#in a long process of attempting to merge some of these friend groups of mine

[tempocannon]

The Underdogs: St. Louis’s Record Labels

[A feature I wrote in spring 2014 about St. Louis record labels. Amazingly dated already, but such is the lot of articles about DIY scenes.]

[Eads bridge, STL.]

So, here’s the situation: in the last 20 years, digital production and the Internet have demolished the traditional record industry. There are all kinds of statistics to show the dire state of the giant record companies of old, but the fundamental fact is that record sales go down every year. According to a January 8th Rolling Stone recap of the music industry’s performance, even digital downloads sank 6% from 2012 to 2013. Major labels are mummies, the big indie labels—Merge, Drag City, Jagjaguwar, and all the others—have staked out some space on a sinking ship, and Record Store Day itself is a tourniquet, an annual reminder that physical products are alright. Of course, all that is totally fine, because musicians are still out there making music. The same technologies that annihilated the record industry blew open the doors of music production, so now you can now record, distribute, and promote music for a fraction the former price. In the age of Bandcamp, it’s totally feasible musicians to do it all.

Who, then, are the intrepid souls who start small labels, who throw their time and money down what Robert Severson, Pancake Master of Pancake Productions, calls “one big money pit?” Why do they stick out their necks for the creative projects of others?

We asked the daredevils who run St. Louis’ labels, and they say a top reason is the joy inherent in working hard on something good. Running a record label is an artistic process of its own, with all the highs and low that come with the territory. For Joe Schwab of Euclid Records, it’s about the work itself. As he puts it, “my favorite thing about doing a label is simple: dealing with creative people. Not just the musicians, but the cover artists and graphic designers as well.” Pat Grosch of Mounds Music echoes the sentiment. He got into the game because being “around extremely creative individuals as they let you into their projects, and thus their hearts, is reward enough.”

People start running labels for pragmatic reasons, too. Local scenes are generally composed of loosely organized groups of friends with various degrees of interest in promoting themselves. Forming a label can coordinate the knowledge and energy of young and veteran members of a city’s scene, as well as provide an infrastructure for artistic cross-pollination. Damon Davis of the FarFetched Collective sees his label as an artists’ union. He started the organization, he says, to interact “with artists and [foster] connections between us in the music community.” Robert Severson of Pancake Productions was frustrated with the here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of a lot of St. Louis music, so he started his label, Pancake Productions, partly just “to be an entity that never died.” And a coordinated scene is easier to explain to outsiders, so a label can be a doorway to out-of-state promotion. As Extension Chord’s Tim Rakel puts it, “an umbrella label seemed a good strategy for promoting music from Saint Louis.”

And then there’s the most fundamental concern of all: getting the music out! Major labels and even the big independent labels have simply never had an interest in putting out a lot of adventurous and underground music. Gabe Karabell of Don’t Touch My Records says it best: “Small labels have been killing it since the '50s and '60s, so I'm not surprised that the real jams remain underground to this day.”

Small labels work hard for the bands on the ground, and we owe so much excellent music to lonely owners. To get a sense of what’s really going on in the vinyl mines, we conducted a census of a dozen local labels in honor of this year’s Record Store Day. See a label you’re interested in? Check it out! Don’t think any of these labels look cool? Go forth! Start your own!

Twelve Saint Louis Labels

Big Muddy Records 

In a business where many labels close up shop soon after they open, Big Muddy Records is a crusty old uncle on the scene. Chris Baricevic lost a bet and started up the operation in 2005 with the self-titled Vultures EP, and gradually began putting out records by some of the city’s best-known Americana acts, including Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost, The Hooten Hallers, Rum Drum Ramblers, and Pokey LaFarge. According to Baricevic, big things are in the works for Big Muddy: “a constant cycle of life and death, ulcers and dishwashing jobs, and we might have a hot dog party for our brother Brice.” He’d also like to say that Record Store Day should be about giving record store employees gifts.

Extension Chord Records 

Tim Rakel and Melinda Cooper of The Union Electric started Extension Chord Records last year as a way of releasing work by their side projects Town Cars and The Chainsaw Gentlemen. The label racked up five releases in its first year, and it’s moving fast: Town Cars’ debut CD is coming out this year, and the honchos are considering expanding the label’s roster. According to Rakel, the organizational headaches and sometimes glacial movement of the production process can be demoralizing, but ultimately, “it makes most sense to go ahead and do everything on your our terms.’”

