands involved.

Posted: Monday, Jan. 30, 2006

There will be a benefit show for this compilation at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans featuring some of the bands from the cd. We will be working our little magic elves overtime in order to supply you with many copies that you may purchase at the show. Here is the tentative lineup:

Friday March 3: The Zydepunks, The Other Planets, Egg Yolk Jubilee
Saturday March 4: One Man Machine, A Particularly Vicious Rumor, Rotary Downs

Posted: Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006

Here's some interesting links related to the compilation:

The compilation was #3 on WNYU's charts for Dec. 19th

We were mentioned in a Gambit Weekly article about New Orleans benefit albums

Even more airplay from the folks at WFMU

Posted: Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005

We just got word from Robby Morris, Music Director of WNYU, that they've been playing the compilation and it has reached #3 on their chart!!!! Thank you Robby and WNYU!

Posted: Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005

There was a problem with our PayPal account. Notifications were being sent to an older email address. This problem has been resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Posted: Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005

Promotional copies have been sent out to: KLSU (Baton Rouge), The Reveille (Baton Rouge), The Independent (Lafayette), KVRX (Austin), The Daily Texan (Austin), Village Voice (NYC), Time Out NY (NYC), L Magazine (NYC), KRVS (Lafayette), The Vermilion (Lafayette), Gambit (New Orleans), Anti-Gravity (New Orleans), WKCR (NYC), The Columbia Spectator (NYC), WNYU (NYC), WFMU (NYC), Times of Acadiana (Lafayette), WVFS (Tallahassee), FSView (Tallahassee), Red and Black (Athens), WUOG (Athens), The Daily Tarheel (Chapel Hill), WXYC (Chapel Hill), KANM (Texas A&M), WVRU (Nashville), WEVL (Memphis), KTRU (Houston), The Rice Thresher (Houston), Memphis Magazine (Memphis), KSLU (Hammond), Offbeat (New Orleans), Nashville Scene (Nashville)

Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005

Whew! So we've had a lot of old and new friends from New Orleans and Lafayette visiting (partying) with us in the past month and a half.... I'm exhausted. They're almost all gone, so now we can get back to focusing on this project. We will have CDs for sale Fri. Oct 28 at:

LMCC/Workspace Open Studio Weekend
120 Broadway, New York, NY
between Cedar and Pine Streets, 8th floor, Enter at Cedar Street.
Friday, Oct. 28 at 7-10pm

Note: We are no longer looking for bands to lend their music to the compilation. There are 17 great bands in total. We're making a new batch of CDs right now, and I can't stop listening to this compilation! I'm sure everyone who purchases them will enjoy.

We'd like to thank Brian Scherer and Jill Breaux for making color print outs of the cover at work when the boss wasn't looking. Also, thanks to Jill Breaux and Amy Ouzoonian for helping us sell the prototype version of the CDs.

By the way, if you are in the New York City area on Halloween, don't miss the annual NYC VILLAGE HALLOWEEN PARADE. This year the parade will feature a Second Line and Jazz Funeral with Rebirth Brass Band!! Wow!!! I don't even have a costume yet. Damn it!

Posted: Monday, Oct. 3, 2005

So far we've been to these two benefit functions in the last couple weeks:

St. Marks Church,
131 E 10th St, New York, NY
Saturday, Oct. 1 at 1-4 PM

The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Sunday, Sept. 25 at 1-10 PM

We will post how much was sold and which charities were donated to in the coming weeks.

Posted: Friday, Sept. 23, 2005

Production of the prototype compilation featuring songs by the bands that we currently have permissions and songs for has begun. We hope to have around 50 cds to sell this weekend.

We are looking into selling cds at:
The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Sunday, Sept. 25 at 1-10 PM

They are having a benefit show there. Dennis Hogue’s band Tickle Dracula will be playing, as well as One Man Machine (one of the musicians on this compilation) with Scott Emmer playing guitar.

Posted: Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005

We are currently in the process of getting permission from New Orleans bands to use their songs on this compilation. Soon, we will begin producing the CDs and collecting funds. Check back soon for more updates.

So far, on board we've got Rotary Down, Zydepunks, Burnversion, One Man Machine, Men in Black, Wayward Youth, Lump, The Other Planets, Charm City Brokers, R. Scully, The Cold, Hazard County Girls, and The Tea Sea. We're shooting for 18 to 20 bands, so if you know of any others that we haven't contacted that would be good, let us know.