The Story So Far...

Backporch Revolution was originally founded in North Carolina in 1994 and released its first record in 1995, winning modest acclaim in Billboard magazine to the surprise of all. Since moving to New Orleans in the late 90's, it grew from being a shameless front for a single band into becoming a forum for a community of friends and like-minded musicians in New Orleans (and elsewhere) to pool their resources and bring some attention to otherwise unheard but interesting music.

As the indie-rock movement drowned in its own vomit that is now "commercial alternative", our tastes wandered to more experimental electronic music, and a thousand other directions, taking our influences from early modular synthesis experiments, 70's moog grooves, bossa nova, lounge, dub, IDM, drone, ancient Appalachian recordings, space rock, post-classical composers from John Cage to John Cale, as well as looking east to the sufi music of Turkey and Pakistan, south east Asian pop music, and 1960's underground psychedelia and jazz.... and beyond.

To the exclusion of nothing in particular, we tend to like music that is psychedelic, electro-acoustic, drone-based, nontraditional, eclectic, electronic (often with a fair dose of analog), often improvisational and/or loose-structured ensemble pieces. Since Hurricane Katrina, we gathered some roots from the New Orleans underground, but we also have one-eyed tentacles in the Southern highlands, Pacific Northwest and the icy steppes of the midwest.

The BPR philosophy is that music is meant to be shared, not consumed; and as such the website features a large number of songs for free download, and we encourage you to share them with your friends. We'll be adding mp3s from time to time, and as you may have noticed there are even a few albums that can be downloaded in their entirety, including the album artwork, so if you have a printer, you can make your own CD-Rs straight from the site.

While there are plenty of downloads on this site, we want you to know that Backporch Revolution also produces actual physical recordings (CDs, CD-Rs, vinyl, even 8-track tapes) available for sale. These are the releases that we've put blood, sweat and tears (at least 2 of the 3) into recording and producing, and we hope you'll realize that by only downloading free mp3s you're missing out on much of the best stuff we've got to offer. All of the bands and artists on this site make music for no other reason than the pure love of the creative and collaborative process. Likewise, we don't make any money off these recordings, but you can help us help keep good musicians making music by buying the music. (If it helps, think of it as a donation where you get something cool for free!)

Ordering and Shipping Rates

Our best releases are often available in a limited-print run for a short period. Get them while you can! The very limited runs are often even hand numbered and highly collectible.

At the moment we are not shipping physical product.

Where else can I find BPR recordings?

You can also find some of our releases at other online mailorder sites, such as Aquarius Records. If you are in the New Orleans area there are several places that carry Backporch Revolution titles; we recommend Louisiana Music Factory, Mckeown's Books and More Fun Comics all of whom support local musicians and deserve your patronage. For you digital-only people, we've also got many releases on the iTunes Music Store.

Demo policy

At the moment we are not releasing any new recordings.

Feedback/Contact

Get on the List

Want to get the occasional update (around once per blue moon) from Backporch Revolution about new releases and live shows?

Sign up for the Backporch Revolution newsletter, and get access to free mp3 downloads of many of our artists. In many cases, whole albums can be downloaded! Expect about one update per blue moon or so.

You will receive an acknowledgement email that you will need to click on to make sure your email address is valid. You will also receive an invitation to participate in the NOISE (New Orleans Invisible Sound Empire) music discussion listserv; a freeform forum for local musicians and underground/indie/weird music fans in the New Orleans area.

We maintain a secure and private list and don't share emails with ANYONE. As a bonus, we'll give you download access to free mp3s from many BPR artists.

We welcome your comments and feedback. Please contact us.