It's been about seven years since Pete Cline and his bandmates nearly ran over a husky puppy on their way to band practice, having just recently abandoned "Silo" as a possible name for their band. Since then, they've given the name Silo to the lucky little dog (and then named their band after him), went through some lineup changes and hooked up with San Diego-based label Cargo Records.
While inking a deal with Cargo was a good thing for the twangy Columbus rock band, it didn't fulfill all of Silo the Huskie's wildest dreams. The quartet, like many bands, have a rather modest goal-making a living from making music-and while Cargo has made making music a little easier, the simple fact is label support isn't quite the same as winning the lottery.
"You think that when you sign this contract, it will put an end to all your problems," Cline said. "But you really just replace old problems with new problems."
The Stepford Five have heard similar stories before. So although guitarists Keith Jenkins and Jason Dziak first fell in love with music while watching the cock-rocking hair bands of the '80s on MTV, the pair realizes that a record contract won't necessarily allow them to quit their day jobs and live like Mick Mars and C.C. DeVille.
"A lot of bands think a label is like a fairy godmother who's just going to wave her magic wand and solve all their problems," Dziak said. "Small labels are all different in terms of what they can do for you; some have money, some of them are mostly good at grassroots, street-level promoting."
Same with bigger labels. Cargo, home of MTV's favorite pop-punk band Blink 182 before MCA snatched them up, has given Silo the Huskie financial support, but has probably helped most by promoting the band.
The San Diego label first reached the band through the Internet ("We thought it was some sort of cruel hoax," Cline said, "but it all ended up being true"), and offered to re-release the band's album Fight, trimming it from 16 to 12 songs and re-christening it Silo The Huskie. Cargo re-pressed and distributed the album and provided tour support, spotting the quartet $50 a show.
After doing the road warrior thing for a while, the band headed back to Workbook Studio (aside from some four-tracked stuff, all of Silo's material has been recorded by Workbook's Jon Chinn) to work on Friends, Enemies and Neutral States, slated for an early 2002 release through Cargo, provided the current contract negotiations work out.
While the studio and engineer haven't changed pre- and post-Cargo, Silo the Huskie has noticed some definite differences in the recording process thanks to their relationship with the label.
"Time and money," Cline said, listing the two major factors. "When you're on a tight budget, when you're self-financed, you go in when you can, you go to free places like the Chillicothe Recording Workshop, and you kind of drag it out… When you're doing a nine-to-five job and trying to be a rock musician, the bills can rack up pretty easy.
"When you're not self-financing [because of label support], you can block as much time off as you need and make the best record possible in a short amount of time."
Aside from taking some of the financial pressure off a band going it alone-like, say, The Stepford Five, who've spent the better part of the year in and out of Workbook producing the upcoming The Stepford Five and The Art of Self Defense-a label can go a long way toward promoting the band around the world.
"There's been a surprisingly large amount of reviews worldwide, from Europe and Japan," Cline said.
"It's cool to sit down and go on the Internet and read about what people think of your record across the pond or across the ocean. They've helped us with that distinction, getting our name out there."
This brand recognition and band promotion can be the biggest advantage of label support-even if it's just the label down the street, like locals Break-Up! Records or Derailleur Records.
Break-Up! is pretty much a one-man operation, with Pat Dull serving as CEO (or whatever title he feels like assigning himself on a given day). Dull and partner Jerry DeCicca started the label as a bit of a vanity project, pressing a seven-inch single with Dull's then-band Pop Rocks! (exclamation marks are Dull's favorite punctuation) on one side and DeCicca's band on the other.
Dull had a taste for seven-inch platters, "the perfect format for music," and stuck with the label, releasing a total of 20 different hook-filled power pop records so far, among them Columbus' Media Whores (Dull's current band), Manda and The Marbles, 84 Nash, The Pop Quiz and Dogrocket, Big Hello from Chicago and The Heartdrops from New York. Dull's even "bowed down to the beast" a little, releasing the Media Whores' and Manda and The Marbles' albums on CD instead of his cherished vinyl.
Dull doesn't always have six grand to drop on recording other bands' CDs, but he does help financially with pressing singles, asking bands to kick in a hundred bucks and repaying them with 100 singles. But Break-Up!'s main function is often helping bands get their feet in the door with distributors or media outlets. "Distributors will look at my label and they know I was there in '96, and I'm still here today," Dull said. "I've got the tentacles out there."
Tentacles can be very helpful-just ask any octopus, or even a Turkey.
"We could have put our album out on our own label," Jive Turkeys drummer Justin Crooks said of the band's April 2001 release, "like Joe Blow Records or whatever, but that's potentially more work for us. With someone else's label, there's already a framework set up and someone else is helping you out."
The Jive Turkeys are being helped by Derailleur, which, like Break-Up!, started with a local music lover-in this case, Brad Liebling-wanting to help bands he liked get heard.
Since its inception in 1998, Derailleur has released albums by The Velveteens, Pretty Mighty Mighty, Bigfoot and Bob City, and the label is currently pushing recent self-titled albums from Grafton and The Jive Turkeys. Next up are releases from Salt Horse and The Honeys.
Lou Poster, guitarist for Grafton, first got involved with the label when it released his album. By virtue of always asking what he could do to help out, he's moving more towards running things while Liebling becomes less involved to focus on his graduate studies and day job. Derailleur has evolved into a sort of collective where all the bands help promote each other's releases.
"It's really about who's got the contact info, who's stuffing envelopes, who's making calls and so forth," Poster said. "If we do fuck up a little bit, we're all buddies, rather than being strangers, so it's nice and easygoing."
Working with your friends can be nice and easygoing, and doing everything yourself-a la The Stepford Five, Miranda Sound, and tons of other locals-allows for a greater amount of control (as well as a greater amount of work and drain on your resources). Silo the Huskie could have taken either route, but when the opportunity of support from Cargo presented itself, the band didn't want to let the chance pass them by.
Cline said they've heard repeatedly from other local musicians that they didn't make the right decision, but they're glad they went for it.
"People say why would you sign a contract for almost no money," Cline said. "The way I look at it is, if there's an ice cream truck coming down the street, and it's the only ice cream truck that's been down the road for days-if not years-and if all they have is a rocket pop, you're gonna take the frickin' rocket pop."
As tasty as that rocket pop has been at times, Cline's practical about where Silo the Huskie sits in the grand scheme of things.
"Even at this level, it's still like playing in the minors," Cline said. "It's like playing for the Akron Aeros."
And if making rock 'n' roll is like playing ball, then label support-whether it comes from an A&R guy you meet at a music conference or the guy you met at Bernie's after your set-is like having someone else on your team.
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