Euclid Records 

Euclid Records (the store) has been around for thirty years, but the label has only been putting music out since 2009. The label got started pressing in-store sessions onto vinyl singles and selling them for the benefit of The New Orleans Musicians’ Relief Fund, but Euclid has quickly expanded the roster, issuing full-lengths by Troubadour Dali and Sleepy Kitty. Joe Schwab, the owner of both the label and the shop, sees underground labels and independent stores as closely entwined. “The only game in town these days are independent record stores,” he said, “and we're the ones that have been pushing indie bands and indie labels.”

Tower Groove Records 

Tower Groove Records is less a label than a loose collective of South City bands. Tower Groove’s been silent for a few months, but in the last several years Adam Hesed, Jason Hutto, and the rest of the collective have made some very unique releases happen. They got things rolling with a double LP compilation of 22 bands, and last year Tower Groove released a mail-order singles series. Each month of 2013, subscribers received a brand-new single that paired two local bands.

Mounds Music 

Mounds Music is the brand-new project of a few of the Bug Chaser dudes, an effort to put high-quality analog recording into the hands of local acts. Pat, Jake, and Zeng secured a start-up grant from the Regional Arts Commission, and they’ll be producing between 6 and 10 cassette releases in the next year. According to Pat Grosch, Mounds will be a creative platform, “an attempt to provide some new opportunities to musicians, and help let them focus on their craft—music—as we manage the production side.” The list of future collaborators is long, but Mounds is currently cooking up cassettes by Maximum Effort, The Bad Dates, Kisser, and Zak M. Details will be revealed soon.

Eat Tapes 

Eat Tapes is Matt Stuttler’s cottage industry, an all-cassette label that started when Stuttler moved from putting out tapes for his own projects to putting out tapes for his friends’ projects. The label has released material for Burrowss, Bruiser Queen, and others, but Stuttler has made a specialty out of sticking two bands together on one split tape. Split tapes are definitely in line with the label’s mission. As he puts it, “labels like Eat Tapes operate on a local/regional level that concentrates on supporting bands/artists that aren't going to necessarily have mass appeal. But who cares about that?”

Don’t Touch My Records 

The mission of D.T.M.R. is simple. Gabe Karabell, founder and tapemaker, says, “I just want to document some of the bands that I like before they break up.” Karabell is casual about the whole thing, but since 2012, the label has been in the right place at the right time to release music by The Brainstems, Rat Heart, Wild Hex, and Shaved Women. The only downside, Karabell says, is waiting in line at the Post Office to mail tapes when I'm late for work.” What’s up next? The debut of Self Help, “a new band with folks from Doom Town, Los Contras, The Vultures, Jack Grelle's band and the Bill McClellan Motherfuckers.”

Spotted Race 

For the last year and a half, Spotted Race has been churning out tapes from the city’s punk and hardcore underbelly. As operator Martin Meyer puts it, Spotted Race exists to release “bands that deserve to be put out but probably wouldn't be otherwise.” Meyer has assembled around 25 releases, by hand, for free, all to get the word out about bands that would normally never be heard outside the city. His work is paying off, though: Spotted Race has sold enough tapes, at home and around the world, to afford to release a Ruz flexi disc, a Black Panties flexi, a Trauma Harness LP, a Nos Bos flexi, a Dem Scientist 7-inch, and a Lumpy and the Dumpers 7-inch.

FarFetched Collective 

The goals of FarFetched go beyond simply distributing music. According to founder Damon Davis (LooseScrewz), the hip-hop centered collective aims to “create and nurture all forms of progressive music everywhere,” and even more fundamentally, to “create art that is genuine and thoughtful and make a living from that for my artists and myself.” FarFetched is home to artists including Scripts ‘n Screwz, 18andCounting, CaveofswordS, and Black James. Davis calls the label fundamentally focused on community and collaboration, an “artists’ union” rather than a hierarchical business. Look out for releases this summer, including a vinyl release of label comp Prologue III.

BDR/Rerun Records 

The BDR/Rerun collaboration is all about issuing lost gems of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Jason Ross, of Rerun, and Matt Harnish, of BDR, have done much to dig up, dust off, and reissue St. Louis punk, post-punk, and rock ‘n’ roll gems from The Welders, Max Load, and The Retros. After a period of silence, the label is returning April 1st with a bunch of releases from vintage Milwaukee bands.

