In 2010 Second Motion Entertainment (the label's parent company) purchased the assets of Blurt Magazine and is the publisher of the highly respected Magazine and On-line media outlet. Blurt has often been called the "Mojo Magazine of the United States". In Feb 2012 Second Motion announced that both Blurt Magazine and the label would be relocating their offices to Raleigh, NC and that they had more "big news" forthcoming in April 2012.[needs update]
History
Second Motion started releasing albums in the fall of 2008. Their first release was Irish singer (and Mercury Award nominee) Gemma Hayes. The "Hollow of Morning" which reached #12 first week in the Irish Charts. At same time the label also released three records from Verve Pipe singer, Brian Vander Ark. His debut "Resurrection" (originally released on Brash Records, and also the previously unreleased "Angel, Put Your Face On" as well as the new 2008 album simply entitled "Brian Vander Ark".
In 2009 Second Motion moved their operations from Chapel Hill, NC to East Lansing, MI for two years before moving back to Chapel Hill at the end of 2010. The label had an extremely successful year starting with the reissues the first two acclaimed albums from Swervedriver "Raise" and "Mezcal Head" to high critical acclaim. The two Swervedriver releases have been digitally remastered with 4 extra bonus tracks on each and a special digipak artwork and liner notes form band members and are widely considered two of the top alternative albums of the 90's. Then the label also released a new studio album from Australia's legendary band, The Church which concluded with a successful North American tour from June to July 2009 with support from label mate and Swervedriver front-man Adam Franklin and his band Bolts of Melody.
2010 saw releases from Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy (from the Church and All-India Radio respectively), a reissue campaign of Church frontman Steve Kilbey including a limited edition box set and 30th Anniversary catalog reissues from The Church. A new album from Dutch favorites Bettie Serveert, new studio album from Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody, Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner and a retrospective from legendary Raleigh, NC band Finger and power-pop legend Tommy Keene who recently toured playing his classic album "Places That Are Gone" a huge college radio hit in the 80's. At the end of 2010 Second Motion started to celebrate The Church's 30th Anniversary by reissues/remasters of the band's major label catalog.. with reissues (and bonus tracks) of the albums "Of Skins & Heart", "The Blurred Crusade", "Seance" and "Heyday" the label also released the first 30th Anniversary Singles collection, a 2xCD collection of singles from the band's entire career 1980–2010, with extensive booklet of photos and liner notes from legendary Rolling Stone magazine editor, David Fricke.
In 2011 Second Motion released the classic albums from The Church "Starfish" and "Priest=Aura" and in Feb did an 11 city completely sold-out tour of the United States where the band played both of those albums, as well as their latest release "Untitled #23" in its entirety. The tour was called "Future, Past Perfect". Upon the band's 30th Anniversary they were inducted into the ARIA Australian Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where lead singer Steve Kilbey brought the house down with an amazing ad lib speech when accepting the award and put the band back to national prominence from the attention. Then in April the band capped off the successful campaign with a sold-out show at the legendary Sydney Opera House with a 70 piece orchestra backing them up. The entire show was recorded and a DVD release is planned for sometime in 2012.[needs update]
At the end of 2011, Second Motion released another studio album from Tommy Keene which made many critics choices as a top 30-50 album of the year, and they also released an album from the Finnish rock band The Latebirds which features guest appearances from artists such as Levon Helm, Kris Kristofferson, Neils Cline of Wilco and others.
In 2012 the label was quiet at the first half of the year as they were working on another entity to join the fold in April 2012, the label does have plans to do more releases in the fall of 2012, including a potential new studio album from Dutch rockers Bettie Serveert. The Church are also working on a new solo record that is anticipated to be released sometime in 2013.[needs update]
In addition to the record label, Second Motion has also acted as an Artist Management company and Label Administration arm. Working with artists such as legendary producer Daniel Lanois, Arena Rock Records, former Greensboro, NC rock outfit Athenaeum and their singer Mark Kano and managed the careers of Canadian pop singer Emm Gryner, Dublin, Ireland's The Walls, Swervedriver's Adam Franklin and UK punk legends New Model Army. By the end of 2011 Management duties were pretty non-existent as the company focused more on the other two entities it owns, Blurt Magazine and a new unannounced acquisition that is slated for April 2012.[needs update]
Emm Gryner is a Canadian singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfield.
Steven John Kilbey is an English-Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums and has collaborated on recordings with musical artists such as Martin Kennedy, Stephen Cummings and Ricky Maymi as a vocalist, musician, writer and/or producer. Ian McFarlane writes that "Kilbey's solo recordings [are] challenging and evocative. They ran the gamut of sounds and emotions from electronic and avant-garde to acoustic and symphonic, joyous and dreamy to saturnine and sardonic".
The Church are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia." The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".
