infinity cat recordings
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the “cathouse, ” the office for infinity cat recordings in nashville, tennessee. photo by chona kasinger .
left & right is an indie rock band from virginia now residing in philadelphia, pa. they' re signed to infinity cat recordings .
byop formed in 2003 in the basement of the orrall home, which doubles as a home studio / rehearsal space for indie label infinity cat recordings .
jeff the brotherhood and infinity cat ink deal with warner bros. [ updated ]
lately, jake has been thinking about how to make infinity cat smarter and more efficient .
a rack of tapes at the infinity cat offices in nashville, tennessee. photo by chona kasinger .
update: see an official statement from infinity cat' s robert orrall at the bottom of this post .
natural child is a garage / punk / pop band from nashville, tn on the infinity cat label. urltoken
the new single from nectar! debut album knocking at the door out 4 / 20 on infinity cat recordings (us) and 2670records (japan)! preorder: http: / / infinitycatrecording... ... show less
cassettes were nearly extinct a decade ago, but now suddenly they' re playing in every diy kid' s beat - up old car. what' s going on? nashville' s infinity cat recordings provides a fascinating case study .
the infinity cat visitors center & gallery presents
drawings of things like naked girls, and naked guys with penises, and ...
infinity cat operates a
visitors' center
retail store at their headquarters. the visitors' center was opened as “a response to requests from fans who have wanted to stop by when they' re in nashville, ” and sells recordings, merchandise, and label - related rareties .
jeff’s forthcoming we are the champions lp — set for release june 21 — will still come out exclusively on infinity cat, but with distribution via ada, while a follow - up lp (tentatively slated for next year) will come out on infinity cat, but under the warner / ilg umbrella .
dine alone records is excited to announce a newly inked worldwide partnership with nashville - based infinity cat recordings. the new association will kick - off with the release of jeff the brotherhood’s new album wasted on the dream being released worldwide on march 24. listed # 10 in billboard magazine’s “business biz: 50 best indie labels in america”, infinity cat’s back catalog includes jeff the brotherhood, diarrhea planet, and be your own pet, among others .
music videos + album release show from ed schrader' s music beat, the newest member of the infinity cat family. new album coming spring 2014 !
that' s part of the idea with the warner deal ,
band manager holland nix explains ,
to bring attention to the label .
( nix also owns a partial stake in infinity cat .) under the agreement, infinity cat retains all rights to the band' s back catalog, which jake calls
pure profit .
and the partnership with warner doesn' t change the label' s basic structure — infinity cat remains purely independent .
infinity cat operates a
visitors' center
retail store at their headquarters. the visitors' center was opened as
a response to requests from fans who have wanted to stop by when they' re in nashville ,
and sells recordings, merchandise, and label - related rareties. [ 13 ]
as a case study, infinity cat’s cassette business is an excellent example of managing risk. in comparison to cds and vinyl, cassettes are absurdly cheap to produce, even when farmed out to professionals. for its cassette series, infinity cat prints about 300 copies of each tape, with a new release every two months. each release sells for $ 6, and each new tape is always from a different artist, often either unsigned or from another label. the label is part imprint, part a & r department — bands have springboarded from an infinity cat cassette to sign deals with other labels, or even signed with infinity cat proper to release full length lps. much of the grunt work is done by label manager ale delgado, as is the case for all things infinity cat. but the cassette series is really casey weissbuch’s baby .
a highly sought - after band on its roster inking a deal in the record - label big leagues and seemingly poised to become stars? infinity cat has been here before .
jeff the brotherhood, a psychedelic rock duo based out of nashville, has released so many albums in past decade - and - a - half that it is hard to keep count. the band, made up of brothers jake and jamin orrall, also run a record label together called infinity cat recordings, signing friends like daddy issues and diarrhea planet .
independent label established in 2002 by jeff the brotherhood. in 2013, a physical retail store (the
infinity cat visitors center
) opened at 467 humphreys st, nashville, tn 27203 .
luck can be important. part of the reason infinity cat is one of the few labels that can directly upload tracks to itunes is that early on, bob and jamin crashed a party held to recruit labels for the new itunes store. the kitten - size infinity cat hadn' t made the highly exclusive guest list, but bob feigned disbelief at the omission. standing nearby, jeff walker of aristomedia quickly caught on and played along with the ruse. feigning outrage, he called infinity cat
one of the most important labels in town
to the unwitting apple gatekeeper, who promptly waved the orralls in .
in other words, jeff is bringing on the major leagues, as stephen malkmus might say. they got signed, and infinity cat is, at least to an extent, a major - label imprint .
