Suburban Home Records

For those of you not familiar with my State of the Unions, I use these posts as a forum to discuss the things going on with my label (Suburban Home), my Vinyl imprint (Vinyl Collective), my music industry blog-site (IndieHQ), and other happenings in my life. The posts are usually very long so make sure you have some time on your hands if you decide to read further. If you do, know that I usually discuss the inner workings of all of my endeavors for whatever that’s worth.

Our move from our office into my house went better than I could have imagined. Sure, it was a lot of back-breaking labor, but compared to our move into the office, it was a breeze. It took us a few weeks to get into a routine at the house and to get everything organized, but I feel like we are running more efficiently than ever. We have gotten mailorder done quickly, distributor orders have gone smooth, and the office work is also going well. I think the only thing suffering for me is finding the time to write. I am working on that, but so far so good. And I should add that it has been a true blessing to be able to see my son everyday who is pictured doing some “computer work”. He is almost walking but can crawl from the living room into our office in about 2 seconds. He always seems pumped to be able to see me and Kyle on a regular basis.

Sean recently launched a new version of the IndieHQ site. He did an incredible job. Not only does the site look better than ever, we now have the ability to host full album streams of some of our favorite records and our own mix tapes. I put together a mix tape of some of my favorite songs of 2007 so far and it includes Drag the River, Voxtrot, Of Montreal, the Shins, Two Cow Garage, Josh Small, The snake the cross the crown, Dustin Kensrue, Arcade Fire, Apples in Stereo, Dear and the Headlights, The Blow and more. As far as full album streams, we have the Get UP Kids “Something to Write Home About”, Snake the Cross the Crown “Cotton Teeth”, and Drag the River “Hobo’s Demos”. The coolest part of the full album streams is that Sean set it up so you can cut and paste the html code for the player to put the stream on your myspace page or blog. Very cool, I need to be able to do that with the Suburban Home site. Know that we have a lot of amazing full album streams to announce in the near future as well as many more mix CDs to post.

Speaking of mix tapes, Kyle and myself put together a mix we called “Not So Quiet on the Country Western Front”. The mix features all of our favorite Country, Folk, and Roots Rock acts. You can listen to the mix in our listening station and if you really like it, we will send you a copy of it on CD if you purchase anything on our site or if you send us a mix CD as trade. I absolutely love all the bands on the mix and know that if you are a fan of some of our bands (Drag the River, Tim Barry, Two Cow Garage, etc), you will love this mix. We put a few tracks from upcoming releases by Josh Small, Drag the River, and Tim Barry. I plan to post mixes like this moving forward and who knows, maybe this will turn into a compilation series that we put out on Suburban Home.

The Josh Small album is being manufactured and should be in my hands any week now. The record came together so nicely and I am excited to try and get the word out about this record. I posted the first mp3 from the record, “Move Your Hips” which is a good example of what you can expect from the album. Josh will be touring with Tim Barry in June through the East Coast and Midwest and it looks as though both Tim and Josh will be supporting William Elliott Whitmore for a full U.S. tour this September. I could not be more excited about that tour as I think William’s fans will totally love what Tim and Josh are doing. I will be posting a full album stream of “Tall by Josh Small” in the near future so stay tuned for that. Josh’s album will be in stores on June 26th, but we will have copies so pre-orders will get their copies way before the street date.

We just booked 3 releases for August 7th: Drag the River/Dents split LP/CD; Armchair Martian “Good Guys, Bad Band” discography; and Tim Barry “Laurel St Demos” LP/CD. The Drag/Dents split features both bands doing the exact same 4 songs 2 of their own and then 2 covers of the 2 songs that the other band does. Make sense? It is a fun release and will be limited to 1,000 copies on CD and 250 copies on LP. The Armchair Martian discography features the entire “Monsters Always Scream” record plus a lot of b-sides and tracks that had never been released. Armchair Martian is the band Jon Snodgrass from Drag the River did before starting Drag. Armchair will also be doing a U.S. tour in September which should be super cool. The Tim Barry “Laurel St Demos” was originally released in Germany, but we found that we were getting rid of more copies of the album in the states and it just seemed that if we put it out on Suburban Home, it would make all of our lives easier. It is those demos that got me really stoked on Tim’s solo material and motivated me to do the unthinkable and tell Tim that I was interested in putting out his album.

