texter samples | text_only
label of love
texted for raygun by gabriella marks
Vinyl lives! Singles are being revived by small independent labels who want to provide a release outlet for bands bitten by the b-side bug. They begin as a whim, inspired by the desire to give this amazing band you saw last night to as many people as you can because you were so moved to mosh or cry. ³Yeah, its just taking that fan thing one more and becoming the ultimate fan. Instead of just buying the record, I'm gonna put it out," says Mike Hibdigger of Sonic Bubblegum. "I'm gonna buy a thousand of the records and really put my money where my mouth is as far as being a fan. That's the ultimate thing." Labels allow music connoisseurs the chance to contribute. "I've been into music for a long time, and knew I wanted to do something musical," explains Bill Peregoy from Pop Narcotic records. "Then I started to see all these little labels popping up, like Slumberland, Merge, Sonic Bubblegum, which showed me it's not that hard to do. You can do it if you have the energy and the devotion to it, so I decided I was going to start a label."The rush of a first release swirls into a cash and closet commitment-- money for pressing and distributing, closets for storing what others aren't quite prepared to appreciate. The full-fledged fan thing has its pitfalls. For Sonic Mike, "It starts to lose focus when you start really committing to a label. It's more complicated. You can just sit at home and be a fan, and there's no problems in the world -- if you don't like the record, you don't have to play it. If you make a record and you don't like it, you're in trouble."
Pop Narcotic Bill prefers keeping things low-key to prevent frustration from tampering with his enjoyment value. "My overriding goal is to make sure I still have fun while I'm doing it," he says. "If I had this driving goal that I had to sign five bands this year and put out this many records, it would just not keep on, so I'm probably one of the easiest labels to work with. It's like deadlines? No, no deadlines; just give me the record when its done."
texter samples | text_only