yesterday, jeff singer - guitarist jake orrall and infinity cat co - founder robert ellis orrall confirmed with the scene that the local punk torch - bearers have — in conjunction with their literal and figurative parent label — signed a deal with warner music group. the agreement will give the band global distribution through the conglomerate’s alternative distribution alliance (aka the ada) and infinity cat a place among wmg’s independent label group (aka the ilg) .
the band originally caught infinity cat' s eye after tastemaker casey weissbuch offered the trio a spot on the cassette series he curates for the label, which has hosted releases from artists like rozwell kid, colleen green and guerrilla toss over its three - year history. days after submitting their tape in the summer of 2015, the band signed to infinity cat as official artists, releasing a 7
split with louisville band white reaper later that year .
the tour is big because hypnotic nights is the first album to come out fully under the auspices of the warner label group — complete this time with an official press release from warner calling infinity cat a
family - owned, super cool, vinyl - centered record label... which has been a pillar of support for nashville bands .
and all the attendant album promotion includes the infinity cat logo, presenting the orralls with their best chance yet at reaching a much wider audience .
not far from the railroad tracks that run just beyond the nashville sounds' guitar - shaped scoreboard, and a stone' s throw from the infinity cat house, sits another notable, if unassuming, property: producer roger moutenot' s studio .
ale delgado is infinity cat' s social media coordinator — i. e. , the main tweeter and facebook updater — and de facto webmaster. a 21 - year - old belmont music business major originally from cincinnati, delgado decided she had to work at infinity cat after talking to a former intern who said he' d spent an entire day spray - painting old cassettes .
that pretty much made the decision ,
she says. delgado also runs the milkshake truck moovers and shakers in the summer with fellow bruin hayden coleman .
on the night of july 20, 2002, infinity cat recordings sprung to life by selling 11 copies of an album that hadn' t even been made. sure, their inaugural release had just been taped — live, for an audience of a few dozen at the long - since defunct guido' s pizzeria. but the crude recording, made with a dat machine taped to a back wall, hadn' t been mixed, burned onto cds or slipped into the photocopied sleeves that the band members would later hand - splatter with paint .
cool or not, the label landed on a 2010 billboard list of the top 50 indie labels in the country, alongside art school mainstays like matador, merge and jagjaguwar. jenn pelly, now a pitchfork staff writer based in new york, compiled that list .
infinity cat might not be fashionable ,
she says ,
but in my eyes they' re pretty radical .
demurring on the whole notion of
cool ,
she says ,
infinity cat and the bands on that label are probably what make me want to visit nashville more than anything else .
when singer and guitarist jenna moynihan saw the phrase “daddy issues” scribbled on the bathroom wall of a now - defunct nashville diy venue, she mistakenly assumed it was the name of an all - girl punk outfit sure to become her next favorite band. upon realizing that no such band existed, moynihan and friends emily maxwell (drums) and jenna mitchell (bass) picked up their instruments, taught themselves how to play and started their own band. three years later, daddy issues released their full - length vinyl debut deep dream on 5 / 19 via infinity cat recordings .
these days, ballard is also the lead singer in art circus, one of bob' s projects and a vehicle for his more whimsical pop songwriting. (the art circus album apples and oranges is out on infinity cat' s sister label, plastic 350 .) and she designed the newest infinity cat t - shirt, now in its second printing. this is not a particularly hectic day, but it' s busy enough that when local photographer emily quirk calls to see if there' s any work she can do to pick up a few hours' pay, bob gives the green light .
they understand the value of scarcity and diy ,
says jay millar, marketing director for united record pressing, whose back door is just a couple hundred feet from the infinity cat house. on any given day you might see him guiding a hand truck laden with boxes of freshly pressed records down the street .
a while back, the cream reported that infinity cat records had plans to open a retail shop in their headquarters at 467 humphreys, possibly by summer. that is still mostly true. robert ellis
bob cat
orrall tells the cream that what they' re opening is
not a store ,
but rather a
visitors center .
and it will
never open .
what he means by that is there will be no regular open - to - the - public hours, or regular hours of any sort. starting april 27, anyone who wants to come by is instructed to call the infinity cat hotline at 615 - 730 - 8417 to find out if someone' s there to let you in. the goal is to
always be low - key ,
orrall says .
but running a relatively small operation lets jake be nimble. according to seth riddle, general manager of serpents and snakes records, the imprint owned by kings of leon ,
the key for small labels [ like infinity cat ] is they react really quickly. they get things done .
and that spontaneity is an asset .