Drag the River are officially done. It still doesn’t feel real to me that this happened. Jon and Chad are still friends, but Chad thought it best to go their separate ways with regards to music. I know that both Chad and Jon will do amazing things on their own, but there was just something magical about seeing them together on stage. I do believe that Suburban Home has a curse which kicks in the moment one of our bands start taking off. It happened with the Gamits and just happened to Drag the River. At the time of their breakup, they were asked to do tours with Flogging Molly/Chuck Ragan; Matt Skiba/Chuck Ragan; and dates with Drive By Truckers. If anyone out there has a time machine, please drop me a line. I think I could erase the events leading up to the band’s demise if I could only go back in time. Where are you Hiro Nakamura? We posted a Drag the River super sale in memory of one of my favorite bands and the sale really took me off guard. I had bet Kyle that I thought we would sell 100 sales by the end of May; he seemed to think that 50 or 60 sales would be more likely. We bet lunch and i sent out the newsletter announcing the sale. Much to all of our surprise, the sale sold 100 times in one night. I posted another 100 sales the next day, and we are nearly done with those too. Simply amazing! I am hoping to release their final studio album and with luck, I will convince the guys to let me do a box set like we did for the Gamits which would contain live material, unreleased tracks, b-sides, and all of their studio albums. There are more recordings that have never been released by Drag than have actually surfaced and that, to me, is an injustice. Their final studio recording, for example, has some of their greatest songs on it and hopefully I will be releasing it before year’s end.

Koch bought my chain distributor, Navarre, this week and I am kind of nervous as to how this might change the way that I do business. I have had a really great arrangement with Navarre as they allowed me to sell to a number of mom and pop distros as well as handle all of my digital distribution. I suspect that sometime in the near future, Koch will give me an ultimatum: Digital or no Chain distro. I sometimes wonder exactly how much I need chain distribution moving forward. Most bigger chains snub their collective noses at my titles and the smaller chains don’t do extremely well with my releases. I recently opened a direct account with Amazon for my titles not distributed by Navarre and could work out some arrangements with some of my mom and pop distros to get it into some one stops. I want to remain optimistic about Koch as I have a good contact there who seems to be stoked on me, but with the hundreds of labels going through Koch, how will my small label become noticed?

It is times like this that I think Deep Elm’s decision to withdraw from brick and mortar distribution and to limit most of their titles to 1,000 copies is not an entirely bad idea. I am still waiting for the owner of Deep Elm to finish an interview I had sent him which would elaborate on some of his ideas moving forward. By limiting the number of copies you press on much of your catalog, there might be an urgency to pick up your titles on CD for fear they will be gone. If the band’s momentum continues to grow after the 1,000 CDs are sold, you could do a repress. If not, it would be only digital. I sometimes consider patterning my label after labels like Asian Man and No Idea who put out a ton of releases; not all of them sell, but throughout the catalog there are some true gems. I sometimes imagine my label being able to release at least 2 releases per month from up and coming Punk and Country acts. Anthony from Stereotyperider has asked me to release his other band, the Revenge. He recently sent me a recording and the band is great kind of in the vein of the Bronx. I had told him that I would not be able to do a lot behind his band as they are not a full-time touring band and even if they were, I wasn’t sure I could sell a ton of copies, but he seems to be ok with it. I like the guys a lot and they rock out live. I have had to pass up releases like this because I needed them to sell a certain amount of copies, but if I can stream-line my expenses on titles like this, I could put out more releases that I love with little to no risk. We will see.

