The debut album from Harborcoat is officially out today! Check it out below, and make sure to put GTG Fest on your calendars – Oct 11, 12, and 13, cuz that’s your next chance to see this group live. Let the GTG autumn begin!
Posted in Album, Harborcoat
Tagged Alternative, Best Album of 2019, Brutal Gravity, DIY, Harborcoat, Lansing, Powerpop
Halfway through the year, this is what we’ve got:
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.
Plenty more to come in the second half of 2019!
Posted in Album, Blaine and His Keyboard, Cavalcade, For The Record, GTG Records, Jeremy Porter and The Tucos, Robot Repair, Sleeping Timmy, The Hat Madder, The Plurals, Tommy Plural
Tagged 2019, DIY, Fun, Grand Rapids, Lansing, party, Punk, Radio, rant, recap, Thanks
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!
Posted in Blaine and His Keyboard, For The Record, GTG Records, Sleeping Timmy, The Hat Madder, The Plurals, Tommy Plural
Tagged Alternative, DIY, Etc, For The Record, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Lowell, Michigan, Punk
Just a friendly reminder that our vinyl releases are distributed worldwide by Recess Ops. You can often find our stuff there for a great price and everyone reading this should send the page to the buyer at their local record store. Recess Ops was started by lifelong independent music champion Todd Congelliere (Toys That Kill, FYP, Recess Records, etc etc) and we’re very proud to be partners with them. Many other great labels like Dirt Cult, It’s Alive, Rad Girlfriend and, of course, Recess, are distributed by Recess OPs – definitely company that we’re proud to keep!
2019 is starting to shape up! We’ll have announcements on new releases very soon as well!
3/6 – The Plurals @ Mac’s Bar (Lansing, MI) w/ Messthetics (ex-FUGAZI), Helen Money
3/8 – The Stick Arounds @ New Way (Ferndale, MI)
3/9 – The Stick Arounds @ Maidstone (Ypsilanti, MI)
3/9 – GTG Presents: When Particles Collide @ The Avenue Cafe (Lansing) w/ Dasterds, Bike Tuff, The Quirk
3/12 – Drinking Mercury, Blaine and His Keyboard @ Mac’s Bar w/ Pocket Vinyl
3/14 – Tommy Plural @ The Avenue Cafe w/ Orc, Towner, Blue Pines
3/15 – Two Houses @ Reed’s (Chicago, IL)
3/17 – The Plurals (covers n such set) @ Claddagh (Lansing, MI)
3/23 – The Stick Arounds @ Ghost Light (Hamtramck, MI)
3/26 – Mistic Mountian @ The Avenue w/ DEZ, Michael Strike
A bunch of us basically accidentally booked a bunch of shows this week in Lansing, leading to a sort of springtime GTG Fest! It’s about time this spring thing happened too, we were getting some of the most wicked Cabin Fever to date.
Thursday April 26th The Hat Madder – with their freshly released vinyl edition of Rotting On The Vine – will be rocking out at The Avenue Cafe alongside Connecticut piano ‘n art duo Pocket Vinyl, Grand Rapids punk people The Quirk, and treasured locals Scary Women and Blaine & His Keyboard. The next day, April 27th, Drinking Mercury – also with their freshly released vinyl split with The Sexy Murders – will be gracing the Avenue stage with our old friends The Jackpine Snag and new friends Dirty Deville. The Avenue gets another dose of fun when, Saturday April 28th, Miski from City Mouse hosts and performs a night of punk rock featuring Heart and Lung from Cleveland and Lansing rascals Stop Bobby Hatch, Foxhole, and an acoustic set from Dasterds. Finally, just down the block, The Stick Arounds will be playing at Green Door on April 28th with Moto and Cardboard Bullies (which includes, among others, Chris from Narc Out the Reds/ The Hat Madder). Madness! Great accidental work everyone!