cannomen have been added to freakin’ weekend playing saturday march 10th at the end with traditional fools, mikal cronin, heavy cream, and the men. if you are “wtf”ing about them not being on the live at glenn danzgi’s house 7″ – the recordings of their set that night came out entirely too muddy .
we were really inspired by asian man records at the beginning ,
jake says, referring to mike park' s label out of monte sereno, calif. , as he reclines on a couch at the infinity cat house .
just this guy putting out tons of punk records out of his mom' s basement .
who knows where infinity cat and the artists on its roster will be in another 10 years ,
pelly says ,
but regardless, they' ve done a great job documenting a very specific scene that to my knowledge, wouldn' t have been documented otherwise. that kind of work doesn' t lose value .
like just about everyone else we’ve announced so far, cy and the boys have a brand new record dropping this year that’s going to blow your mind. it’ll be released via our favorite nashville label – infinity cat recordings – sometime this spring. in the last year, we’ve seen cy’s lineup change a little and we’ve definitely witnessed a lot of growth as they’ve been developing their own sound that’s distinguishably “way outsider” but also “punk as fuck. ” they’ll be featured on that special ndr treat that we hinted at so long ago in this giant post and we think they outshine everyone else on it. get your kicks… cy barkley is coming for you
audio cassettes have never been at the pinnacle of audio quality, but at a time when most full length lps have retail prices in the $ 20 range, picking up an old cassette player on ebay to play $ 6 tapes can seem quite appealing. major labels mostly focus on vinyl these days, but they will still print the occasional cassette, and thousands more are printed every year by dozens and dozens of independent labels in the united states alone. one of those labels, nashville’s infinity cat recordings, has incorporated the format into a business model that lies somewhere in between the majors printing cassettes as a novelty and the diy kids with beat - up old duplicators .
even with brand loyalty so fierce and so far afield, infinity cat isn' t quite where jake wants it to be. over his shoulder, his father' s eyes, decades younger, peer out from an oversized cardboard poster that sits behind the couch — a blown - up cover of contain yourself, bob' s 1984 album for rca .
he has trouble defining
cool
—
listened to by art school students ,
he jokes at one point — but he' s sure it has eluded infinity cat to this point, even as influential outlets from brooklyn vegan to vice dutifully announce every new jeff video, every new tracklist, every new
unveiled
piece of album art .
eventually it was on to xl recordings for the young rockers, and their faces on magazine covers, their names on music blogs and all the attendant pressure to play the major - label game. in the middle of it all, with everyone' s star seemingly on the fast - track to fame, jamin quit the band .
be your own pet generated a massive amount of press following the release of their debut single
damn damn leash
on infinity cat. the single was produced by kings of leon producer angelo and infinity cat' s robert ellis orrall, and mixed by modest mouse mix engineer jaquire king. the press included an interview in rolling stone, appearances at the glastonbury and reading / leeds festivals, as well as successful appearances at sxsw and slots supporting bands such as the kills. the band also appeared on the queen tribute album, killer queen: a tribute to queen, covering the classic
bicycle race
. the band released their eponymous album in the uk in march 2006, and in the us in june 2006 .
if jake thinks about things like legacy, he doesn' t talk about it. and he laughs when asked about the infinity cat logo :
that' s just something i used to draw on all my notebooks at school. my teacher said,' that drawing will make you a million dollars someday,'
he recalls, unable to contain his amusement at the very thought .
selling records is sometimes referred to as
moving units .
but in this case there were no units. and tusky mahloo by the sex (icr - 01) wasn' t an album so much as the promise of an album. in much the same way, infinity cat wasn' t a record label, really, nor were the baby - faced brothers jake and jamin orrall — then just 16 and 14, respectively — the electrifying, continent - hopping band they would eventually become. they were a pair of high school kids growing up on the west side whose basement lair was as cluttered and chaotic as any teenager' s hangout. only theirs was heaped with stashes of experimental recordings and teetering towers of one - off music projects .
as for other artists on the infinity cat roster, robert orrall says that, while the agreement they have pertains specifically to jeff, wmg takes an overall interest in the label as a whole, saying
[ they ] really get what [ jeff ] and the label are all about ,
and he' s optimistic they will go on to express that interest “one band at a time. ”
it' s nearly impossible to draw the connections between bands and band members in nashville' s indie - punk underground without starting at, passing through, or ending up somewhere on the infinity cat family tree. thinking it would be fun to literally draw those connections, bob hung a sheet of paper in the hall and asked everyone to help fill it out. both jake and jamin rejected the idea outright .
just to be super clear, infinity cat is still a completely independent record label, distributed by ada for the upcoming jeff the brotherhood release we are the champions. future bro - hood releases will be under the warner / ilg umbrella. as far as the rest of the roster is concerned, we will continue to act independently, and we hope to build on that relationship, one band at a time .