With regards to Country acts, I sometimes envision Suburban Home being a home for all the many great regional Country acts that may never sell a ton of copies, but if Suburban Home became known for putting out those types of acts, they would all sell enough to cover expenses and who knows, one of the bands might just take off. I want to release Lenny and the Piss Poor Boys who I have recently fallen in love with. The singer is in a street punk band called Darkbuster, but Lenny and the Piss Poor Boys are the perfect example of punk guys who play awesome country. Their only album which is super tough to find and cost me over $16 with shipping is the greatest thing I have heard in ages. I have honestly listened to this album like 500 times since getting it and put one of their tracks as the first song on the mix tape Kyle and I made. If anyone knows how to get a hold of these guys, please let me know. The band is from Boston and Drag the River would always play with them when touring out that way. I am sure there are bands like this all over the states and if I could release those types of bands with little worry of having to sell a ton of copies, I might be able to attract music fans that love that kind of music.
Recently, I have been contemplating seeking out investors for Suburban Home and/or Vinyl Collective. With Suburban Home, I feel like I have hit my stride with the types of bands I have been releasing and think that if I could only get some stronger marketing behind my titles, I could do bigger and better things. With Vinyl Collective, I have been limited to the number of vinyl releases I can put out due to cash flow. If I had capital, I could release 10 vinyl titles a month and actually pursue many of the vinyl releases that I would like to do. I struggle with the idea of taking on investors as it seems like it could cause just as much headache as good. It would be nice though to be able to make my many ideas into reality.

Vinyl Collective has a number of projects in the works. The biggest one is the Minus the Bear’s “Planet of Ice” that I announced in my last SOTU. David from Suicide Squeeze sent me a copy of the new album and holy shit, it is so fucking good. I am a bigger fan of “Highly Refined Pirates” than “Menos El Oso”, but this one could become my new favorite. They definitely picked up where they left off, but you can tell that they experimented a bit. There were more than a few times that I wondered if they had been listening to Pink Floyd which I think only adds to their sound. The record is 10 songs and there isn’t a dud in the bunch. David Knudson is currently putting together the artwork which I should have shortly and the band are deciding what kind of color combinations to do. I will be meeting the band this Wednesday when they play in Denver. Does anyone know what kind of beer/booze they drink? I asked David of Suicide Squeeze as I plan to bring them a gift.

It is also official that we will be releasing the double LP of Poison the Well’s “Versions” which I could not be more excited about. I met with Ryan of the band when they come through with Fear Before and it surprised me how nice he was and that he is an avid beer drinker. I guess I still remember the days when most hardcore bands were straight edge and it is always a nice surprise to see that they in fact drink beer. Ryan went to the New Belgium Brewery tour and the Odell’s tour the day before which shows that he digs the good stuff. I am waiting on art from him as well as the vinyl master which he thinks might have a song not on the CD/digital versions. How sick is that?

We are also working on vinyl releases for Josh Small “Tall by Josh Small”, Tim Barry “Laurel St Demos”, Drag the River / Dents split, Love Me Destroyer “The Things Around us Burn”, and maybe Ghost Buffalo “S/t”. We worked out a deal with our manufacturer where he would allow us to do super limited runs on vinyl if we bundle releases together. All of the above would be limited to 200 or 250 copies and they would have silk-screened covers. I have been talking to the guy who did hte New Mexican Disaster Squad LP for No Idea which looks super nice. I plan to bundle full album downloads with the vinyl versions, too, and am working on the options to do that. If these limited pressings go well, i will be seeking out other great releases that might never sell 1,000 copies but deserve to be on vinyl.

