Wednesday, October 7, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 13
The story of Merge decribes a successful music scene
■ Our Noise is an essential document
about music as an art form, a business and
a community builder. Founders Mac Mc-
Caughan and Laura Ballance have man
aged to avoid the pitfalls that ultimately
turned their once successful predecessor
labels like SST and Sub Pop.
At the Malaprops book signing, Mc-
Caughan cited Sub Pop as an influence,
^hich is ironic considering how dreadful
bub Pop seems in comparison today.
While Sub Pop transformed “punk”
into “gmnge.,” Merge kept it real, releas
ing albums that contrasted and challenged
®ach other rather than regurgitating the
same ideas and manufacturing a distinc-
bve “sound.”
Nirvana and Soundgarden championed
bub Pop’s Seattle sound, and Nirvana’s
Nevermind remains the most told story in
indie rock lore.
Yet Merge accomplished so much more
man just bringing more underground mu-
^ic into the spotlight. They released hun
dreds of amazing, unpredictable records,
and to this day they have not changed their
lvalues.
The beauty of Merge is that McCaughan
Ballance never restrict artistic control.
Nierge began as a band. Superchunk, that
needed to put out records. All they have
®''er strived for since is to do the same
By Sam Hunt
Arts & Features Editor
SCHUNT@UNCA.EDU
thing for other bands, without splitting
factions and worrying aboufsales.
In the early days. Merge refused to use
contracts, insisting that all deals be based
on a handshake.
“We weren’t thinking of it as a business,
we were thinking about it as this fun, cool
thing. Contracts seemed like a gesture of
mistrust,” says Ballance in Our Noise.
“We’d talk about the basic premise, and
that was that. In hindsight, I think that
was really naive. But at first, there really
wasn’t much money involved, so it didn’t
seem to matter.”
Merge’s efforts produced a flowering
Chapel Hill music scene that has yet to
lose momentum.
With 220 miles between Asheville and
Chapel Hill, the two cities have gradually
integrated each other’s music, although
the framework of their respective music
scenes is almost completely opposite.
Our Noise
Continued from Page 12
We would borrow money, like a few
hundred dollars from one person; and
hen do a release and then pay them
hck,” McCaughan said.
The 20-year-old entrepreneurs start^
y collecting singles from local banc^
hnd selling them to local record stores in
realeigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
We had a little tiny room devoted to
Nlerge,” said Amy Ruth Buchanan, Bal-
®nce’s former roommate. “And it had
hts little red table, and like some stacks
of singles. No windows. It was just this
little
tiny, closet-y kind of room, and
Laura would work away.”
Nlore than 20 years later, Ballance
hnd McCaughan sit in front of the Mala-
Ptops crowd trying to define the term
indie music.”
. It used to be just a definition, mean-
*hg independent. Now, it’s more of a
§cnre,” McCaughan said.
Merge artists like M. Ward and Neu-
tnl’ Milk Hotel certainly fall under the
^ihi, but Ballance and McCaughan said
h Consistent quality, rather than a similar
^hund, determines whether Merge will
^’gn an artist.
What Merge artists have in common
The beauty of Merge is that they never
restrict artistic control.
Chapel Hill has the benefit of a flag
ship label, Merge, which has allowed for
an organized exchange of ideas and a cer
tain unity among independent musicians.
Asheville is currently more of a dog-eat-
dog kind of scene where no particular
genre stands out within the “indie” um
brella term.
If anything, Asheville’s label is “the
jam-band city,” which is an incredibly
unfair yet valid stereotype. When Phish
came to the Civic Center, it seemed that
dreadlocked hippie culture had taken over
downtown for a whole week.
Bluegrass, folk and traditional song
craft have also played large roles in de
fining Asheville’s image as a music town,
due in part to easy-listening festivals like
Bele Chere and a tourist-minded economy.
Not that this is a bad thing in itself, but it
restricts the odds of a young, experimental
rock band from having a shot at material
or artistic success without a clearly de
fined indie movement. ,
There is, however, a huge amount of
great indie music in Asheville. Most of
these unsigned artists never escape the
“bar” scene, playing to small crowds and
making only gas money.
The same thing goes for most unsigned
bands in America, but at least there’s a re
alistic dream in a place like Chapel Hill,
which has seen dozens of reputable labels
pop up since Merge broke through in the
early 1990s.
No one can say how or whether the indie
scene should break through in Asheville,
but it is odd that there’s such a difference
in how independent music is appreciated,
marketed and executed in two otherwise
similar N.C. towns.
Anyone interested in music would ben
efit from reading Our Noise: The Story of
Merge Records, which details how Chapel
Hill’s indie rock scene happened and why
it remains such a strong force worldwide.
daniel bernard roumain
etudes4violinStelectronix
is that they write good songs,” he said.
“We put out what we like, and I think
that provides a general direction that
people can trust.”
Although the two are the business
brains behind the label, they said the
success of Merge has a lot to do with the
fact they are also musicians.
“We try not to interfere with the artis
tic development. I think that’s because
we’re in a band too,” Ballance said. “A
label has no role telling an artist what
their art should be.”
With Arcade Fire selling more than
a million copies of their 2007 release.
Neon Bible, regular performances by
Merge artists on “Saturday Night Live,”
“The Tonight Show” and “David Let-
terman,” and the release of Magnetic
Field’s groundbreaking three-volume
album 69 Love Songs, Merge Records
has crystallized Chapel Hill’s dialogue
in the independent music conversation.
“There’s something about the feel
ing of holding your own band’s record
in your hand for the first time,” Mc
Caughan said. “I still feel that way even
though we’re not getting boxes of 7-inch
singles anymore.”
Saturday
Oct. 24, 8 pm
Lipinsky Auditorium
Funk, rock, hip-hop and classical
blend into an eclectic,
high-energy style which d
DBR calls “dred violin.”
; t‘i ■
n ■
'i /
lit *
Tickets:
www.uncatickets.com
(828) 232-5000
^6 student
All area students
^20 Generai Pubiic
UNIVFKSnY of NORI11 C AROIINA
ASHEVILLE
For more information and extended activities visit www.unca.edu/culturalarts