2009 was a banner year for the label. It was our 10th anniversary
after all! And to cap off the year
I wanted to make something special.
I started thinking about a project that I could make myself, something
that would be like a condensed version of this crazy project that I’m doing all
this year.
The idea was to do a mixtape of
some kind, something from nearly everything I had released to that point, all
my favorite songs. I wasn’t really
concerned with making a ‘sampler’, and only choosing the singles. I wanted to take what my favorite songs
were (it was tough to keep it to under 30 tracks), and then also add a bunch of
bonus, unreleased stuff (of which I had a considerable amount of). To top it off, the CD (it wasn’t a tape
after all because tapes suck) came with a zine I made to go with the
compilation that had a little blurb about each band, old zine excerpts, flyers,
plenty of pictures, and a lot of stuff that is kind of like a physical version
of what I am doing with these ‘making of’ pieces.
The whole thing was once again put
together on the cheap- using a local replication service to make the CDs, and
the unwatchful eye of the local Office Max to ensure that their employees did
not give a rat’s ass about me walking out of the place with hundreds of unpaid
copies. I printed the covers on a
heavy stock paper, and folded over the back to make a pocket for the CD while
the zine was stapled into the rest of it.
I cut everything to size myself, which is rather obvious because a lot of
them look far from perfect.
But that’s kind of always the way I
rolled. I’m fully aware that DIY
should not be an excuse to make things look like shit. But I totally believe in the
spontaneity of it and taking a stab at things yourself, and that’s kind of what
I did. So it didn’t look perfect,
but it was a fun project to take on.
After picking out tracks from the
records I had actually released I finally found a home for a number of bonus
tracks that had been otherwise unavailable, including a Playing Enemy song that
they never used before splitting up, a couple Achilles tracks that had never
been used before (one of which was a Nirvana cover with the theme song from
Beverley Hills 90210 inserted in the middle for some reason), an Oak and Bone
song that was a download-only track from their first 7”, and an unused The Helm
song from their debut 7”. I had
also known about some Spark Lights the Friction- the first actual band I
released a record for- material that was lost to the ages. Their only full length- “L’Homme
Robotik”, released by Trustkill Records- was actually recorded twice. The first time the band was unhappy
with how it came out and they then went down to Inner Ear in Washington, DC to
re-record the whole album.
However, this original recording just sat on 2” tape, never having been
fully mixed and it contained not only what became their full length, but also a
cover song. The band loaned it out
to me, I took it over to the only guy in town with analog equipment that could
transfer the 2” tape to digital and then had our man Jocko at Moresound mix and
master it. They ended up doing a
wild cover of “Fortunate Son” that was worth the hassle to finally get it out
on some format.
I also made coffee mugs that bore
the image of the burning cop car from the cover of this compilation. That was not an official catalog
release. It was a coffee mug. And it was big. I thought lots of coffee was always a
good way to enjoy bands that I put out records for and these mugs were
certainly large. So that was a
little bonus item. They were a
pain in the ass to create because not only are they really delicate to ship,
but the stupid company that made them apparently didn’t know what an e-mail
signature was and when I sent them the image to put on the mug they also
included my e-mail signature, which was my name, address, phone number, and a
list of upcoming releases that showed up under the image. How stupid is that? They begrudgingly agreed to re-print
them, correctly this time. And I
also had about 5 dozen bogus mugs that I had no idea what to do with. I guess you could still put coffee in
them, but it just wasn’t the same.
The 10 year anniversary show
To top off the year, aside from
making mugs, a compilation, releasing 6 records, all while unemployed and going
heavily into debt, I decided a 10 year anniversary show was in order. I contacted just about every active
(and some non-active) bands on the roster and put together a show for whichever
of them could make it. The Prize
Country LP had just come out and they were going on a nationwide tour in
support of it so I decided to do the show based around their touring schedule
since they were coming from farthest away. Ed Gein were pulled out of semi-retirement to headline,
while my old band No Idols did a ‘final’ show since we had rather abruptly
ended as a band a couple years before that. Night Owls, End Of a Year, and Oak and Bone rounded out the
bill. The first 50 people through
the door got a numbered copy of the compilation just for showing up.
There was an after show as well,
which featured my other band Mistletoe, Prize Country again, and the band they
were on tour with- Git Some (ex-Planes Mistaken For Stars). I tell ya- playing two sets in a day
with different bands, while running both shows, putting together this compilation,
and making sure everything ran smoothly was kind of exhausting.
10 year anniversary show after show. A show followed by a show.
But it was all a fun way to
celebrate that kept me very active (and very stressed) the whole year. When I compare it to what has been
happening for this 20 year anniversary it’s certainly a lot less stressful (I
am employed so paying for records I plan to release is not as much of an
issue), but a bit removed (I’m 3000 miles away from where my home base
was). The label doesn’t have as
much ‘local connection’ as it once did so getting bands together to buddy up,
tour together, or just play a show or two together doesn’t happen as much. The bands I’ve done records for are
spread out all over the place- Seattle, Philly, Alabama, England. And even some of the bands I have
always worked with for years have members scattered across the country.
Doing this comp was quite literally
a turning point for the label.
Many of the bands that formed the foundations of Hex Records were either
finished, put on hold, or were forming new groups. New crops of kids were starting bands and some of them came
into the fold eventually. After
2009 I took a little time off to pay down some debt and didn’t release anything
for the next year pretty much. Oh,
and I started working a job again, so I kind of thought about focusing on that
for a bit. It had been a very busy
year and as a one-man operation, as this has pretty much always been, I
definitely needed a little rest.
At this point, the zine portion of this comp is sold out. There was an overrun of the CDs so I still have those and basically any order for anything from the store from now until they run out will come with the CD comp and a new, exceptionally more DIY, cover to go with it. It's not as elaborate, but it's still cool. Also, if you just want those digital tracks you can get them through the bandcamp, all 27 tracks, for just $3 for the next week.
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