SYNESTHESIA'S SESSION NOTES MAY 2019: SAVAGE RECORDS

FROM THE DJ'S STUDIO DESK:
Near the conclusion of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as well as the Stephen Frears directed, John Cusack starring film version, our wayward leading protagonist, the perpetually restless and admittedly miserable record store owner Rob is questioned by his girlfriend Laura about ideas of what he would do with his life if his choices and opportunities were unlimited. He hedges his responses until she reveals a list that he made himself some time in the past on which he compiled his choices with his number #1 choice being the following: starting and owning a record label, which he eventually does begin and thus names "Top Five Records," a nod to the infinite categorization tactic he has applied to not only his favorite music, but to essentially all areas of his life,  most notably, his romantic life.

That sequence, among so many within that story, hit home with me and for the purposes of this blogsite, I am happy to now reveal one of those similarities with you: the idea of starting and owning my own record label.

Dear readers and listeners, I am not a man of considerable means and I am certainly, and firmly,  grounded in reality. I do not have the funds or expenses to even begin such a life altering project. This idea of having my own record label is a pipe dream that will undoubtedly remain as as such. But that said, it is indeed a fun pipe dream to have and it is one that in uncomplicated by the realities of the music business as I really wish to just submerge myself in the romance of the music business whenever I think of this imaginary label.

At this time, and regarding the mythical label, I am thinking of the musicians and artists that populate the Madison, WI music community, the very figures that I have become so deeply fond of as artists and as people over these last several years. So often, I have housed the fantasy of having a physical space and place where all of these people would be able to have a home base at which to write, record, and produce without interference from myself, and without expense to them. They could be as creatively free and fearless as they wished to be and I would just be happy to have that environment for them.

To that end, when it came time to release new material the physical place would also be the environment of the record label. And the record label's name, you ask. Of course and why not? I would call this imaginary venture...

Savage Records.

I have been thinking of this idea more and more recently because as I regard these musicians and their activities, I could not be prouder of them as they are all in stages of either renewal, re-structuring or even some sense of ascension.

DISQ
(L-R: Logan Severson, Raina Bock, Shannon Connor, Isaac De Broux-Slone and Brendan Manley)

The very end of 2018 found Post Social releasing a new two track digital single while January 2019 saw the release of a new two track single from Disq, as released on vinyl by Saddle Creek records--incidentally two releases I have yet to write about.

Two of Post Social's lineup--singer/songwriter/guitarist Shannon Connor and songwriter/drummer Brendan Manley-- have joined forces Disq's singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Isaac De Broux-Slone and songwriter/bassist Raina Bock as auxiliary members for live shows. This union, which also features Logan Severson, who is also readying his own project known as Lameena, has already soared through triumphant performances at this year's SXSW Festival in Austin, TX and as I write, they are reportedly in Los Angeles recording the second official Disq album and preparing for a late Spring tour!

SLOW PULP

(L-R: Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Henry Stoehr and Teddy Matthews at the bottom)

Slow Pulp, the collective of Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Teddy Matthews and Henry Stoehr, relocated from Madison to Chicago, IL last year and they too have returned from celebratory performances at SXSW and are about a week and a half away from the release of their next EP entitled "Big Day" plus the end of the month start of their next tour.

WOOD CHICKENS
(L-R: Griff Chickens, Alex Wiley Coyote and Justin J. Johnson)

More behind the scenes, I have been privvy to works in progress by Anna Wang, Skyline Sounds and Squarewave.  

Singer/songwriter/bassist Abby Sherman of Trophy Dad and her own project Addison Christmas has excitedly informed me that work has finally begun on her own new recordings (with assistance by De Broux-Slone). Singer/songwriter/bassist/guitarist Alivia Kleinfeldt is prepping material to be recorded for the very first full length Dash Hounds album. And Trent Prall's alter ego of Kainalu is just this close to releasing a full length album this June.

Even further, I have somehow made an appearance upon a recording as shockingly, my own laughter was used as a sample upon a recent track by Wood Chickens, who also released a new album in late 2018, produced by Madison music luminary Bobby Hussy, himself the bandleader of The Hussy and Cave Curse.

As I regard all of these bands and musicians, I remain awed by their sense of community, as support for each other is free flowing. In my role as a DJ and having an avenue to support them on the radio, I am certainly going to keep trying to have them join me on-air for as long as I am able to have them as in-studio guests. But who knows, some of them may soon be unreachable due to further success. A possibility to be sure but you know, it would be more than worth it to see these individuals grab that brass ring for I am cheering all of them onwards and upwards from my vantage point.

Savage Records...sigh...I enjoy the sound of that for so many reasons, partially because it is yet another one of my musically themed hopes and dreams, regardless of how out of reach it actually is. Yet, with this one, inside of it is the love and excitement I hold for all of these musicians and the grander hopes and dreams I carry for all of them as they have all proven themselves to me, as artists and as good, genuine human beings.

If I had a magic wand, I would make Savage Records a reality for all of them and I could get their music out into the world so it could be as widely heard as far as possible...

...and their music would always be designed to be PLAYED LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!