in 2008, soon after jake and jamin put everything they owned in storage and quit their jobs to pursue music full time, the brothers sat down with bob and told him they would be limiting infinity cat releases to young, hard - charging bands like their own. that meant no more albums by monkey bowl, bob' s solo project that had caused a minor stir with a song called
al gore .
for now, infinity cat’s cassette series is still ticking — on may 13, colleen green drops her self - titled 6 - song ep (above). weissbuch already has the first release lined up for the next round of releases, which starts in july. you can subscribe for a year’s worth of releases at a slight discount (without knowing what they’ll be) — with only a few dozen available, those typically sell out quickly .
at 18, ballard is somehow both the label' s youngest employee and its longest tenured non - orrall, though she likens working at infinity cat to being adopted. headed to belmont in the fall to join delgado and bush as a music business major, the nashville native has been at the label for five years, ever since taking an internship on a whim, after a friend who had signed up for it turned out to be too young .
in any event, the impact the label has had on indie rock in nashville, and its reach around the country and the world, is undeniable — a perspective shared by metro councilman at - large ronnie steine, who introduced resolution no. rs2012 - 339, which proclaims :
it is fitting and proper that the metropolitan council recognizes infinity cat recording on its 10th anniversary as one of nashville' s best independent labels .
to celebrate, the i - cat crew is throwing a pair of birthday shows: july 20 at exit / in — with a reunited skyblazer featuring jake, jamin and lindsay powell, aka cake bake betty — and july 21 at the zombie shop .
the deal itself is essentially a joint venture between wmg, jeff and infinity cat, in which the label will share ownership of the band’s masters with warners, or one of its subsidiaries. the band will continue to self - produce their records and retain creative control over their output. “they still wanted to call the shots, ” robert orrall says of sons jake and jamin (drums). “within the structure of this deal, they can do that. ”
the brothers say they don' t hit up their dad for business advice very often .
a lot of dad' s experience, in that world, doesn' t really translate ,
jamin says. likewise, bob doesn' t try to force his viewpoint — not that he could — and infinity cat is no shell corporation for his royalties .
there' s no investment ,
he says .
i' m not putting money into this .
we’re also bringing back our favorite little pop - up shop this year! we’ll be down at local honey [ 2009 belmont blvd ] selling records / t - shirts / posters / tapes / just about anything else you could want. it’s gonna be a full - on party all day and all night. we’ll be selling released from labels like nashville’s dead records, infinity cat recordings, third man records, turbo time records, sturdy girls, cass records, sebastian speaks records, jeffrey drag records, baby don’t records, and a lot more. and we’ll be doing it same way we did last year — on the cheap. something different we’re doing this year is having a couple of day - time shows at the pop - up shop that’ll go down in the back lot at local honey. we’ll post a full inventory of items later this week — but for now let’s take a look at the day shows… .
cosby says he' s lost track of exactly how many infinity cat albums he owns. many are on loan to friends around the world who belong to record - swapping clubs formed online .
apart from the killer music, the artwork is always brilliant ,
he adds .
a lot of the early releases came with handmade / hand - stamped artwork, giving every [ record ] an individual touch — you feel like you' ve got a one - off !
like many of the record labels they admired — often little more than names devised and slapped onto records to lend them some air of importance — infinity cat started as an outlet for jake and jamin to release their own music and their friends' music, with few ambitions beyond that. the purpose at first was to put whatever money they were able to make into their next release. if they liked a band, they' d put out a record if they could afford it .
not every tape in the series has sold out (there’s still plenty of copies of that spanish candles tape for you mike and brent fans), but several have. the demand for the guerilla toss tape was so high that the distributor bought all the copies before they could even sell any directly — the band would would go on to re - press the cassette as an lp and sign with dfa records. listening to weissbuch talk about past releases, he sounds like a mix of rabid fan and proud dad: “and then rozwell [ kid ] … i still can’t believe they let me do that — but they did that thing and now they’re on side one dummy. and music band is signed to infinity cat, daddy issues signed to infinity cat. they have booking agents, they are like doing things as a career, and i’m like…i don’t think that i was responsible for that in any way. i don’t want to take credit for that. but it feels good. ”
in terms of its context in the greater market for cassettes, the few hundred tapes that infinity cat moves each year is clearly a drop in the bucket: beyond the generally low overhead that comes with cassette releases, there’s a whole “cassette culture” and entire labels built around the format. burger records, from fullerton, california, works with slumberland, captured tracks, and hardly art to release cassette versions of their lps. through their weiner imprint, any band can get their tape mastered, pressed, and promoted by burger .
wrgw’s pat geiger was joined by victoria ruiz and joey la neve defrancesco from downtown boys for a phone interview in anticipation of their upcoming show at the black cat. a transcription of the interview is below. the full audio from the interview can be found here .