Now to geek out a minute about the releases I would like to do on vinyl. I have been throwing around the ideas of putting out the three Drag the River albums, “Closed”, “Hobo’s Demos”, and “Chicken Demos” as a triple LP box set. I would have to do a super limited run in order for it to make sense, but I think I could sell 200 or 250 copies to the die-hard Drag fans that have been dying to have these albums out on vinyl. I also emailed Roy Berry of Lucero who recently purchased one of our Drag the River super sales about my interest to release their 3 albums(S/t, Tennessee, and That Much Further West) as a box set, but he has yet to write me back. I was corrected that all three have been on vinyl, but they have all been long out of print and there are so many people who would be pumped to have those records on vinyl. Speaking of Lucero, what is up with the release of “Rebels, Rogues…” on vinyl? I have spoke to the folks who run their label who keep telling me that it will be coming out on vinyl, but so far, no dice. Same thing with the Format who I had inquired about ages ago and their management said that they would in fact be putting out their own vinyl. I was also recently shot down by Fat Wreck who had made the decision to A. not release the new Strung Out on vinyl, but B. not to license it to another label for vinyl release. They had written in a blog post that the record was too long and therefore was not feasible to release on vinyl. I don’t know how long the album is, but you can always do a double LP. Fat has done them before. Here is another dream vinyl release to spin your heads about…all of the At the Drive In releases in a box set? I know that most of the At the Drive In titles came out on vinyl ages ago, but I am pretty sure they are all long out of print. I have a contact at Fearless, but I suspect that it would be a logistical headache to get all of the parties involved to sign off on it. I spoke to Jordan at Sabot when he was in town with Against Me and he said that he was still planning to release the final None More Black on vinyl. He said he even had test pressings that sounded great, but that he had some issues with the artwork. Here’s hoping that shit comes out soon.

I will start to wrap up this marathon of writing by telling you a few things happening in my personal life. I was recently asked to moderate a panel for CMJ which will be called “D.I.Y. or Die”. I of course said yes which gives me a free pass to all of the CMJ festivities which I have never had the chance to experience. I suggested a few panelists that I really want to work with, but we will see how it all pans out. What an honor it was for me to be considered for this. On a similar topic, I have been throwing around the idea of writing a book on how to market your band, get a label’s attention, and how to get your releases distributed. I have always wanted to write a book geared towards the indie/punk/metal scene as most books on this topic are from a whole different world. I think the book could become a great resource for indie bands and labels. I would love to become an author who goes on book tours and who gets paid to do consult. That would be amazing. On a whole different note, I recently went to a Ben Franklin exhibit and it was very, very cool. I feel like Ben and I would have been friends had we lived in the same era. He was a math nerd, a beer drinker, a networker, and he developed so many of his ideas. I need to pick up a book on him to find out more, because the little I do know is truly inspiring. I finished watching Arrested Development last week and it is truly disheartening to see a show so incredible get canceled, yet the King of Queens and According to Jim have each done like 10 seasons. My favorite episode has to be the one where George Michael uses the jet pack, Tobias dresses up as a Mole, and Michael Bluth is showing the Japanese investors their model homes. I almost cried laughing so hard. The only good of canceling such a great show after 3 seasons is it never got a chance to become bad which could have happened 3 or 4 seasons later. I have been watching a lot more South Park and for as how running this long, how do they continue to keep it fresh? The 300 episode where the Lesbians fight the Persians has to be one of the greatest episodes yet!

I went and saw Against Me a week and a half ago and god damn they are so good live. I am excited to hear their new album and hope it holds up. I got way drunker than I wanted to that night and due to this, I did not go to see Morrissey. I am going to see Minus the Bear this Wednesday and I can’t wait. I hope they play some songs from Planet of Ice, but even if they don’t, the show will kill.

My son turns 1 on June 2nd. Fucking crazy. The year has just flown by and I still remember bringing him home totally scared at how fragile he was. Those first few weeks were nerve-racking, but now he just falls down and hits his head and maybe cries for second and that is it. I made him a shirt that says “Cagefighter in Training” and he wore it out with me today. Good times. I am having so much fun with my son and I can only imagine it getting better and better as he is able to communicate better. We hope to take him camping this summer as we missed camping last summer due to the pregnancy.

Last bit about me is that I have recently started going to the gym in an effort to not be a fat ass. I am doing a trial membership through 24 hour fitness and if they can offer me a competitive price, I may join. My wife belongs to balleys and gets a really rad rate. I have been going on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings and have been splitting my time between cardio and weights. I need to work on my diet, too, as that is my biggest problem. I am a chronic over-eater and have eaten like shit for most of my life. Wish me luck. I am sick of being over weight and hope my son’s first memories of me are as a fit father.

Next time, remind me to tell you what Chris Fogal from the Gamits has been up to. I feel like I have already written way too long, but I will let you know about the band he has been putting together which is certain to throw you off. For any of you that have actually read this entire thing, thanks. I don’t know if I would have done so being in your position.