This is a great moment of DIY record label community – we’re releasing the 7-inch with our pals in Silver Maple Kill Records (our first official co-release with them in more than a decade!), the band consists of friends from many of our extended family projects like Scary Women, Jackpine Snag, Hat Madder, etc, and Jeremy Porter himself produced the songs with engineering assistance by Gabe from the Tucos. Releases like this are what it’s all about – and the music itself is a compelling blend of moody alternative rock with rich vocal harmonies and engaging instrumental arrangements.
Jeremy Porter and The Tucos Shows: 4/14 @ Green Lantern (Lexington, KY) 4/15 @ The Loud (Huntington, WV) 4/16 @ Taffy’s (Eaton, OH) 4/19 @ PJ’s Lager House (Detroit, MI)
The Wild Honey Collective Shows: 4/16 @ LowellArts (Lowell, MI) 4/21 @ Hop River Brewing (Ft Wayne, IN) 4/22 @ Hotel Music Fest (Conneaut Lake, PA) 4/23 @ Stoopfest (Lansing, MI)
4/23 2 PM show @ The Record Lounge/Record Store Day (Lansing, MI) 4/28 Acoustic @ Beards Brewery (Petoskey, MI) 4/29 @ The Workshop Brewing Company (Traverse City, MI) 4/30 @ Short’s Brewing Company (Bellaire, MI)
Those two shows are part of the Capital City Film Festival 2022, which includes a series of six shows at The Avenue featuring artists like Chirp, NWRH, Ozay Moore, James Gardin, Lipstick Jodi, Mark Lavengood, Jen Sygit and more from 4/7-4/16. Read about the fest in general here and check out their whole schedule of movies and music here.
THEN…
4/22 – Harborcoat @ Dogwood Center (Fremont, MI)
4/22 & 4/23 – STOOPFEST(Lansing) feat Screaming Females, Sidney Gish, Frontier Ruckus and many, many more! (Including Cavalcade, Wild Honey and A Rueful Nosie)
4/29 – GTG House Show w/ Mistic Mountian, Two Houses, Foxgrave (Lansing)
4/30 – Narc Out The Reds, A Rueful Noise @ The Avenue
Does that cover it?? Lots of shows! Great stuff. As always, folks are in the studio and GTG Family labelPhonophore Records just released a tribute to Guided By Voicesfeaturing brand new recordings from The Stick Arounds, The Plurals, Jeremy Porter and The Tucos, Harborcoat, Isaac Vander Schuur, The Wild Honey Collective, Gumsmack, A Rueful Noise, The Soods, No Skull, Cutlass Supreme and many more… 23 tracks!
We’re very excited to be hosting This Must Be The Place: Quality Hits From Lansing, a new 24 track compilation of Lansing-area artists performing some of their favorite covers, a project that was spearheaded by acclaimed music writer Rich Tupica (of the definitive Big Star book There Was A Light fame). Lots of old friends here! It’s a little glimpse into what us creative types have been up to with a year of no shows. From the GTG family we’ve got The Plurals, Cavalcade, The Wild Honey Collective, RK Andrews (No Skull/Red Teeth), Counterpunchers (members of Narc Out The Reds), The Stick Arounds, Isaac Richmond Vander Schuur (The Hat Madder), Jennifer Toms (Scary Women), and Disappointed Dad, plus lots of old friends throughout like Crystal Drive, Frontier Ruckus, Dylan Rogers, Rodeo Boys, Nonbinary, La La Delivery and plenty more! 24 tracks! Free download!
Here’s what Rich had to say about the project:
“This Must Be the Place: Quality Hits from Lansing is a totally free download of Lansing, Michigan bands performing select songs by artists they love. This is meant to serve as a fun stop-gap between now and the (eventual) return of live shows. So, please: Listen. Download. Repeat. There’s a wide range of covers here because each band/artist chose whichever song they wanted for this collection. The reason? Every band has a good cover in them—perhaps one they’ve always wanted to tackle, but never had a proper reason to. So, the “art of the cover” was fully realized here. With no limitations, it left the tracklist up to them and it made for a bizarre, yet somehow cohesive blend of genres.
Aside from a long roster of area fixtures Like Frontier Ruckus, Cavalcade, Rodeo Boys, The Plurals, Wally Pleasant (and many more!), there’s also new solo tracks and fresh side projects featured here from Lansing vets: RK Andrews (of No Skull, Red Teeth), Jennifer Toms (of Scary Women), Counterpunchers (members of Narc Out the Reds), Dylan Rogers (L.U.V.S), Isaac Richmond Vander Schuur (The Hat Madder), Seth + Modern Sadness (features Seth Rentfrow of Way to Fall, Kyle Daniel), Myron James (Edible Intention), and The Wild Honey Collective (a new GTG super group). Scroll through the selection, and you’ll see plenty of familiar names. Enjoy!”
Holy smokes, has it been a year?!?? Just over a year ago as the stay-at-home order was issued in Michigan we started doing daily videos of GTG family and friends in quarantine. Weird times, but the solidarity experienced was a pretty awesome thing to take in, though we’re not quite ready to start getting pandemic nostalgia. Here’s a playlist of Staying Home With GTG Records from spring 2020, and there are a few more on the GTG facebook that never got uploaded to youtube. Glad we’re all still here!
Hey! A new thing! Looks like we’ve finally been in this pandemic long enough that some of our restless, old, show-playin’ GTG hearts are adapting to the times.
Best Friends Club is a live-streaming, live venue substitute curated by Tommy Plural, Raymond Strife, Jim Graz, & Tim Hoh.