Encapsulated Records 

 Encapsulated is the new, improved incarnation of I Hate Punk Rock Records. In 2012, owner Mike Jones opened Encapsulated Studios, a punk rock fortress in Maplewood where bands can practice and record, and where the operations of the label are centered. The label is still home to punk and hardcore acts from St. Louis and around the country, including Bent Left, Black for a Second, Fister, The Haddonfields, and Jetty Boys.

Pancake Productions 

Robert Severson, Pancake Master, created Pancake Productions as a production company for his student films. Sometime in the early 2000s, though, he started a one-man band, Googolplexia, and got caught up in music as well. Severson began by issuing albums by broken-up bands, a move that was not financially lucrative but certainly reflects the label’s ethos. Severson says, “Pancake Productions has never been about turning a profit. In some ways it's not even about breaking even. Really it's just about using every last dime (of both real money and credit extended to me) that I have to get good music out and available.” There’s a lot ahead for Pancake Productions, including a Vanilla Beans EP, a potential Stonechat CD, and “some top-secret things in the works for summertime.”

[juliansmaproject]

NEXT PROJECT PORTFOLIO

A career in film has always felt like the right thing to do. I have been very fortunate to have parents that have offered their all out full support in order for me to accomplish this dream as well. I wish I had few bucks for every look of doubt I’ve received after telling someone I’m studying film. I’ve been hit with a “What do you do with a degree that?” So many times, my answers feel rehearsed, blunt, and savage. Those people tend to not ask me the same question again. But, I need to back up my confidence with proof, and reason to be confident about my future and stability as a filmmaker. Not only do I owe it to myself, but to my parents and family who have set a high bar, and their legacy is one I want to add to greatly in my own life successes. So my film Leo had high personal stakes for me, beyond just a good grade or accomplishing something for the school, but this is our careers man! One thing I was not going to do was waste my time in school by leaving Leeds with nothing I can be proud to showcase. My opportunity to do Leo, was everything I to came Leeds for, and we did it, and I will do everything in my power along with my collaborators to get this movie seen in as many places as we can, because our careers and future count on it!

This begs the question. What’s next? The obvious as stated above is to push the film. We’re pretty much complete with the post production project. We have an assessment screening shortly, and we’ve been working our tails off to get the film completed in time. Color and Sound were a bit rushed, so I’m predicting we might have to get back into the lab and the mixing booth, after seeing and hearing the film on the big screen and tighten up all the loose pieces, but I couldn’t be happier with our results. We’re producing an EPK and figuring out all the other materials necessary to increase the outreach and professionalism of our production. The work with the school may be complete, but we’ll be working on this film for the next two years on the festival circuit. I am excited! UPDATE: Just saw the film on the big screen! Man, that was fun. It played really well, and people seemed to enjoy it. I’m happy! Can’t wait to get back to work with Luis and our other colleagues this week to knock it out for good. So we can shift our focus to marketing and film festivals!

Still, what’s next though?

I don’t know. I want to a handful of things, and I have my hands in multiple pots. From film to music to stage production. Film, of course is my priority, but I call stage my back up, not the most solid back up, but I love it just as well. Acting comes a close third, and then rapping, but that’s a stretch!

For the past year I have been working on a stage musical called Hamlet, Damn It, with a good friend of mine Josh Horton from New Mexico. It is a rap musical based on, Hamlet respectively. We’re still working on all the music for the hour long show, but it’s all written and we’ve been asked by a theatre to produce it for a week long run this summer. Hopefully if the cards fall right, we can do so. The opportunity to have something you wrote produced by a legit production house is a rare chance, especially for a first time writer. I made a promo flick just to see how one of our songs sounded on record. Here it is below. 

What else is next though?

One of my new years resolutions was to finish two feature scripts by the years end. I have three features and a web series cooking in the pot currently, with one feature due to have a first draft complete next week. That’s exciting. I try to use my free time wisely and productively and do my best to produce constantly. Here’s a quick pitch of the features.

Belizean Fury: “Rex Fury is a washed up child star attempting to restart his career with a darker sequel to the action films that made him famous. After being framed for a crime whilst filming, and befriending rainforest conservationist Rex uncovers a life threatening plot that pits him and his new friends against the film production he’s starring in.”

