Round the Dial
Wednesday 10 July @ 09:40:20 |
 by Tom Hallett
RTD wraps up our in-depth expose’ of local label Susstones this week with more commentary on their debut sampler, WWWGO, new releases, and upcoming events:
“One of the things I want to do with this label,” says Polara frontman / Susstones co-founder Ed Ackerson, “is avoid [getting stuck in] genres and cliques- I think they’re very damaging to music. I mean, sometimes it’s useful to have a sort of ‘movement,’ because it does give people something to rally around, but things can get really, really bad when there’s, like, an indie rock code book.” A quick scan through the tracks on the Susstones sampler proves Ackerson means what he says: No two bands, acts, or artists sound alike. He and his cohorts in both Polara and the label all contributed solid material, including Jennifer Jurgens’ Bipolar Bear and his own projects, Sideways and Tiles. He’s equally proud of them all, he says, but is particularly eager to see the release of label co-founder Christian Erickson’s album with Astronaut Wife this fall.
“The record’s great,” he enthuses. “Everything I’ve heard so far is really happenin’. Christian and those guys are working on it on their own right now. We’re probably going to mix it sometime in July, and we’re hoping to have the record out in September or October. It’s great—the new stuff is really, really, really good.” As for Erickson’s side projects, Ackerson says he was happy to see his pal experimenting with new sounds and grooves on his solo and Jalcide recordings. “We have this online comic (http://www.susstones.com) that he’s doing called “Fear The Robot.” He’s been doing updates, it’s a great story. The site got into the finals at the Flash Film Festival that Macromedia does. I love the track—it was done by Christian’s friend Jim Park, who’s, like, a really good electronic guy, he does a lot of R&B stuff.”
Erickson’s solo contribution to the compilation, “Your Stupid Car,” is a shoe-in for a summer indie-pop radio single, and Ed couldn’t be prouder. “All the stuff he does for AW tends to have the girl singing, but Christian writes a lot of songs—he used to be the singer for Passage, they had a strange, moody sort of folk thing going on—I’ve just always liked his voice. I think he writes really great songs. Someday, we’ll put a solo album of his out, because he’s definitely got a lot of stuff that’s really great.”
Polara compatriot Dan Boen, not to be outdone, also contributes several tracks to WWWGO, working under the monicker The Plate. “He’s done a whole bunch of stuff,” confirms Ackerson. “His is kind of like Tiles, it’s an electronic kinda thing. He does all kinds of stuff, and the new Plate stuff he’s working on actually has VOCALS! I thought that was kind of interesting. It’s like, all of us have a lot of interests in a lot of different types of things. That’s another thing I think the label is here for, to allow us to have a little platform to let people hear things and get reactions.”
For now, he says, he and the rest of the Susstones staff have more than enough to keep them busy. Ackerson’s Flowers Studio alone would be enough for most music hounds—he’s recently worked with Faux Jean, Kraig Johnson, Mark Mallman, Matthew, Wheat, and The Scott Laurent Band. Susstones recently wrapped a new video for the title track of Polara’s latest, Jetpack Blues—the innovative, Vince Caro-directed clip can be seen on the Susstones Web site. The outfit also recently returned from a triumphant performance at the L.A. Film Festival, where they performed a specially composed live instrumental score for Jean Epstein’s silent 1928 adaptation of “Fall Of The House Of Usher.”
“We’re going to try to release several records in the fall,” predicts Ackerson. “We’re pretty stoked. We’re going to have an as-good or better fall lineup than this spring’s. You have to put out enough stuff so that people pay attention, but you can’t get over-stretched, or you can’t promote things properly. It’s more about the creative spirit—a lot of the worst music in the world was recorded on gigantic budgets, at awesome studios, while a lot of the coolest music in the world was done by people in a rehearsal space. We have the resources, we have the studio, but that’s secondary. We like a lot of different things. I mean, it would be extraordinarily dull if we put out a label where every single band sounded like Polara. I can’t think of anything more dull, you know?”
Ed would also like to send out thanks and big ups to all the members of the Susstones staff and contributors: Jennifer Jurgens, Christian Erickson, John Kass, Dan Boen, Marc Iwanin, Ashley Prenzlow, Vince Caro, Marc Mueller, Charlie Erickson, Erin Fitzgerald, Mike Reiter, and “Tons of other cool people who’ve supported our concept of a music and multimedia collective.” Right on, Ed!!
Next week—Behind the scenes with Jack Logan and Kelly Keniepp’s Georgia-based rock n’ roll label, Backburner! Until thenùmake yer own damn news.
If you have local music news/gigs/events that you’d like to see listed in this column, or you’d just like to share your personal feelings on Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain album, send replies to: TMygunn777@aol.com
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