Modern Soul Records (2)

Modern Soul Records began in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, in the late '90s as a DIY booking agency, design, and promotions label that eventually went on to release 7" singles, CD-Rs, and cassettes for a few Canadian independent artists (The Low Tones, The Redstripes, Ron Leary, Afie Jurvanen) and book artists like The Secret and Catriona Sturton, Mary Lou Lord, The High Strung, Afie Jurvanen, Aaron Booth, The Lassue Yous, Ten Year Drought, Great Lake Swimmers, Dept of Foreign Affairs, and others. We also organized the *fantastic-pop music festival for two years in 2000 and 2001. "What a "Fantastic!" local achievement: In the Community Involvement category, CJAM 91.5FM in Windsor won for the *Fantastic! Pop Festival. Held in October 2000, the festival consisted of 36 bands playing in Windsor over the course of three days. Apart from promoting unsigned acts, the festival introduced the Windsor community to a variety of Canadian indie music. The enthusiasm from CJAM, musicians, local media, businesses, and individuals made the festival a major success. The next fest will take place October 11-13, 2001."--!earshot magazine, Canada Some of the artists that played the pop festival: A Northern Chorus, Dan Bryk, Raising the Fawn (including mems who would go on to be part of Broken Social Scene), The Candidates, Gentlemen Reg, Mia Sheard, Flux a.d., Full White Drag, Palomar Sky Survey, Scout Niblett & Brendon Massei, Two-Minute Miracles, Music for Mapmakers, Mt. St. Helens, The Meligrove Band, The Weekend, The Dears (!), Fletcher Pratt, The Salteens, Mean Red Spiders, The Carnations, Ashley Park, and Rhume (Kelp Records). Modern Soul Records also worked to bring independent artists (Julie Doiron, Plumtree, Aaron Booth, MIAOW, Jason Plumb, Les Sequelles, The Sights, From Bubblegum To Sky, The High Water Marks, The High Strung, The Salteens, Lindy, Joel Plaskett, and others) to venues like Phog Lounge over the years as well as at other local venues like the Loop, Coach & Horses, the Old Vic, the Press Club, the Spotted Dog, the Capitol Theater, and more. Label owner Carly M began the label while volunteering at CJAM-FM radio and for the Windsor Feminist Society. She also created the music fanzine Idoru and later worked and collaborated with local zine creators and email list owners Jen and Davina of the Canada-wide email list group Indierockarmy. You can find Carly's record store (opened online in 2020) at www.modernsoulrecordsco.com