We met Raccoon in Nebraska about 5 years ago. They were just super sweet dudes and we wanted to be friends with them for a real long time. We = this band Frank Jordan and me, their merch guy/tour manager. Toby and Scott left Raccoon and made Dr. Dog their full time gig. It was Mike Visser from Frank Jordan who called me late one night to tell me that Dr. Dog was one of the greatest bands he had ever seen live. Dr. Dog’s cd arrived in the mail a few weeks after this call.

In the winter of 2004 National Parking Records became a real thing. So began this new record label which knew what it liked and what made listeners feel something good. We started things off with a release from Dr. Dog called “Easy Beat”. Sometime shortly after the official release of the aforementioned record, there was a deep internal transformation, and so the label became Park the Van Records. Are you still there?

The second release was a collection of songs from one of our favorite underground songwriters, to actually be able to get the songs of Carter Tanton out and available was really a wonderful thing. The third release was suggested to us by the gents in Dr. Dog. Their close friends in Philadelphia known is those parts as this band called the Teeth.

The Teeth just recorded their EP “Carry the Wood” and as soon as we heard it, we were begging the band to let us release it. It was at this moment that the format of the label began to take shape.

A former partner at the label is responsible for finding the music of Junkbox, being from London, were the first international artists to work with Park the Van. We also managed to release a very limited edition Of Montreal 7”, and a label sampler on 7” which could be one of my favorite looking releases yet.

Around this time we had our office in New Orleans Louisiana, and in late August we lost everything due to Hurricane Katrina. Lame. Sad. Frustrating and somewhat of a set-back. At least temporarily.

Okay, fast forward.

We’re in our secluded woodsy office west of Philadelphia. We’ve just released an amazing full length from another Philadelphia band, National Eye, and we love everyone. Now three of my favorite people work with me at Park the Van (Zach, Kevin, and Matt). We are introduced to the unparalleled musical universe that is Philadelphia and soon thereafter begin working with the Capitol Years. We’re releasing their future classic “Dance Away the Terror”.

It turns out that we weren’t done working with Dr. Dog, as we plan both an EP and future LP release. Next, we are asked to participate in this amazing project based on the movie Head Trauma, and now we have the third version of our website! My, look how we’ve grown.

thanks for listening,
Chris + Park the Van Records.