Bridgetown Records
March 4th, 2010 by
written and photographed by Derrick Taruc
It's a Monday night at Pehrspace, an art-cum-live music space located in Silverlake, Los Angeles, and, per usual, there's a Sean Carnage Presents show happening. Part of tonight's offerings is tranquilizing noise-purveyor, 22-year-old Kevin Greenspon. His pedals, samplers, field recorders, and various noisemakers are splayed out before him; a modest group of regulars and friends droning out to the weaving noise. But this is not about his music, but about the label he runs, Bridgetown Records.
Greenspon at Pehrspace
And, appropriately enough, just like a Sean Carnage show, his label is a very personal kind of happening. (“Everyone I've released is a friend of mine somehow,” Greenspon says. Full disclosure: Bridgetown has released a tape for a band that I was in.) And it's doubly appropriate because at a Sean Carnage show, the performers are usually friends of friends of friends and instead of a stamp or a Sharpie mark, one gets a hand-made bracelet made specifically for the night—personal touches that mark geniune DIY/underground shows.
Bridgetown puts out very limited edition CDs and cassette tapes, usually in editions of 50. But it's not out of extreme indie elitism—it has more to do with the realities of the DIY, underground marketplace. “Our audiences aren't big enough to warrant making so many things” says Greenspon. “If I make 50 things then it sells out, but then I make another 50, there might not be one more person that's interested in it.” Such is the reality of putting out outsider music—ambient, experimental, adolescent noise pop, and whatever or whoever else Greenspon feels is making “honest” music. This doesn't mean he's not opposed to making more if a definite demand presented itself.
releases by Nicole Kidman, Kevin Greenspon, and Cloud Nothings
Case in point: Bridgetown recently released a CD and tape by Cloud Nothings, a young Cleveland native who has been getting attention by tastemaker websites like Gorilla vs. Bear, Stereogum, and Pitchfork. Subsequently, the first run sold out fairly quickly which called for more runs of Cloud Nothings' latest release, Turn On, a collection of Wavves-like, fuzzed-out pop tunes. “I upped that to a 100 CDs and a 100 tapes, both are basically sold out, and I just made another hundred this week,” Greenspon says. “I just want to keep it available.” —Available and personal.
The label is not just a way to put out music by friends but has become a giant conversation between a community dedicated to DIY, touring, and independent music. “We don't need to make it feel like it's going to Walmart and getting a box of cereal,” says Greenspon. “These are personal documents, so I want them to feel like they're getting it from a person. I want people to feel that I or the band had something to do with what they're getting. . . to me, it's [about] people and friendship.”
::
Greenspon is peddling his friends' and his own wares on tour starting March 19.