10. infinity cat for nine years, this tiny nashville imprint has been run by recent breakout rockers jeff the brotherhood - brothers jake and jamin orall - and their dad, robert orall, a major - label producer and songwriter for taylor swift, among others. the label has been home to the first be your own pet releases as well as many nashville garage acts. although jeff recently signed a major - label distribution deal with warner brothers for their new, critically acclaimed record we are the champions, the label remains a diy venture .
it was here that moutenot, who' s worked with the likes of sleater - kinney, paula cole and yo la tengo, served as recording engineer for infinity cat' s 17th title, an ep released in 2005 called damn damn leash — seven minutes and 25 seconds of unhinged punk' n' roll that blew out of the speakers like a tornado with a mile - wide sneer. it introduced nashville, and later the world, to be your own pet, one of the most compelling and polarizing bands ever to call music city home .
you can' t really talk about infinity cat without talking about be your own pet. you also can' t really talk to jake and jamin about be your own pet, a band they' re both happy to leave in the past — or at least their roles in it. jake had already left byop, and the country (for a year abroad in iceland), by the time those first seminal tracks were recorded. but it' s jamin lashing the drums behind jemina pearl' s snarled vibrato and jonas stein' s careening guitar stabs .
champions was jeff the brotherhood' s first album with warner, though you could be forgiven for not noticing that aspect of the release. warner sent out no official press release, and there is no warner logo on the album sleeve. aside from a catalog number on the spine, there is no evidence that champions has anything to do with warner at all. in fact, even as the final details of the deal were being ironed out, infinity cat pre - emptively released champions themselves, and the band took a limited edition clear vinyl version with them on the road .
in 2010, bob left music row, at least in the physical sense. for four years he had written songs, recorded demos and, in his spare time, helped run infinity cat out of the 1010 music offices on music square west. in january 2011, he and the label moved to the house just off chestnut street. the relocation was not a big maneuver in itself, but soon after, as the steady climb of the label' s flagship band began approaching some lofty peaks, things would begin to grow faster than anyone involved had imagined possible when they started .
getting on with their own thing – at least, not yet being beholden to anyone with a commercial interest in their careers – is why the old saw that musicians make music for themselves and if anyone else likes it, that' s a bonus, sounds true here. why wouldn' t it, when these groups are also the founding cores of each other' s audiences, when they play on each other' s records, when they' ve all been in bands together before, when so many of their records have been released on the same label, infinity cat ?
that same year, infinity cat issued another pivotal release: meemaw' s glass elevator ep showcased the feral stylings of jessica mcfarland, the off - kilter, catchy songwriting of daniel pujol and the hangdog goofs of former cowboy dynamite frontboy wez traylor. like be your own pet before them, meemaw was entirely too good for how young its members were. and though they never shot to the heights byop did, they unraveled almost as fast. bob couldn' t believe it when they split up .
you' re like the clash ,
he remembers telling them .
you' re that good — and you haven' t even made your sandinista yet !
and as the sex became jeff became jeff the brotherhood — a hard - touring duo with sold - out shows from brooklyn to l. a. and a major - label record deal that' s just kicking in — fans of the scrappy record label the brothers started out of their parents' basement a decade ago have continued to snap up just about anything they release for that very same reason. jack white is often credited, and rightly so, with helping expand and deepen music city' s reputation. but long before third man opened its doors on seventh avenue, infinity cat had already become the heart through which nashville' s punk - rock arteries pumped their noisy, vibrant blood — helping make the city synonymous with a raw, restless strain of rock' n' roll, and doing it on almost no budget .
over the past decade, the label has released some of nashville' s defining indie - rock records, their roster reading like a who' s who of the rafter - shredding scene that has thrived in basements, small clubs and makeshift venues while also vaulting onto some of nashville' s most storied stages. (after years of playing parties anywhere that could hold a p. a. and a few dozen people, jeff the brotherhood made their debut at the ryman on sept. 15, 2011, opening for the raconteurs .) and while be your own pet didn' t make infinity cat a household name, the band did land some of the first punches against that old music city bugaboo — the notion that nashville is nothing but cowboy hats and country songs — while also laying the groundwork for an updated image of nashville as a place fueled by young, hungry bands and suffused with a fiercely independent spirit .
