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.
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!”
After a year and a half of planning, He Just Wrote Them Like That – A Tribute To George Harrison is now out. It’s available from our bandcamp for a donation-based download, with all proceeds going to benefit Planned Parenthood. We’re honored and humbled to say that the release party we had at The Avenue Cafe on 2/25 (George’s birthday!) was able to raise over $1000 to Planned Parenthood. This is truly a highlight of our work as a label and we can’t thank the attendees and supporters enough. So check out the compilation, featuring brand new recordings of George Harrison songs by Jason Alarm, Carm, The Plurals, Calliope, The Hunky Newcomers, Johnny Unicorn, The Stick Arounds, Drinking Mercury, Scary Women, Mad Moon, Dim, and more! 21 different artists!
Check out the playlist below for some highlights from the release party. Thanks so much to the Avenue Cafe for being such great supporters of GTG Records and all that we do.
Let the shining rays of brilliance shine! Bermuda Snohawk 2016 has arrived, the GTG/ Bermuda Mohawk annual holiday gift (in its 11th edition!) of wintry-yuletide-seasonal joy and disaffection – a stocking stuffer of love and depravity! Up for free download via BMP, check out new and unreleased tunes from City Mouse, Cavalcade, The Plurals, Frank and Earnest, Scary Women, The Hunky Newcomers, Sleeping Timmy, middleman, Dale J Gordon, Bluffing the Ghosts, and MORE, including the various side projects featuring folks from all over the geographical map and musical (and non-musical) realm. This comp has become something of a Lansing-based DIY institution (for better or worse) and it just sort of comes together by itself at this point, with GTG and BMP just sort of lighting the path a bit. With how 2016 has been as a year, there’s a bit more darkness lurking at the edges of a lot of these tracks, but still plenty to laugh about all the way. Putting this comp together is always a highlight of the year for us, and there can be something very cathartic about just having some fun and making music with abandon. Thanks to everyone who joined in to help make it happen this year, and anyone that didn’t but wants to in the future, come on over! There’s literally no process to curating the lineup than people sending stuff to us so it’s a free-for-all, all-is-welcome party. Enjoy yourselves, and let’s hold ourselves up, together, for the last week of this gut-punching year. Much love from GTG and BMP!
GTG RECORDS 