Yeah, that sounds ridiculous I know. It’s an action comedy and it is very fun to write. I came up with the idea whilst traveling through Belize and it’s been a running a joke with my mates and I sense. But, I plan on making this joke into something real, produceable, and quality. It’s on my list to write soon, and hopefully I’ll be inspired to do it soon, but my current priorities lie elsewhere.

La Llorona. This is a film a based on a famous Latin American urban legend about a woman who haunts rivers searching for her lost children. Living in New Mexico we would hear about this story often and even when I spent time in Guatemala the same story was there. There are tons of people who claim to have contacted La Llorona and very famous author in New Mexico who will tell you about his experiences as a child coming across the spirit. So this is a very real story to some people. Many stories have been told about La Llorona and there have been a few films made, including one very low budget feature being produced now in my city back home. However, I think I have a strong script and idea, plus horror is such a niche genre and always in demand. I came of with the story with a friend of mine back in New Mexico in 2015, and we wrote five pages worth. They’re still the best five pages I’ve ever written. Now it’s on me to write the other 85 pages. This is one of the screenplays I hope to finish before the years end.

Barna. This is the writing project that has my current focus. I’ll have the first draft complete in a week. It’s my favorite so far. It is inspired by two friends and I when we visited my schoolmate Pilar in Barcelona, after spending a week in Cannes. The trip was crazy, and incredibly memorable. Much more memorable then Cannes to be honest. Spending time and connecting with some of your best friends in a beautiful places like Barcelona was something else. I did my best to take in all the beautiful moments we shared as a group, the conversations, the connection, and emulate that in script format. It’s been a fun process. I think the reason I have written so many pages is because it’s a dialogue heavy screenplay, and dialogue can fill up a lot of space. I’ve sent pages out to folks, and people seem to dig it, but we’ll see how it all comes together. Sooner than later, at the pace I’m writing at.

Julian’s Blue. This is a web series I’ve been writing. I’ve produced a few episodes as well that have been well received on my Facebook site. It was first inspired when I tried to ask a girl out here in England and I realized there is a whole dating culture here in the UK/Europe that is not the same as the dating culture I’m used to. The courting rituals, per se, for lack of better term. So this led to me creating this idea which was basically me trying and failing to ask girls out here in the UK. It evolved into a more introspective project about a rapper, who is struggling to find happiness with his own career as he returns home and deals with the pros and cons being a small town celebrity and facing his own past. The evolution led to totally separate versions, but hopefully I can fuse the best of both worlds. I have like four episodes written. Here are some links to two iterations I’ve created on the concept. 

The Leeds version is above.

The New Mexico version is below. 

Next to the films and ideas I have. I am really interested in performance poetry. My poetry is more like my hobby, but people seem to enjoy the videos. I’ve been hired to perform in Kent next month, that is something I didn’t expect to happen. My first real professional poetry gig. A lot of my colleagues have collaborated with me on my poems as well. I would like to find a way to combine poetic language and my films. I did a creative practice film my first year called What Else. and that was all done in rhyme. So hopefully in the future I can merge poetry and filmmaking together within my narrative productions. UPDATE: Just yesterday I won a poetry slam and I’ll representing Leeds in a multi city slam! Ahhh! I’m excited, I didn’t think I was good enough to win slams. Whoa! 

Luis shot the one below. He’s the man!

Here’s the one the that kicked off my love for the videos. Produced by my bro Antony Metaxakis, the best sound dude in Leeds. 

I am now apart of the MFA program here at the Northern Film School, but have yet to know what I need to do in order to complete this degree, but I plan to do something as productive as possible that will help enhance my portfolio and the possibility of becoming the best that I can be at the end of my experience here in Leeds.

I did just apply for a real job though. In New York. And I’ll continue searching for employment opportunities. I’m not particularly keen on returning to the states, so between now and July I’ll be searching for jobs. My goal for September is to be financially independent. I am confident that I can accomplish this goal in due time.

Ideally I would like to direct music videos and commercials right now. I’ll be exploring these possibilities as much as I can.

So what’s next exactly? I don’t know. But, I am determined to accomplish the goals I’ve set out to do. I am not one that likes to talk the talk without walking the walk, and I talk a lot. I gotta back myself up. So I can talk more. I look forward to the future and my future collaborations with my friends and colleagues.