About Art Mechanix

The Full Story

Art Mechanix (ARMX) isn’t just another indie label. It’s a storytelling playground—an imprint, studio, publisher, and incubator for bold, emotionally resonant work. While most catalogs are built from rosters, much of this one has sprung from the imagination of a single artist: Jammes Luckett. Yet each project has its own unmistakable voice.

Listen closely, and you’ll still hear a common thread: a distinct creative fingerprint born from instinct, resilience, and an inner compass that has always pointed toward expression with meaning. That’s what happens when the work is guided by depth and shaped by both lived and observed experiences.

ARMX was founded in Los Angeles in 1998, originally known as Go Little Records: a homegrown outlet for lo-fi songwriting demos and hand-stapled zines. What started as a private necessity became a broader mission—one that challenged the more unreasonable compromises so often expected, even in many independent spaces. GLR became a haven for a voice and skill set that wouldn’t be confined.

As the vision for more deepened, Go Little Records evolved into Art Mechanix—a full-spectrum creative hub built around emotional honesty, originality, and layered storytelling. It’s a place where imagination meets integrity, and expression has no ceiling.

Here, the art isn't just made—it's lived. That movement and the progression is the Mechanix.

Organic DIY (Before it Had a Name)

The true spirit of ARMX, and its flagship band Poperratic, was born much earlier—in the early 1980s Midwest, through the eyes, ears, and hands of a curious, accidentally independent Black girl.

As both a Gen X latchkey kid and a frequently underestimated presence outside of academic environments, Jammes Luckett spent countless hours not simply accepting the situation but adapting it. She came to cherish the extra time. It gave her the clarity to transform it into imagination.

With the help of music, film, television code, radio, art and design, books, comics, instruments, and natural-born curiosity, she gained the gift of complex problem-solving. She saw the connections between seemingly unconnected concepts and turned them into amazing art and solutions. There was no fear in trying new things and doing it alone, if she had to. This laid the groundwork for everything that followed.

Jammes began quietly building worlds, learning by doing, and shaping a voice that could speak the language of many genres while still sounding like no one else.

This wasn’t rebellion for its own sake. It was necessity. It was expression born from conditions that demanded adaptability, emotional depth, and creativity in the face of limits.

These instincts would become the heartbeat of ARMX.

A Matter of Resilience and Reinvention

Art Mechanix was built because it had to be.

After years of creative gatekeeping, shifting goalposts, and being asked to wait for turns that she knew were never coming, Luckett realized that it was time to carve a new space on her own terms. Whenever she was met with a closed door or a glass ceiling, she renewed her commitment to keep creating regardless of what resources she had and whether or not anyone was in her corner.

Jammes Luckett didn’t wait for permission or perfect conditions. She just kept making. From childhood onward, she’s learned to transform any space or constraint into actions where something meaningful can be created. Over and over again, she figured out how to thrive in unexpected ways.

So, the DIY ethos that has powered much of ARMX’s story isn’t a trend. It’s a living practice. A good portion has been about survival, yes—but it’s also been about joy, discovery, self-definition, and craft. In addition to the latchkey history, it also draws from traditions like jazz and punk where truth and identity emerge from improvisation and resistance—but filtered through a distinctly personal lens. Not just rebellion, but resilience. Not just noise, but a fine-tuned signal.

The Blueprint: Alien Tempo Experiment 13

Before Art Mechanix, there was ATE 13—Alien Tempo Experiment 13—Luckett’s first solo band, launched in 1994 after playing supporting roles in other bands that offered no or extremely limited input. With ATE 13, she began creating a body of work that was deeply personal, prolific, and fearless.

Handmade cassette albums were quietly passed through record stores and shows across L.A., with early versions of albums like “Vagus the Wandering Nerve.” Eventually, ATE 13 caught the attention of AJ Lambert (Bloodslide, Looker), who selected it as one of four artists for a limited-run 7” series on NYC’s Glimmerfed Records.

The debut EP Live! From the Roller Derby! dropped in Spring 1998, co-produced by Lambert and Don Fleming (Sonic Youth, Hole, Shonen Knife), and earned full rotation airplay on KXLU Los Angeles, as well as Luckett’s first sync placement.