most days you can find robert ellis orrall here, starting early in the morning and often late into the night. although jake orrall is infinity cat' s de facto ceo — no one has official titles — and makes the final decisions about releases, bob (as most people call him) is the label' s de facto general manager, answering emails, directing the staff, printing out orders and album one - sheets — sometimes all at once, while also fielding a reporter' s questions across a counter that separates the kitchen from the business / songwriting / recording / chilling - out area, shouting over his shoulder as he stocks the fridge with sodas and flavored seltzer. with jake on tour with jeff the brotherhood much of the year, managing the day - to - day operations falls to bob. not that he minds too much :
i love coming to work here every day ,
he says, beaming .
or maybe not out of nowhere, exactly. on delgado' s first day of work, jeff the brotherhood had just finished recording their sixth album, we are the champions .
it was just cool because i got to see that whole thing happen ,
she says. by
that whole thing
delgado means jtb' s signing a deal with warner music group, through which champions is distributed by the conglomerate' s sizable alternative distribution alliance. she also means that thing where the preorder link for champions went live and almost immediately crashed the infinity cat website — which led to that thing where the site finally came back online, but a glitch in the system made it impossible to limit the number of orders, so they ended up selling almost 300 more than they had planned for .
and people can still buy it — it' s really weird ,
delgado says .
we should probably fix that .
a few blocks from greer stadium in the wedgewood - houston neighborhood, along a fairly unremarkable side street, sits a neat eggplant - colored house. a small etched metal sign beside the back door displays the company logo — a simple line drawing of a cat with a figure - eight floating halo - like above its head — but otherwise the low - slung ranch blends right into the neighborhood, a mix of single - family homes and commercial properties that includes nearby gabby' s burgers and fries .
on a recent afternoon, the i - cat house is a hive of activity. piles of promo cds, scraps from recently cut record sleeves and other evidence of hand assembly occupy a table in the kitchen where heavy cream singer jessica mcfarland is hanging out. ian bush, a 20 - year - old intern from appleton, wis. , and a distant relative of sugarland singer kristian bush, has just arrived .
i' ve only been here two weeks, and i haven' t done the same thing twice ,
he says ,
which is pretty sweet .
last – but certainly not least – we’d like to announce that we’ll be releasing a very special 7″ in celebration of the freakin’ weekend. it’s a 4 - way split 7″ of recordings from the last glenn danzig’s house show featuring cy barkley & the way outisders, bad sports, d. watusi, and the wax museums. it sounds pretty brutal and gnarly – but what else would you want from a live house show recording? glenn danzig’s house is a place that we hold very dearly in our hearts and we think a lot of you feel the same way. we wanted to take the time to properly remember it for what it was: a place where you could come see great shows for cheap and directly support the people making the music. we miss it all the time – but such is life – and now we’ll have something to keep glenn danzig’s house alive forever. there will be a limited number of copies packaged in a different sleeve each with their own individual photo print from a show at glenn danzig’s — those will only be available at the pop - up shop. here’s what cy has to say about it… .
on november 11th the members of hippo campus scooted into a back room of the black cat for an interview before their show. they are a new indie - rock band out of st. paul minnesota, in the midst of their south ep tour. with black x’s on their hands, the band is composed of jake luppen, lead vocalist and guitarist, nathan stocker on lead guitar, zach sutton on bass, and whistler allen on drums. the band members attended a performing arts high school in the twin cities, where they found their love of music and founded their up and coming band. since then, they’ve released two eps: the first - “bashful creatures” - came out in february of this year, and the second, called “south”, followed in october. after the sound check, a few brief introductions and a side conversation about scooters and glasses frames the conversation got going .
but the people who paid $ 5 that night, to have a just - recorded debut album by a trio of teens mailed to them whenever and however it was finally manufactured, did so because they believed one thing: whatever the particulars of the finished product, it was going to be good .
how they got to where they are now is a story that could really only happen, at least the way it did, in nashville .
if you' ve ever promised yourself you' ll never grow up, bob orrall is the kind of person you want to not grow up to be. on the wall above a desk that holds an imac, a set of studio monitor speakers and a small bank of audio equipment, there' s a large framed plaque commemorating 3 million copies sold. it' s for taylor swift' s eponymous debut, for which orrall co - produced or co - wrote a total of six songs .
a few feet to the left hangs a bright orange super soaker water gun. bowls of candy, antique toys, musical instruments, paintings, records, magazines and pieces of old cars litter the room, and a daisy red ryder bb gun hangs from a window frame .
i love the possibilities ,
he says .
i love hearing these kids making this great stuff. i feel real lucky .
