Solo and Side Projects
Sleeping Timmy is the solo project of GTG co-founder, Break-Ups mastermind, and Drinking Mercury bassist Timmy Rodriguez. Pre-dating GTG’s existence Timmy has always been a prolific producer of bedroom recordings (in fact, The Break-Ups began as an outlet for some of these recordings before morphing into a straight-up rock and roll outfit) and in 2010 adopted the moniker Sleeping Timmy to release some of these recordings. The official debut of the Sleeping Timmy project arrived with a version of Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove” on the GTG KISS tribute No More Tomorrow Baby! shortly followed by the digital EP Blue Sky. Compilation contributions and download releases have followed, with albums and EPs available at the Sleeping Timmy bandcamp site.
middleman is the solo project of Drinking Mercury singer/songwriter and everyone’s favorite GTG sideman Michael Boyes. Serving as an outlet for Michael’s hushed, folky compositions, the project debuted at the 2009 edition of GTG Fest, with the companion compilation for that year’s festival featuring the recorded debut of the project. After live performances and various appearances on compilations plans for an album are on the horizon for 2013. Various demos are available at the middleman bandcamp site.
Re-Evolution is a Devo tribute band featuring The Hat Madder’s Isaac Vander Schuur, Nick Merz, and Christian Urrabazzo joined with Frank and Earnest’s Ben Hassenger and Plurals’ Tommy McCord. The band was formed to promote the Explosions Devo tribute album, and they will play your spud-filled birthday party.
Every year around “holiday time” GTG partners up with their pals in Bermuda Mohawk Productions to release a holiday-themed album called Bermuda Snowhawk. These albums are an insane grab bag featuring everything from sincere new songs from established bands to novelty tunes from one-off side projects, with results ranging from fascinating and enjoyable to crass and unlistenable. Some of the side projects formed for these compilations have become full-time bands (Frank and Earnest), some of the songs penned by these bands have become staples of the respective band’s catalogs (Cavalcade, Frank and Earnest, Josh David and the Dream Jeans, The Plurals), and some of the bands that debut on these compilations haunt us for the rest of our lives (Young Dan Tucker). Either way, the results are always interesting, and the compilations are always free, so no one’s really getting hurt too badly. Download them here.
One of the aforementioned “Snowhawk” to real-world offenders, The Need You Nows features Ben Hassenger, Tommy Plural, and Hattie Plural playing dumb, catchy, pop-punk that they probably think is more clever than it is. They rarely play, don’t rehearse and only play house shows, but people usually say it’s pretty fun. They released a 7 song EP called Joey Lawrence Pubic Domain for GTG Fest 2012 that you can download for a pay what you want price (proceeds going to put out more sweet GTG releases!) at bandcamp.
ALUMNI
Small Houses is a musical project masterminded by singer-guitarist-songwriter Jeremy Quentin that began in the summer of 2009 as the latest vehicle for Quentin’s songs. Originally hailing from Michigan, Quentin led the acclaimed indie-folk group Head and Toe for several records and live performances around Michigan and the midwest before moving to Boston to study at Berklee School of Music in the fall of 2008. With the debut of Small Houses Quentin has essentially lived on the road, touring around the country with his ever expanding catalog of songs, including the GTG released Our Dusking Sound and North. Currently based in Philadelphia, Small Houses continues to perform and release music, with the latest being the Yer Birds Records release Exactly Where You Wanted To Be.
Links:
Facebook Page
Official Website
GTG Artist Page
Josh David and the Dream Jeans were an excellent experimental hardcore punk band from Lansing, Michigan that was active from July 2009 to March 2012. Led by vocalist Josh David, Nich Richard played guitar, Michael Boyes played bass, and Christian Urrabazo played drums (replacing founding member Matt Norton in July 2010). Together these guys played dozens of memorable shows, did a couple midwest tours, released the full-length CD Can You Believe We Landed on the Moon? in 2011, and contributed some choice compilation cuts on Bermuda Mohawk Productions, ITAV Records, and Silver Maple Kill Records. They are sorely missed. Check out their old GTG page here as well as an essay on the history of the band here.
