> 
> I'm scratching my head here wondering how you made the transition from stoner
> rock
> to power pop. a great leap.
   

Well, some of you may find this interesting on this board and many of you
have known me for some time and are aware.....some background on Not Lame's
owner:  I'm 42, discovered rock 'n roll, along w/ millions of others, via
the Beatles in the late 60's.

Along w/ AM radio and my transistor radio, WRKO-Boston, MA.  In 1972 I
bought my first Creem magazine.  Along w/ my older brother's record
collection(Allmans, CSN&Y, Black Sabbath, Yes), I discovered at the ripe old
age of 10 the transcendence of The Stooges, The NY Dolls, MC5 and the
writings of Lester Bangs.   It bled quickly into an obsession with rock 'n
roll that over-took my young life----and,eventually, to the thrills of punk
coming on the scene in 1976. For my life, 76/77 was the watershed moment in
my rock 'n roll life, no doubt.   *anyone*, including me, could do it.  That
stuck with me for evermore.  Rock was not for 'stars' anymore. It was for
anyone. It was accessible to all.

Anyway, alongside the most heavy rock and proto-punk, Raspberries and
Badfinger found their way into my ears at the same time. They sounded every
bit as crucial to me as The Beatles did.  Melody, Harmonies were  IT, for
me.  AM Radio Top 40 w/ all that great funk and soul, hard rock, progressive
rock, power pop(which was, of course, not called that back then) all lived,
happily, side by side.

It's been that way every since.

So for my ears, I can go from listening to skinny tie power pop to Sabbath
in a heartbeat, like breathing.   Just how I'm hard-wired.

But when starting Not Lame in late 1994, there were plenty of punk labels
already, some hard rock ones and I had a very healthy obsession with power
pop where I traded tapes with other power pop fans of this music in the late
80's and early 90's and it was apparent that there were no labels dedicated
to power pop, nor would there be many of them anytime soon.

So I took a low interest credit card, a bit of savings and started a new
hobby.  Doing what no one else would or wanted to do.

I thought it was my 'punk rock' statement, I suppose, as I had no delusions
it would be embraced or heralded(quite the opposite) and that it would
operate on the fringes of obscurity.   It did. It has. It will continue that
way. 

There's never been, nor will there ever be, much of a large market for this
type of music.  But it's important, very important, that there are avenues
for the few us who DO care, do enjoy, do lift up this music and be able to
buy it, if we so chose to.  That was the mission from the start....get the
music into the hands of the few who care.

It still is GREAT when I come across the Not Lame customer who has the same
roots and passions as I do when it comes to 70's punk, hard rock, prog rock
and the like.     ;-)

Peace,
Bruce
@ Not Lame