Later that year, Luckett founded Go Little Records, intending to support a larger community of creators. That ideal didn’t pan out—but what did emerge was a consistent, emotionally honest voice. A voice that would later be known as Poperratic.  Before long, ATE 13 performed at iconic Hollywood venues like the Whisky a Go Go, Spaceland, and The Coconut Teaszer, as well as the International Pop Overthrow music festival.

ATE 13 built the foundation: raw, genre-blurring songwriting and a fearless approach in creative. That same DNA flows through every ARMX project today.

A Kaleidoscope of Sound

Poperratic is the flagship, but ARMX houses multiple other sibling bands: Sister Transistor, Regard Neuf, Thrillharmonik, and Merkcurie. These aren’t side projects. These are refractions of Poperratic through a prism. Think of them as different rooms in the same creative house. Or a flavor variety pack based on the same fearless creativity.

Each reflects a different mood or genre—but all are unmistakably connected by Luckett’s distinct voice and expansive imagination.

And it's why critics and listeners have occasionally spoken Jammes Luckett's name in the same breath as McCartney, Cobain, Prince, the Pixies, Monk, Siouxsie, Brian Wilson, and PJ Harvey. The hand of a genuine artist always leaves a distinct fingerprint.

The Work Behind the Work

ARMX has never been a one-track mission. Alongside pure artistic output, it has also taken on creative services to keep the lights on and the projects moving. From composing for film and TV to editorial, sound design, and digital production, Luckett and occasionally a few trusted collaborators have worked with clients ranging from indie creatives and small businesses to global brands like Stella Artois, Bacardi, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Random Act Funding.

ARMX has also made key contributions that have helped define and transform the work it’s in. Two notable examples of this include the soundtracks for May (Lionsgate) and The Woods (Sony/UA/MGM). The inclusion of this music in May, almost didn’t happen, and the film was poised to disappear as just another title in the world of independent cinema. But once its director gained a soundtrack that understood, complemented, and supported his distinct vision, the film was elevated to become an award-winning cult classic that has continued to receive recognition and analysis and gain new fans more than 20 years after its release.

We’ve also contributed voiceover performance, production, and direction to productions from major and independent brands. We’ve also produced jingles, radio spots, and work on commercial spots and bumpers for advertising agencies. Our unique stamp also helped snag a Silver ADDY Award from the American Advertising Federation when we co-produced a show, and also wrote and directed a live musical segment for it.

Our music publishing arm, Pied Piper Lorre Musesick (ASCAP), manages an evolving catalog that’s been licensed by the likes of Showtime, MTV, Bravo, the NFL Network, and beyond. ARMX has also partnered with La-La Land Records and Terror Vision on compilation releases and was honored with an official Record Store Day selection for the MAY OST on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. A small portion of our catalog also sits with the big guns: administered by Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group.

Jammes was also admitted as a Voting Member of The Recording Academy (Grammys.org) in 2008 and has been both an ASCAP Writer and Publisher member since 1998.

Beyond the Music

ARMX’s work spans across short films, animation, and music videos—including some that have gained significant recognition at film festivals around the world. This has included Android in Love (2012), Invitation (2024), and Zero Hero (2025), a self-empowerment anthem currently making its international rounds and has already picked up several awards and nominations.

Whether scoring a film, dropping a record, or producing an animated short, ARMX remains committed to substance over the surface. To ideas that leave a mark. To stories that stay with you. To crush boxes meant to contain and restrain difference.

Art That Clicks

Click-clack. That’s the sound of a new door being built when none were opened. The sound of keys typing code, strings being tuned, cameras clicking, and drawings coming to life. That’s the rhythm of a creative mind that never stops.

ARMX was built by someone who never waited for permission—and it remains a home for others who feel the same, whether other collaborators or our audience. It’s a space where curiosity, kindness, courage, and complexity are valued.

Here, originality matters more than trends, and art isn’t treated as content but as a channel for human connection. We want you to know that we’ve been where you’ve been. We’ve felt what you’ve felt. We’ve experienced it all and have observed it in others. We’ve imagined alternate possibilities. And we’ve put into action attempts to realize some of them.

This body of work is for the ones who, like us, have always made something out of nothing. The wonderers and the wanderers who dream in layers. The ones who know how to turn silence into a symphony. The ones who climb out the crab barrels and stomp the boxes flat.

This is Art Mechanix. Crush the box.