You must join the group to join in the fun. In an effort to bring you “live music”, all performances will be streamed live and taken down within 24 hours of original broadcast. “Doors” will open 30 minutes before the music and we encourage you to engage, socialize, and support in the group and on the live-stream feeds.
These events will be free to all, but support is heavily suggested via tipping and online merch sales. We encourage you to share this group with friends and help us create a unique built-in-scene for performers and all friends of music.
This is not a space to advertise or share links. This is a space to enjoy and support “live music” in the era of no shows, and is intended to be treated like a live venue.
Our first show is this Thursday, July 1, hosted by GTG Records, featuring Nicholas Weltschmerz, Tim Hoh, and the official debut of The Wild Honey Collective, a new more folk-oriented project-kinda-sorta-Drinking-Mercury-offshoot from Tommy Plural, Timmy Rodriguez, and Danielle Gyger.
All inquiries should be directed to bestfriendsclubinfo@gmail.com
Harborcoat, the latest project from Matthew Carlson (The Stick Arounds, Pantones, et al) will be releasing their debut album this fall and are having a CD release party at The Avenue Cafe on August 24! The debut album, Brutal Gravity, is a 12 song “exploration [of] the quiet desperation, darkness, and inertia that can lie underneath the veneer of the oft-romanticized life in small-town/rural America” and features contributions from, among others, Carlson’s Stick Arounds bandmates and The Hat Madder’s Isaac Vander Schuur. Isaac’s mitts are actually all over this record as he engineered and produced it and you can feel a little bit of that Hat Madder grime throughout, which is welcome to the ears while the Hat Madder are on hiatus. In addition to scratching all kinds of GTG friend itches, the record basks nicely in the tradition of REM, Big Star, Guided By Voices, et al. Basically, it’s another Midwest-weirdo-pop classic from GTG! Check out the video for lead track “Missing On The 4th of July” below:
Get your CDs early at the album release show and stay tuned to the band’s socials for info on both the wider release AND a limited edition vinyl release. GTG124!
Cavalcade – Sonic Euthanasia. A sludgy masterpiece from our favorite experimental metal friends.
The Plurals – Mumblebee. Volume one of GTG noisy-poppy-ceiling-punchers’ “BEES” album series!
Robot (Re)pair – End Transmissions. Wry, catchy, spicy garagey pop-punk from our lovely Arizonan artificial “intelligent” pals.
Jeremy Porter – 1987. The best Detroit powerpopper in the land gets his acoustic side out there for all to bask in.
For The Record Showcase Volume 1. Both a celebration of Sleeping Timmy & Ryne Clarke’s radio show and a new compilation with tons of new and previously unreleased music from Michigan and beyond.
Out now! A new compilation showcasing the artists that have appeared on Sleeping Timmy and Ryne Clarke’s For The Record Radio Show in the last year. 20 songs, including new music by Blaine and His Keyboard, The Hat Madder, Sleeping Timmy, and Tommy Plural, plus tracks from old friends Elroy Meltzer, Bet On Rats, When Particles Collide, The Quirk, The Sailor Kicks, The Ryne Experience, and more! Lots of great talent and it’s all a free download! Check it out!
October was wild, bringing the new releases by Extra Arms, The Stick Arounds, and Blaine and His Keyboard into the world. And now there’s some great shows this month! We’ve already had a couple bangers from The Plurals, Extra Arms, Small Parks, and The Tucos, but let’s not let my lazy web-updating self drop the ball on the rest of ’em!
11/15 – Blaine and His Keyboard @ Mac’s Bar (Lansing, MI) w/ Marc Rebillet
11/16 – Tommy Plural @ The Avenue Cafe (Lansing) w/ Invisible Cartoons
11/17 – Bong Mountain @ Sleeping Village (Chicago, IL) w/ Typesetter
11/18 – GTG House Show (Lansing) w/ Mistic Mountian and Third Twin Sister
11/21 – The Hat Madder @ Mac’s Bar (Lansing) 10 Year Anniversary Party!
11/30 – Jeremy Porter and the Tucos @ Village Idiot (Maumee, OH)
11/30 – Sleeping Timmy @ Tip Top Deluxe (Grand Rapids, MI)
12/1 – Jeremy Porter and the Tucos @ PJ’s Lager House (Detroit, MI) 7-inch Release Party!
Yep, you read that right, a new 7-inch from Jeremy Porter and the Tucos to round off a great year of releases! Wow!
8:00 Mistic Mountian
8:30 The Stick Arounds
9:00 Fire It’s Sirius
9:30 Crystal Drive
10:00 Good Luck Tsunami
10:30 The Hat Madder
11:00 Extra Arms
11:30 minihorse
12:00 Sleeping Timmy
12:30 City Mouse
1:00 GTG On Shuffle Wild Surprise Party!
SAT SEPTEMBER 8 @ Mac’s
Doors 1 PM
2:00 Log Lady
2:45 No Skull
3:30 Tart
4:15 Scary Women
5:00 The Quirk
5:45 Drinking Mercury
6:30 Whoopi Goldblum
SAT SEPTEMBER 8 @ Avenue
Doors 7 PM
8:00 Disappointed Dad
8:30 Nonbinary
9:00 Hemingers
9:30 Raymond Strife x iLL Omega
10:00 Erotic Novels
10:30 Sexy Toxins
11:00 Lipstick Jodi
11:30 The Jackpine Snag
12:00 Pissed
12:30 The Plurals
1:00 Etta
GTG RECORDS 