Bettie Serveert is a Dutch indie rock band. The name translates to "Bettie Serves", or "Service to Bettie", which is the title of a book written by Dutch tennis player Betty Stöve, who made it to the Wimbledon Ladies Singles final in 1977.
Swervedriver are an English alternative rock band formed in Oxford in 1989 around core members Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge. Between 1989 and 1998, the band released four studio albums and numerous EPs and singles despite a considerable flux of members, managers, and record labels. By 1993 the band's lineup had settled with Franklin on vocals/guitar, Hartridge on guitar, Jez Hindmarsh on drums, and Steve George on bass. They had emerged with a heavier rock sound than their shoegaze contemporaries, and over the next five years it evolved to include elements of psychedelia, classic pop, and indie rock.
Something Happens are an Irish pop rock band whose heyday was the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's lineup consists of Tom Dunne (vocals), Ray Harman (guitar), Alan Byrne (bass) and Eamonn Ryan (drums).
Of Skins and Heart is the debut album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in April 1981 by EMI Parlophone. It peaked at No. 22 in the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart.
The Blurred Crusade is the second album by the Australian alternative rock band the Church, released in March 1982 by EMI Parlophone. Moving away from the new wave leanings of their debut, it was stylistically more complex and "a smoother, fuller release". "With its mystical lyrics the second album ... brought the group's own style more into focus". The album peaked at No. 10 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and "Almost With You" reached No. 21 on the related Singles Chart.
Seance is the third album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in 1983. More atmospheric and brooding than its predecessor The Blurred Crusade's jangling psychedelia and upbeat rock, it shows a greater use of keyboards, with the guitars taking largely textural roles on many songs. While numerous tracks have become fan favorites over the years, the album saw considerably less success in Australia than previous releases and had limited exposure internationally. Apart from the psychedelic noise experiment "Travel By Thought", which prefigures the band's extended improvised tracks of the 1990s and beyond, all songs were written solely by Steve Kilbey.
Heyday is the fourth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in November 1985. The album marked the first occasion when group compositions dominated one of the band's releases. Steve Kilbey has said: "The demo situation was getting to us - me writing the songs on my eight-track and bringing them along to the band. It sounded too stiff. We'd reached this new energy level on stage which by far superseded anything we'd ever recorded, so we knew the only way to get sounding like that was for the whole band to write together."
Public is the third album by Emm Gryner, released in 1998.
Magician Among the Spirits is the tenth album by the Australian alternative rock band The Church, released in August 1996. The album title was inspired by a book written by Harry Houdini and C. M. Eddy, Jr. (uncredited) in 1924, in which the famed magician discussed his investigations of spirit mediums. A photographic negative of Houdini is incorporated as the centrepiece of the album artwork. The album was reissued with a revised track listing as Magician Among the Spirits And Some in 1999.
El Momento Siguiente is the 21st album by the Australian psychedelic rock band the Church and their second in the Liberation Acoustic Series, following 2005's El Momento Descuidado. The title translates from Spanish as "The Following Moment".
Mezcal Head is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Swervedriver. It was released on 27 September 1993 by Creation Records in the United Kingdom and on 5 October 1993 by A&M Records in the United States.
Eleven Thirty Records is an indie label based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and owned by RedEye Distribution. Co-founded in 2004 by A&R Director Stephen Judge and Redeye and Yep Roc Records co-owner Glenn Dicker, the label has released albums by artists such as Concrete Blonde, The Gourds, A.J. Croce, Tanya Donelly, Cowboy Mouth, David Mead, Josh Joplin, Maria McKee, Tommy Keene, Hothouse Flowers, and The Alarm.
Palomine is the debut studio album by Dutch indie rock band Bettie Serveert. It was released in October 1992 by Brinkman Records. The album was issued in the United Kingdom by the 4AD subsidiary label Guernica on 2 November 1992, and in the United States by Matador Records in 1993.
Raise is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Swervedriver. It was released on 30 September 1991 by Creation Records. The album contained six new songs; "Son of Mustang Ford", "Rave Down" and "Sandblasted" had all appeared on earlier EPs and singles released by the band between 1990 and 1991. The album received very positive reviews.
Blurt is a music print magazine and online outlet originally based in Silver Spring, MD. The magazine was originally known as Harp Magazine for over 10 years, also based in Silver Spring, and was considered one of the best music magazines of the decade in the early 2000s. After Harp folded in March 2008, Blurt was founded by Harp owner Scott Crawford. Some of the main writers and editors for Harp also started Blurt with Crawford, including managing editor Fred Mills, senior editor Randy Harward, and senior editor Andy Tennille.
The discography of Swervedriver, an English alternative rock band, consists of six studio albums, one compilation album, one video album, seven extended plays, and eighteen singles. The band's back catalog of non-studio-album material rivals that which has been released in album format.
Pharmacy of Love is the eighth studio album by Dutch indie rock band Bettie Serveert. It was released on 23 March 2010 on Second Motion Records.
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