and dischord, obviously ,
jamin adds from across a glass coffee table .
jamin is the more talkative of the two, though neither is particularly talkative, at least around media types. even offstage, jake cuts an imposing figure, with his broad shoulders protruding assertively from under long locks of hair. while jamin has caught up in height, he still looks every bit the younger brother. when the two interact, often in short, terse phrases, it sometimes seems there must be a telepathic connection filling in the gaps. theirs is a bond strengthened by years of playing music together almost every day. online haters have tried to characterize them as spoiled showbiz kids who never paid their dues, but don' t believe it for a second: in their mid - 20s they' ve already logged a lifetime' s worth of shows — in living rooms, mostly empty clubs, dingy pizzeria basements and most recently, on a barge in the pacific ocean during a surfing competition .
we were listening to a lot of fugazi at that point ,
jamin recalls .
and any punk band that came through town, any show we could go to, we' d buy as many records as we could afford. we' d take them home, look at the labels and order stuff through the mail .
case in point: during a recent break from touring, jake asks jamin about taking some copies of their new single, a split 7 - inch of hole covers with the band hell beach, and making special tour - only sleeves for them. although jamin long ago relinquished his responsibilities —
i realized i don' t want to run a record label ,
he says — he still acts as a sounding board for his brother' s ideas .
yeah, just printed it off on the computer, cut the letters out and xeroxed it .
they' ll almost certainly sell every one, and by making a version of the single that was only available on one tour, they' ve created another necessary acquisition for their rabid fans, who will post about it on
the brohood
or other internet forums. there, aficionados like jeff superfan john cosby might go hunting for a copy, perhaps offering another record variant or piece of band - or label - related minutiae for trade. those limited - edition sleeves with the hand - cut letters, and the differently colored vinyl for various editions of a single, are all part of the label' s quirky appeal for cosby, who lives on a farm with his parents in tattenhall, england — what he calls
a sleepy little village
of fewer than 2, 000 people about 35 miles southeast of liverpool .
i think they' ve done an exceptional job carving their niche ,
millar says .
they' ve got a diehard group of fans that will pick up anything they put out, and it' s not just blind allegiance... it' s good, and they' ve earned the trust of their fan base .
for a label our size, it' s all about being a cool label ,
jake says, offering mexican summer — home to recent tour companions best coast — as one example .
we' ve just never been one of those .
for his part, riddle — who moved to nashville 16 days before jake and jamin collected their first preorders that night at guido' s — doesn' t mince words :
they' re one of the coolest labels in the country ,
he says firmly. then, to drive the point home, he adds :
fuck, man, those are my favorite bands — period .
it' s like hanging out with your family, but better than your regular family ,
halle ballard says of the loose, fun vibe the label has cultivated .
and [ bob ] stocks up the fridge with mini ice cream things .
when i first started here, i' d do like three orders every couple days or something, and the rest of the time i would just hang out and watch bob write songs ,
delgado says .
and all of a sudden i remember i came in one day and there were so many orders, and there was nobody else working at the time so i had to do them all myself. it was crazy. we blew up really fast, pretty much out of nowhere .
the album was done ,
jake recalls matter - of - factly .
things were moving too slowly for us .
it was a gutsy move (or suicidal, depending on your viewpoint) to potentially jeopardize an unusually sweet and artist - friendly deal with one of the world' s biggest label groups. but jake and jamin are no strangers to following their gut. besides, they didn' t need a record deal. they already had one — with themselves .
in the end, everything worked out, and future albums — including the new hypnotic nights, due july 17 (see review on p. 33) — will be released under the warner / independent label group umbrella. the band demanded full creative control, and they got it .
labels have been after them for years ,
riddle says .
but they waited for a deal that made sense .
as someone who' s tracked the band' s progress, riddle admires the approach they' ve taken — not signing to a larger indie, not taking on too many support roles for better - known acts .
if you' re gonna build a big house, you' ve got to build the foundation right ,
riddle says .
they' ve been very diligent and taken the right steps. they are ready to be a big band .
it was a band made up of kids whose parents had served in music row' s trenches, in one capacity or another. but the byop kids weren' t your typical sign - me - up - for - corporate - band - camp types eager to be fitted with whatever haircut was selling best that week .
everyone in that band is so talented, and so smart ,
riddle remembers thinking .
they' re hard - working, unusual in all the best ways — you just knew that whatever happened, they would have interesting careers .
they were destined to blow up, and everyone knew it .
at the time, riddle worked for rough trade, which later released damn damn leash in the u. k. he would eventually put it in the hands of legendary bbc radio 1 dj john peel, who quickly played it on his show, conferring it with his estimable approval. britain' s taste - making music press picked up the drumbeat, and major u. s. publications followed suit .