Fade to Black is a staple of the Lansing, MI music scene with roots dating back to 1990. After releasing two albums in the 90s the band took a break and re-emerged on GTG Records with the 2010 album Black is Back and 2011′s Live in Lansing. The band mixes classic pop songwriting with punk and early alternative rock influences and continues to record and perform with a new album on Silver Maple Kill Records slated to appear in 2012.
Links:
Reverb Nation site
Facebook page
The Guest Stars is an infectious powerpop band in Lansing, MI who dropped the first pressing of their debut CD The High Life on GTG Records in 2010. Led by dual singer/songwriters Roy Kirby and Joe Barshaw, the band also features bassist Chris Davis (a position previously held by GTG lifers Michael Boyes and Loren Pudvay) and drummer Christain Urrabazzo who also holds down the drum kit in The Hat Madder and Josh David and the Dream Jeans (as well as stints in a slew of great bands including Failures’ Union, Cavalcade, and the Playback). The band is set to release their follow-up album, produced by Isaac Vander Schuur, in the near future.
Links:
Facebook page
A Paschal Circus is an on and off project masterminded by singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer Chris Sommerfeldt. The band plays a disorienting brand of experimental rock, featured on the 2008 GTG released Oh Baby Kick the Dead Horse. Sommerfeldt is also a mastering engineer, with his credits including Frank and Earnest’s Old Francis and The Break-Ups’ Skulls and Stuff.
Jason Alarm was a great young band that probably hated getting called a great young band after awhile. They started as a ska-punk band before getting turned on to anthemic power metal and progressive rock, all the while retaining a distintive synth-heavy sound. Their 2009 debut EP Engage was a co-release by BMP and GTG and can still be downloaded with the rest of their (sadly brief) catalog at the Jason Alarm bandcamp. The band ended in the summer of 2011 with leader Matt Waterman forming the band Decades and other members forming the more hardcore influenced Call It Quits.
Edible Intention was a chaotic noise-rock trio from Lansing, Michigan that was active in 2009 and 2010, most infamous for being the de facto “house band” for DIY venue basement414 in the summer of 2009. Their posthumous self-titled album was co-released by GTG and Silver Maple Kill Record in August 2011.
Edible Intention Soundcloud
Silver Maple Kill Bandcamp page
MK Ultra Culkin was a self-described “post-hardcore punk revival” band that dished out intense and disorienting music for several years in the midwest from about 2005-2010. Their 2009 album Sexual Exhiliration at a Bargain Price was the debut release on drummer Todd Karenin’s Silver Maple Kill Records label, with their follow-up being the SMK and GTG co-released Homeland Insecurity EP in 2010. The band called it a day towards the end of 2010, with Karenin and bassist Nick Merz (also of the Hat Madder) forming the heavy blues band the Jackpine Snag in 2011.
Silver Maple Kill Bandcamp page
Too Much Too Fast Too Soon was a Trenton, NJ based punk rock band whose sole release is the 2009 GTG EP Fresh N Tight. Formed out of the ashes of east coast punk legends The Rape Babies by singer Taff, guitarist Dim, and drummer Goggles, TMTFTS played an exhilirating mix of melodic hardcore punk and bluesy hard rock. After the band’s all too brief existence Dim and Goggles went on to join drunken pop-punk ensemble Honah Lee.
Too Much Too Fast Too Soon MySpace (listen to Fresh N Tight)
Gates of Steel was a short-lived hardcore band from Lansing, MI featuring Scott Bell on vocals, Ben Jenson on guitar, Ryan Horky on bass, and Tim Sever on drums. The band recorded contributions to a few compilations (including GTG Fest 2009, Explosions, and No More Tomorrow Baby) as well as a yet-to-be-released album before calling it a day in 2010. Horky (who also plays drums in Frank and Earnest and the Cartridge Family) and Jenson (who also plays guitar in Fisherking) formed the grindcore band American Gothic after the end of Gates of Steel, while Sever continues to play drums in metal band Genocya and Bell promotes shows with Bermuda Mohawk Productions and tour manages bands that he’d love to tell you about.
