This week’s Guardian features a trio of stories devoted to the state and meaning of music labels today. In compiling my piece, I contacted a number of labels who put out music I love, and asked them five questions. Below, find answers and jokes from Mike Schulman, head of the Bay Area indie pop mainstay Slumberland Records, and David Thrussell of Omni Recording Corporation, a reissue endeavor that sports a handsome pic of silver fox incarnate Lorne Greene on its homepage. I’ve long loved the trend-defying Slumberland and am happy to see it riding high thanks to acclaimed albums by Crystal Stilts and Pains of Being Pure at Heart (whose “Young Adult Friction” is in the running for my favorite song of 2009). As for Omni, it has brought the underrated electronic pioneer Bruce Haack to new generations of listeners, put out a drop dead gorgeous Anita Carter collection, and recently released the compellingly dodgy compilation Plantation Gold.
SFBG What meaning do you think a label has today?
MIKE SCHULMAN, SLUMBERLAND RECORDS Well, it depends on the sector of music. For mainstream music, it’s clear that labels are struggling as artists seek alternate revenue streams, and as sales of music itself continue to dwindle. For non-mainstream music, though, I think labels are as important as ever. With the increasing fragmentation and atomization of genres/scenes/markets, consumers rely on labels as a curatorial enterprise, a shorthand signifier for what they’re into and a useful tool to help sort through the mountain of new music.
DAVID THRUSSELL, OMNI RECORDING Please forgive me, I’m not trying to be contrary, but I just don’t care that much about record labels. They (ourselves included!) are just a means to an end. The end being the music.
At Omni, we are a bit nutty about fine but dramatically under-appreciated music. There is so much great music buried and/or hidden in the past, why bother with the present? It’s more fun to lift forgotten old rocks and see what slithers and slides underneath than bother with this week’s parade of the latest empty-headed posers.The cult of “new” always being best is a dangerous fallacy.
Cover of debut album by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, on Slumberland Records
Cover of The Electric Lucifer by Bruce Haack, reissued by Omni Recording Corporation
SFBG What are your favorite labels for newer artists, and your favorites for reissues?
SLUMBERLAND For new stuff: Mojuba, Siltbreeze, Perlon, Hyperdub, Sound Signature, In The Red. For reissues: Honest Jons, Soundway, Soul Jazz, Pressure Sounds.
OMNI I’ve pretty much given up on contemporary music. I generally find it shallow and uninteresting (with the odd exception). Am I sounding grumpy today? Sorry.
I do have a lot of enthusiasm for quite a few re-issue labels. They include: Digitmovies, an Italian label releasing top-shelf Italian film scores from the 1960s-1970s — generally “exploitation” soundtracks, which as everybody knows, are the best; Avanz, a Japanese label filling a similar niche; Pet Records, which released the essential Soft Sounds For Gentle People series; Trunk Records, purveyor of strange artifacts from the back of Auntie’s closet — that’s how we like it.