It Takes A Village to Make Records

Sometimes you're just late to the game on things, but I don't let that bring me down - it just means there's lots to discover. It Takes A Village to Make Records is a label based out of Lansing that has a pretty cool post-modern approach to the "biz." Modeled after the old-school "singles clubs" of back in the day (most famously - in my mind - employed by Sub Pop in the 80s to build buzz for their new bands) ITAV releases a new 3 song split single by 3 different artists on a roughly monthly basis, available for download at a bandcamp page for $3 or for a one time only subscription fee of $30. Since they've already released 19 of these the subscription thing is actually a pretty good idea, and kudos to them for having the guts to present their work as something to pay for in this age where too many bands think they need to give everything away or no one will pay attention.

Pictured: the next Bon Iver

Not that I've subscribed yet - you can stream all of the tracks on the bandcamp site, which is nice. I'll get around to it - the site says that the money goes to a fund to help independent touring bands, which is pretty neat. Anyway, I just found out about this label, and I don't know why. Looking over the previously released artists there's a lot of people that I'm into, including some that I've posted about on here (People's Temple, the Jackpine Snag) and some that I've loved for a long time (Calliope, Flatfoot). Laziness? Confusion? It's nice to feel a little less jaded - a blogging no-no!

The site actually came on my radar because I was doing a little online research on local sound engineering services and found a fairly funny post from the other day by the main guy who runs the label (who also is, I believe, one of the curators for the East Lansing art gallery/ venue (SCENE) Metrospace) where he admits to getting a track mastered improperly and having to do damage control. The whole thing struck me as very humanizing, which is interesting in the internet age and for a label that largely exists as a digital medium. The meaning implied by the name "It Takes A Village" would, to my partially educated ass, be something to do with community building, something very important to a vibrant music scene and just in general. So, kudos to the folks over at ITAV. I've got some listening to catch up on.