“It’s pretty easy to do,” he says.“Once you get it rolling, the label sort of runs itself. The finances can berestrictive, though. For us, we pretty much put out one record, then sellenough copies of it to pay for the next one, and so forth. It’s the recordlabel equivalent of living paycheck to paycheck.”
Granted, Meyer isn’t the mostbusiness-minded label owner.
“My only litmus test for releasing analbum is if I like it,” says Meyer, whose vinyl-only label specializes in, butis not limited to, regional bands. “Some of our records might not even be fromserious touring bands. For instance, there’s The Elephant Walk, which is a sideproject of a couple people that doesn’t tour or even play out often, but Iwanted to put out their record just because I really like them. I had nodelusions of selling a ton of copies of a record from a band that doesn’ttour.”
Similarly, the label doesn’t cater toone particular sound. Nobody will mistake The Midwest Beat’s carefree janglefor Call Me Lightning’s fierce, classic-rock-inspired punk, or Sugar Stems’girlish pop for Drugs Dragons’ confrontational psychedelia. The only threadtying together these Milwaukeebands, all of which have full-lengths on Dusty Medical due this summer, is thatMeyer enjoys all of them, and thinks others might, too.
“I think Milwaukee bands are as good or better thanany bands the rest of the country has to offer, but I think they’vehistorically had a bit of an inferiority complex, or maybe they just don’t careto think about what happens outside the city,” Meyer says. “Either way, thereare a lot of bands that never get heard because they never really putthemselves out there. I’m happy to be able to give them some exposure outsideof the city. We distribute our records all over the world, so there are peoplein Italy, Australia and Japanthat know Milwaukeebands.”
In addition to running Dusty Medical,Meyer also makes up half of the similarly taste-motivated promotions team TheGet Drunk with fellow music enthusiast Luke Chappelle. The duo books rock showsof all stripes, and spins between-set music at each as The Get Drunk DJs.
“It was always our goal to create abrand you can trust, The Get Drunk, where if you see the name on the flier, youknow you’re going to have a fun time, even if you’re not familiar with thebands playing,” Meyer says. “We’re really picky about what we book, so The GetDrunk is like our stamp of approval.”
This weekend, Dusty Medical Records andThe Get Drunk celebrate their shared fifth anniversaries with two nights ofmusic at Club Garibaldi, each featuring five Dusty Medical bands or alums. CallMe Lightning, the label’s most high-profile recent signing, closes the Fridaybill, while Saturday’s closing spot goes to The Goodnight Loving, the longtimeDusty Medical fixtures who will release their upcoming album on Portland,Ore.’s Dirtnap Records. Both shows begin at 9 p.m. On Sunday, from 4 to 10p.m., Dusty Medical weekend winds down with Burnhearts’ monthly Hot Dog!Classic Country Spin event, which Meyer co-DJs with Austin Dutmer.
