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Local label revolution
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BY JORDAN LAWRENCE
ASSISTANT DIVERSIONS EDITOR
It doesn’t take an expert to know that the Triangle
has built a reputation for ambitious and successful
record labels.
Merge Records, the foremost example of the area’s
success, formed in Chapel Hill in the ’9os and has gone
on to release records by Arcade Fire and Spoon that
have broken into the top 10 of the Billboard 200.
But it’s easy to forget that Merge was once a small
imprint formed around an up-and-coming Chapel Hill
indie rock band Superchunk, who went on to national
stardom and took the label along for the ride.
“I don’t think we really foresaw anything beyond get
ting some music out there for people to hear, which is
kind of what we’re still doing,” Mac McCaughan, co
founder of Merge said in an e-mail.
But, even for all of its success, it is important to
remember that Merge Records is not the only label in
town.
Channeling anew generation of eager and talented
musicians, a slew of dedicated and highly motivated
labels have popped up around the area in recent years.
“For local labels to be successful like this, there have
to be great bands,” said Kyle Miller who cofounded
Durham’s Churchkey Records last year. “And there are
a ton. And there has always been a ton.”
Miller formed the label last fall with friend Steve
Jones to put out the debut EP by Durham metal act
Tooth. The label produced a second release with the
full-length debut from Southern-punk band The Dry
Heathens in May.
The success of these releases has made Churchkey a
hot ticket for bands looking to get their music out.
“We have had to say ‘no’ to people,” he said. “We’ve
said ‘no’ to records that I really like, which makes me
feel kind of awful. We’re overwhelmed.”
One thing that isn’t in short supply right now is
success stories. The Bowerbirds released their debut
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Local imprint infantry brings the music to the people
DTH FILE/JORDAN LAWRENCE
Trekky Records cofounder Will Hackney plays with
Lost In The Trees at Cat's Cradle last month.
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Online I blogs.dailytarheel.com
NOT THE BEST Read a review of the new
Dane Cook comedy “My Best Friend’s Girl."
THE LAST WORD Check out Dive Editor
Jamie Wiliams’ reaction to last night’s Second
hand Freespace panel. He will discuss further
tips for getting press for your band.
diversions
dive.dailytarheel.com
Hymns For A Dark Home on Durham’s Burly Time
Records to critical acclaim before being picked up by
national label Dead Oceans.
And Durham experimental folk act Megafaun’s self
' release, Bury the Square, was picked up by an English
imprint after the band was featured as a “Band to
Watch” on the popular music blog Stereogum.
All this success has lead some in the music commu
nity, including the heads of some labels, to predict that
the area is poised to return to the prestige it enjoyed
in the ’9os.
“I think it’s about to hit sort of a renaissance,” said
Will Hackney of Chapel Hill’s Trekky Records. “We’ve
been in this music scene for six or eight years. I think
this is becoming on one of the most exciting times that
we’ve seen.”
Hackney formed Trekky with friends Emma Nadeau
and Martin Anderson while the three were in middle
school in 2002. The label is currently experiencing its
biggest year yet with back-to-back high-profile releases
from The Physics of Meaning and Lost In The Trees.
The release party for the latter packed Cat’s Cradle
on a Saturday night.
“The community is recognizing that there’s a lot of
good work coming out of here, and we just want to have
a part of that,” Anderson said.
Community is a point of emphasis for Chapel Hill’s
Holidays For Quince Records.
“That’s a conscious effort on our part to bring together
the parts of the Triangle,” said Heather McEntire, lead
singer of Bellafea who cofounded the label with fellow
Chapel Hill musician Jenks Miller. “There’s a Durham
thing, a Chapel Hill thing and a Raleigh thing.
“We feel it’s really detrimental to the Iriangle in gen
eral.”
Though the label has only released albums by Chapel
Hill bands so far, McEntire echoed the sentiments of
TVekky and Churchkey that working together by mix
ing bands from different labels on bills was important
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DTH FILE PHOTO
Heather McEntire, who co-owns Holidays For
Quince Records, plays at Local 506 last February.
developing
RAISING THE CURTAIN
Chapel Hill's heaviest duo,
The Curtains of Night chat with
Dive in advance of the release
of its debut LP.
PAGE 8
to the community.
“It’s about collaboration. I think that makes all the
difference,” Anderson said. “What makes this town spe
cial is that people are willing to work together.”
But at the point when local labels have pushed their
bands to the brink of making it big, more issues rear
their heads.
Miller emphasized the significant investment it takes
to give a band national exposure.
“It’s tough as a local label to decide if you want to do
that,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who don’t. They
really want to be a local label.”
One label that has turned being a jumping-off point
into an institution is Chapel Hill’s Pox World Empire.
Zeno Gill, who brought Pox to town when he moved
from Ithaca, N.Y., in 2001, said that his vision for the
label is to be able to step in to help bands that have few
prospects for releasing their material,
“If we come across a band that is inaccessible, mean
ing they don’t have access to any bigger options or big
ger labels then we’ll approach them and offer working
with us as an alternative to having to release something
themselves,” he said.
In doing so Pox has released records by popular
Chapel Hill artists such as Nathan Oliver and Schooner
who might have never gotten their music out any other
way.
But Miller was excited to speculate on what it would
mean to this area if a label stepped up and made the
kind of investment it would take to sky rocket a band
to the big time.
“I think if that happens has a lot to do with money
and a lot to do with luck,” he said. “What if one of these
labels does decide that they’re going to borrow 20 grand
and make it happen?
“Maybe that’s what it’s going to take.”
Contact the Diversions Editor
atdive@unc.edu.
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DTH FILE/JORDAN LAWRENCE
Daren Sink of Churchkey Records punk rockers The
Dry Heathens plays at Jack Sprat last February.
music
BACK TO THE ROOTS
Jenny Lewis returns to her
country-rock roots on her new
solo effort. Also see reviews of
The Broken West and others..
PAGE 8
movies
LETS GO TO THE MOVIES
New films from Kate Hudson,
Shia Leßeouf and the latest
Spike Lee joir make for a
star-studd and week.
PAGE 6
thursday, October 2,2008
l
Q&A
UTTERED WITH GLITTER
Jamey Huggins of the Athens,
Ga., band of Montreal chats with
Dive before embarking on an
ambitious tour to kick off Tuesday.
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