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NICKHELDERMAN
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ur world is forever far-flung now; the
tyranny of distance is fast becoming a
^thing of the past. Iranian bands per
form via Skype to evade persecution;
Ben Folds can be a self-loathing cyber-drunk
in Second Life; and so, basically, anything
that could be local will now be global. This
hyper-personalized/hyper-hyper-connected/
hyper-hyper-hyper-saturated reality of shar
ing and shattering culture has almost com
pletely obliterated the idea of the communally
agreed-upon superstar—so that's a good
thing. But it's also damaged the idea of the
localized scene. It still exists, but rather than
being influenced exclusively by taste-making
elder statesmen and nearby peers, everyone
lis f ens to everyone, making the idea of a local
label documenting a unique sound an increas
ingly rare bird. But that doesn't mean that
indie labels can't engage in artful curating—
"art" being the key word.
Home Tapes, a record label as well as an
artists' collective, is lovingly organized and
carefully managed by Adam Heathcott and
Sara Padgett. The label's history with artistry
made them an instant match for Washington,
D.C.-based band The Caribbean. "Sara is a
wonderful photographer and Adam has been
involved in design for years," says Caribbean
vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Michael Kentoff.
"That was different for us; we'd never dealt
with that with a label."
The Caribbean is a collective of artists
themselves who, while based out of D.C.,
work to create ethereal, rhythmic pop from
all over the nation via the Internet. "We
did it as a way of not having a band, 'cause
we'd all been in bands before and got sick
of that," says Kentoff. The band's songwrit
ing leader, Kentoff, came up through the D.C.
punk scene—he vividly recalls Henry "Rollins"
Garfield playing him his first punk rock
mixtape—and recruited members of the highly
underrated Dischord band Smart Went Crazy for
membership in The Caribbean.
"So, it was gonna be kind of a collec
tive—like Steely Dan on a shoestring bud
get," Kentoff says. His collaborators—Don
Campbell, Tony Denison, Matt Byars and Dave
Jones—all contribute parts, manipulated and
otherwise, from afar. "Basically, we email
each other ideas, use sound clouds, use
various elements of getting sounds in," says
Kentoff. "One of the challenges is playing
the songs live because we record them first,
usually. Three of us live in D.C., Matt lives in
Baltimore, and Tony lives in Minneapolis."
The band will occasionally work in person,
despite the risk of bodily harm. "Tony will fly *
in for a weekend and do drums and go home
before we kill each other," Kentoff laughs.
The meeting of the minds between band
and label from across the coasts—Home Tapes j
is based out of Portland—came to be due to,
duh, the Internet. "We were on Tomlab, which
is a German label, and Endearing, which was a
Canadian label, and neither one seemed like a
very good fit. We seemed too experimental for
Endearing and we felt too poppy for Tomlab,
and we felt they were all nice people, but they
didn't know what to do with us," says Kentoff.
"And I saw a little ad for this label that I'd
never heard of, and I clicked it on it and I just
liked the aesthetic. So, I sent them an email,
and they'd heard the band. I don't know if
they were fans, but I sent them the last reco r d
that we'd done, and they were like, 'Oh, we
want to put out your next record.'"
The Caribbean was an easy fit for Home
Tapes, who trade in the alternately poppy and
experimental—names like Bear in Heaven,
Pattern Is Movement, and others. Label co
honcho Padgett has even contributed photog
raphy for the band's artwork. "They put out an
EP, and we've been with them ever since. It
was a very simple, friendly email and eventu
ally phone calls; I have to be careful about
getting on the phone with them, because
we're usually on the phone for a minimum of
two hours. We're very chatty."
Although both band and label co-exist via
phone and email, they do so happily, and are
held together with bonds that supplant pro
vincial unity. "There was an excitement about
what we were doing, perhaps because of their
background as artists," says Kentoff. "I think
their enthusiasm came from the fact that they
were artists and wanted to run their label as
artists. So, that was appealing. And also at
the time, even when they didn't really know
what they were doing, they were sure of them
selves and very aggressive in the sense that
they wanted to do great art. We've had nice
relationships with labels before, but to hear
people say: *We want to make great art that
lasts forever with you,' that goes a long way."
Jeff Tobias
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