Posted in Drinking Mercury, GTG Fest, Lansing, The Hat Madder, The Stick Arounds
Tagged 2018, Awesome, DIY, Fun, Lansing, Punk, The Avenue Cafe, The Green Door
The third annual StoopFest is taking place in Lansing this Saturday, April 21st. Located in six house venues, The Avenue Cafe, Mac’s Bar, and Allen Market Place, StoopFest features a full day of music, comedy, food, and art all over Lansing’s East Side Neighborhood. Headliners this year include Speedy Ortiz, Erica Freas from RVIVR, and Suzi Analogue, with a variety of Lansing area acts rounding out much of the bill including GTG Fest alums City Mouse, Blaine and His Keyboard, Dasterds, Birdhouse, Tidal, Half Tongue, Jake Simmons and the Little Ghosts, and Rent Strike alongside many other solid area acts like V Soul, Ozay Moore, Conspicuous Bystanders, Worn Spirit, Krissy Booth, Welman and so much more. Tickets, schedule, and more info can be found at the official StoopFest website.
This year GTG Records is an official fest sponsor and your humblish writer Tommy Plural is on the fest organizing board. I won’t claim any credit in securing the lineup, I’ve mostly been a brainstorming presence and sounding board that will be completely overworked show-running the day of the festival, but I’m super proud to be involved with this festival. The Plurals played the first two years and I also stage managed/volunteered but it’s been a blast being involved from the ground up this year. I’ll be stageside at the Avenue for much of the day before high-tailing it to run sounds at Mac’s Bar for the night show there but I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to pop into a house venue or two at some point in the day. There’s too many acts to highlight but if I can catch a tune by Erica Freas and Speedy Ortiz I’ll be satisfied as a fan.
Before we know it the fest will be here and done so I want to quickly give a shout to the people that I’ve had the good fortune to work alongside. The entire group of folks that have curated the fest this year is a great collective of different Lansing music figures from different backgrounds and perspectives, not like GTG Fest’s boring old “all indie/punk musician” fest board. Dom Korzecke – whom I’ve known as a radio personality at 88.9 for many years – and James Radick – from Fusion Shows and GTGers Small Parks – are the festival founders and main movers and shakers, the ones that are there first and stay the latest, agonizing over every detail and I can only assume somehow they enjoy themselves (they do). Working alongside Cale Sauter once again has been a pleasure, he and I go too far back and too deep together with the Cartridge Family and Bermuda Mohawk, but having someone with Cale’s wealth of knowledge and experience (dude was already a veteran of running house shows and booking DIY bands when I met him as a wee lad in 2005) is a big plus for the fest this year. Fusion Shows fixtures Erica Marra and Claire Postelli are always a joy to work with, they’ve shared the pain with me during some of the long load-ins and soundchecks and delayed schedules at Mac’s Bar so kudos to them for wanting to continue being around all this show garbage! I’ve really enjoyed hearing their perspective on the best way to put this fest together and I hope they don’t think I’m just ripping off their ideas at GTG Fest this year. John Warmb from Rent Strike is a force of nature and his vision and passion for house shows is something we could all aspire to – along with Cale, John is hosting performances at his own house as well as organizing (and performing, sheesh!) so that’s a big tip of the hat right there. Joe Steinhardt from Don Giovanni Records is the last of the main organizers and also the latest for me that I’ve had the pleasure to make the acquaintance. Joe has many years of different experiences in the DIY community that we’ve all gained something from in the final manifestation of this fest and I look forward to seeing him stumble around the fest showing the touring bands a good time. There’s of course many other cogs in the wheel and I know graphic designers Zoshua Korzecke and Autumn Hilden, Ted Wilson from Replay, Tricia Chamberlain from Comedy Coven, Zane Vicknair from StreetKitchen, and all of the venue hosts deserve a shout-out too – basically this is a great festival highlighting Lansing. Let’s show ’em all a good time!
Tagged DIY, House Shows, party, Punk, RVIVR, Speedy Ortiz, stoopfest, The Avenue Cafe