from that point on, it' s hard to overstate the fervor — both laudatory and hostile — that surrounded this group of preternaturally charismatic teenagers for the short time their flame burned impossibly bright. the band became a beacon for those hoping to awaken interest in nashville' s non - country music scene, and a resentment magnet for those who saw the band as proof of everything wrong with contemporary music' s youth obsession and trend - chasing ways .
then the majors came calling, and it got weird ,
bob orrall recalls. at one point, as label headhunters took turns courting the young band over fancy expense - account dinners, bob saw a familiar face: seymour stein, the a & r; rep who had tried to recruit him to sire records 25 years before .
do you know you' re trying to sign my son ?
he asked, the layers of his life suddenly collapsing around him .
it wasn' t what he signed up for ,
bob says .
riddle remembers watching the teenage band as it buckled under the pressure — including battles with their label about turning down the warped tour, which the band members saw as cheesy but was expected of young, punkish bands trying to make it big. riddle saw byop' s penultimate show at the reading festival in england, where he says he could just feel the band ripping apart at the seams, a memory that still resonates with him .
it is so stressful, and it freaks you out ,
he says .
going from just being a normal kid to being a rock star — and they were — it is a big leap .
be your own pet may have burned up on re - entry, but everyone has gone on to do interesting things. guitarist jonas stein made turbo fruits his main gig, and riddle eventually signed them to serpents and snakes. stein also started the seafaring indie - rock festival the bruise cruise with booking agent michelle cable. jemina pearl and drummer john eatherley teamed up for an album on thurston moore' s ecstatic peace imprint, and pearl now plays in the heavy - blues outfit ultras s / c. nathan vasquez has continued to play with the criminally underappreciated deluxin' and other projects. eventually jamin wound up with a bigger record deal than the one his dad called him crazy for walking away from — though that isn' t the reason he left .
in some ways they were just another young band that couldn' t keep it together, but they were also much more than that. as riddle puts it :
you can still track the influence of that group of kids throughout the whole nashville scene today .
i got kicked off my own label ,
bob says with an amused grin that only a proud parent — and one with a 3 - million - seller plaque on his office wall — could conjure .
like byop (and unlike the clash), meemaw yielded offshoots that continue as productive touring bands today: mcfarland fronts the raved - up punk quartet heavy cream; pujol lends his whip - smart songwriting to the eponymous pujol; traylor cracks wise on bass and vocals with the stones - y party band natural child. both pujol and natural child have since moved on, to omaha' s saddle creek and fullerton, calif.' s burger records, respectively .
we tried to put out too much stuff [ last year ] ,
he says wanly .
we could have been a profitable label .
before he can finish that thought, his phone lights up with a text from richie kirkpatrick, aka ri¢hie, the wily, mustachioed guitarist perhaps best known as the former frontman of ghostfinger, or as the guy who played the guitar parts on jessica lea mayfield' s 2011 album tell me that many critics assumed were dan auerbach. jake looks up at his brother inquisitively.
infinity cat recordings is an independent record label founded in 2002 and based in nashville , tennessee . the label has released recordings from artists including jeff the brotherhood , diarrhea planet , be your own pet , ed schrader 's music beat , and daddy issues . in 2011 , the label was highlighted by british publication the guardian , which wrote " forget the grand ole opry ; there are more thrilling new bands in east nashville than anywhere else on earth [ and ] so many of their records have been released on the same label , infinity cat . " in 2011 , billboard magazine listed infinity cat among the 50 best indie labels in america . 
infinity cat recordings is an independent record label founded in 2002 and based in nashville, tennessee. the label has released recordings from artists including jeff the brotherhood, diarrhea planet, be your own pet, ed schrader's music beat, and daddy issues. in 2011, the label was highlighted by british publication the guardian, which wrote " forget the grand ole opry; there are more thrilling new bands in east nashville than anywhere else on earth [ and ] so many of their records have been released on the same label, infinity cat. " in 2011, billboard magazine listed infinity cat among the 50 best indie labels in america.
infinity cat recordings is an independent record label founded in 2002 and based in nashville, tennessee. the label has released recordings from artists including jeff the brotherhood, diarrhea planet, be your own pet, ed schrader's music beat, and daddy issues. in 2011, the label was highlighted by british publication the guardian, which wrote " forget the grand ole opry; there are more thrilling new bands in east nashville than anywhere else on earth [ and ] so many of their records have been released on the same label, infinity cat. " in 2011, billboard magazine listed infinity cat among the 50 best indie labels in america.