Milwaukee Births Several New Record Labels

Asbusiness plans go, starting a record label is a pretty awful one. Music salesare down, record stores are dying off and bands have learned how to releasetheir albums without a label’s assistance, so there’s more music than evercompeting for the buck of fewer consumers still willing to pay for it. It’s asign of enthusiasm about the local music scene, then, that despite thefinancial disincentives, new record labels continue to spring up around Milwaukee. Severalprominent ones have launched within the past year, joining already establishedlabels like Dusty Medical, Uni-Fi, Snapdragon and Bus Stop.

Amongthe newcomers is Listening Party, which Decibully members Nick Sanborn and AndyMenchal created to release the band’s latest album, World Travels Fast. This week Listening Party issued its thirdrelease, a solo album by Def Harmonic rapper Lunaversol 9, which it will followlater this fall with a new Def Harmonic LP and a cassette by the ambientelectronic musician He Can Jog.

“Startinga label was something that Andy and I had been talking about while drinking fora year and a half,” Sanborn explains. “When the Decibully record ended upneeding a home, we decided it would be a good idea to finally put our moneywhere our mouth was. It’s been a great experience, because we get to thinkabout our fantasy label and how they would treat us, then we get to treat ourartists that way. We don’t take publishing percentages on the master, forinstance. And being a small label, we can give each release a lot of personalattention. Even the album packaging we really take to the nines. The DefHarmonic album will be on translucent, marbled purple and white vinyl, and willcome with a paint-by-numbers poster.”

Thissummer saw the first release from Ten Atoms, a label started by Ryan Mattesonof the website Muzzle of Bees and fellow music blogger Kyle Matteson (the twoshare a last name and similar taste in music, but they’re not related). Itsinaugural release is a self-titled 10-inch EP from the Milwaukee folk-rock band Conrad Plymouth.Like Listening Party, Ten Atoms plans to specialize in limited-run vinylreleases with pay-what-you-like downloadsand like Listening Party, the labelhas no expectations of turning a profit anytime soon.

“We’reseeing a lot of labels pop up, which just shows the dedication people have tomusic in this city,” Ryan Matteson says. “There are people who want to puttheir time and resources behind music they really love. I think we all have thesame intentions; we’re really proud of the music in Milwaukee and want to do what we can to getthat music out to as many people as possible.”

Themost specialized of Milwaukee’snew labels is Dope Folks, which John Kuester (better known to some as localrapper Kid Millions) and Chris Schulist launched this summer to reissue rareand unreleased golden-age hip-hop. Schulist says there’s a nearly endlesssupply of lost hip-hop from the ’80s and ’90s, enough for Dope Folks to domonthly releases, including some from vintage Milwaukee acts.

“We’vegot one coming up from Stranj Child, which was a Milwaukee group from around ’94 through ’96,and one from a guy named Rock La Flow, which is just awesome,” Schulist says.“We call it Milwaukee’sIllmatic, because it was recordedaround the same time as that Nas album, and when we heard it, we were laughingbecause it was so good. We couldn’t believe it had never come out.”

Schulistsays he’s been surprised by how much interest the city has taken in the label,which plans to hold local listening parties and DJ spins for each new release.

“Wethought we were just going to press these niche records, then mostly sell themto collectors abroad over eBay, but Milwaukee’s been really interested in it,too,” Schulist says. “In general, the city has been really supportive.”