A co-release with Madlantis Records, here’s the debut from No Skull! Ex-Red Teeth! This 5 song EP “unmistakably harkens back to [the] golden alternative-rock era” according to this piece from City Pulse. And we agree! Stream it from us or buy it from Madlantis!
Lucky 13th of July, here’s a surprise release of a compilation of live recordings from last summer’s Red Teeth/ Some Plurals tour. This tour was in support of Red Teeth’s fantastic Light Bender 7-inch, with live renditions of all of the songs from that release appearing here in addition to other Red Teeth songs and a rendition of “Hey Sandy” by Polaris. Hattie and Tommy from The Plurals also performed on this tour as a duo and in collaboration with Ryan and Rael from Red Teeth, leading to some rare 4-piece renditions of Plurals songs. Two songs from the forthcoming Plurals album Swish appear here in different form along with older Plurals songs and a cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” by The Shirelles. Make sure to keep your ears peeled for some Tim Hoh spoken word cameos on some of the tracks too. Pay-what-you-want download available now, cassettes in collaboration with Tape Swap Radio, featuring live sessions each band did with them, will ship next month. Tune in to WLVU: The Sound of The Underground at 8 PM tonight to hear a special broadcast of the Plurals session we did with them on this tour! So many activities!
This week will see the release of the first official solo album from Tommy Plural entitled “Idiot Cousin.” The person that updates this website is said Tommy Plural so I’m going to cut the third person crap and get to the point! I played all the instruments on this album and while I’ve done a couple shorter, more experimental releases as a solo studio project this is the first time I made a focused effort to create a collection of songs that are meant to hang together. And in general I spent more time on this, to the point where I worried briefly that I had fucked up my hand from trying to play beyond my meager drumming abilities. Dangerous! Here’s a song from the album called “Düdes” that tackles earth-shattering topics like hating to go to work and loving the music of Hüsker Dü.
Anyway, the project is still very much supplemental to my band work but I will be using this album as the starting point for a catalog of songs to do with various musician friends, hopefully with a tour down the line. This Saturday I’ll be performing songs from the album with a much-more-talented-than-me-solo lineup of Dave and James from Small Parks and longtime friend but first time collaborator Adam Aymor, so head over to GTG House THIS SATURDAY (April 8th) to check that out. This house show is the release party for the record and also the debut of Ryan Andrews (Red Teeth) new band No Skull, the first Lansing area show by New Jersey indie-punks Alpha Rabbit, and the return of Tim and Dim from Honah Lee! It’s GTG wild card night baby!
The great Lansing duo Red Teeth release their first 7-inch via GTG this week! Thursday March 17th at The Avenue Cafe (which also doubles as a tour-homecoming-of-sorts show for The Hat Madder) this four song slab of wax will be available to the public for the first time and it is not to be missed. Light Bender (GTG083) showcases the frantic, angular instrumental skills of the two brothers that compose Red Teeth while cramming in enough fuzzy hooks to not completely melt your mind over the record’s 14 explosive minutes. The record boasts a timeless production sound – care of Funender mastermind Colin Such – with nods to classic hardcore and post-punk that maintains plenty of edge to still not seem like throwback music. This is the real deal! Check out “Light Bender, Sound Bender” below and click here for the release party event info!
In case you’re just blacking in, six days ago we began a 366 day (for real) cycle that shall be labelled as “2016.” In addition to celebrating the birth of Leap Day William, this year also promises plenty of exciting releases from GTG Records. Red Teeth will be making their label debut with theLight Bender 7-inch, which is at the pressing plant with an early spring release targeted. The Narc Out the Reds 10″ is mastered, the next Hat Madder record is approaching the mixing stage (and the band will be touring the east coast and midwest with When Particles Collide in March), the new Sleeping Timmy-fronted project Carm’s debut is in the tracking stage, and the Plurals just booked studio time (and a tour of the southeast) in late March for a fourth album. Honah Lee will also be hitting the studio in the spring, but first they’ll be doing some midwest tour dates. Plenty to look forward to! We also have some really cool split releases to announce and a few more things in the works so get those turntables warming up! Is that a thing? You probably don’t want to burn out the belts on those things now that I think about it. Clean your ears… yeah, that’ll do.
But before we get too future-fixated, let’s take a look back on the previous year. We released three albums in 2015:
Honah Lee – 33 On 45 – 12″ LP of 10 catchy as hell punky rock and roll anthems. Reviews earned them comparisons to Superchunk, Lemonheads, Weezer, and more and they put in some serious road time on the east coast and in the midwest, including festival appearances at Death to False Hope Fest and GTG Fest. The LP gained enough traction that Creep Records in Philadelphia took on pressing up a CD version as well.
The Plurals – An Onion Tied To My Belt – 12″ LP and CD of 12 Plurals-like Plurals songs that we had the pleasure to co-release with Florida’s Infintesmal Records and Arizona’s Diet Pop Records. Tommy Plural is the one writing this update and clearly I’m too close to this record to objectively judge it but we did some coast-to-coast touring with it and people at keyboards (not to assume too much of anyone else’s process) compared it to the Replacements, Husker Du, early 90s DC noise, late 80s SST, and more. And to me it’s a (non) reflection of the style of the time.
Dreadpool Parker – self titled – CD featuring 11 tracks from New Jersey rap crew consisting of MCs Wade Wilson and Raymond Strife with Dready Mercury making the beats. We go way back with Ray (Nich Plural has potentially the best “first impression” story every involving him, and I basically quit drinking to excess after a blacked-out night with him a few years ago) so when he told us that his new group was doing some touring and putting out an album this year we had to get behind it (and book them for GTG Fest). As it stands it’s not only the first rap release on our label but also just a blast of catchy, witty, and fun music that stands tall among our catalog. Can’t wait for them to tour again!
In addition to these full-length releases we also issued an archival live recording of the Hat Madder from a 2008 tour date in France, a free label sampler (and more) nonsensically called Time to Val Kilmer, a compilation of acoustic artists and recordings, and, as always, capped off the year with the strangely-becoming-a-legacy holiday compilationBermuda Snohawk. And in addition to these additions we also, additionally, released 10 live music video recordings in the GTG Sessions seriesthat featured, alongside plenty of GTG usual suspects, performances by Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band, The Devils Cut, Logan & Lucille, and Croatone. What a year, and more to come.
I thought about making it a goal to have every band I’m in put out a physical release in 2016, but this is easier said than done as I don’t think a single band I’ve ever been in has actually “broken up” but… I’m hoping for Drinking Mercury, Calliope, and Frank and Earnest to all put out some solid product this year too. Calling it!
This week! Four (damn) days of music and shenanigans in Lansing, Michigan, featuring a lot of Michigan talent alongside cool touring bands. Let’s take a look at what’s happening!
THURSDAY 10/08 @ GTG HOUSE, LANSING MI
DOORS AT 8 PM / SHOW AT 9 PM / $5 SUGGESTED DONATION
GTG RECORDS 