Head and Toe was one of the early GTG bands and essentially the precursor to Jeremy Quentin’s Small Houses. Led by Quentin on vocals and guitar and violinist Brett McDowell, Head and Toe played a variety of indie-folk styles and released 4 CDs with GTG (2007′s Interstate 80, 2008′s Let the Air In and City of Leaves, and 2009′s posthumous GTG Sessions split) before disbanding in the fall of 2008. Following the demise of the group Quentin formed Small Houses and McDowell has become a solo artist, with both releasing new albums in 2011.
The Knights Without was a sickeningly infectious pop-rock band from Lake Odessa, MI that featured anthemic vocals, duel lead guitars, and sugary melodies. Led by singer/guitarist Josh Hanger and guitarist Loren Pudvay (now of the Hunky Newcomers) the band also later included Break-Ups members Timmy Rodriguez, Frankie Knoch, and Hattie Danby. The band released the acoustic Otter EP on GTG in 2007 and disbanded shortly before the completion of the 2008 GTG album Putting A Positive Spin on a Train Wreck. Although the album was completed posthumously, the band never played again and their music was sadly only heard by a precious few. Download the album here.
My Apology was one of the original GTG bands (along with The Plurals and Drinking Mercury) and was formed after the 2004 break-up of a pop-punk band called 2 Minute Nothing that featured singer/bassist/songwriter Seth Higbee and (at different times) guitarists Timmy Rodriguez and Tommy McCord. Seth asked Timmy to start a new band with him in 2005 and they were quickly joined by Tommy on guitar and Hattie Danby on drums. The band played its brand of emo-influenced pop-rock around Michigan throughout 2005, did a summer midwest tour with The Plurals, and released the EP Dream in Past Tense in the summer of 2005. After failed sessions to record an album in late 2005 the band essentially dissolved with Timmy forming The Break-Ups with Tommy and Hattie. The band never officially disbanded though and still plays the occasional live show – and the GTG006 catalog number is still reserved for their album.
Other artists that have released recordings through GTG:
Calliope – compilation tracks on Explosions, The Metaphorical Steven and Secret Identities
the Cartridge Family – compilation tracks on Situations at Hand, No More Tomorrow Baby, Explosions, and the various Snowhawks
Cavalcade – compilation tracks on Secret Identities, No More Tomorrow Baby, Explosions, and the various Snowhawks
Johnny Unicorn – compilation tracks on Explosions, GTG Fest 2009, and Snowhawks 2008 and 2009
American Gothic – compilation track on Secret Identities
Fields of Industry – compilation track on Secret Identities
Dr. Device – compilation track on Explosions
BerT – compilation track on Explosions and Snowhawk 2011
Lord Vapid – compilation track on Explosions
Blue Jello – compilation track on Explosions
Public Pubes – compilation track on Explosions
Barnswallow – compilation track on Explosions
Humanzee – compilation track on Explosions
Hordes – compilation track on Explosions
Jessi Spreitzer – compilation track on GTG Fest 2009
Really Cinematic – compilation tracks on Snowhawk 2008 and GTG Fest 2009
Luke Schmidt (of Firebrands of the Revolution) – compilation track on Situations at Hand
Tyler Bradley – compilation track on Situations at Hand
Deep Sea Creatures – compilation track on Situations at Hand
The Concept – compilation track onSituations at Hand
My Fearless Leader- compilation track on Situations at Hand
Hattie (of The Plurals) – limited edition solo EP Waiting in 2006
Josh Hanger (of the Knights Without) – limited edition solo EP Kill For Peace in 2006
