v/a LIGHT INTO DARK: a Chicago music compilation #1

Yesterday, I euthanized my wounded indie label, one I had for 14 years. It started in a DePaul spare bedroom and ended in a Park Slope garden apartment. In between, there were office spaces, highs and lows, but I'll always remember the humble beginning and the limping end. I was fortunate to be able to find a way to bring new discoveries to the masses and even more fortunate that people listened. Sometimes I wonder how it could've sustained itself for so long. Mostly I wonder why it didn't turn into Sire or Creation.

I wonder what lofty goals Barry Waterman had in mind when he culled some local Chicago bands together for the vinyl only, Light Into Dark compilation. I wonder if he thought his Halo Records imprint would turn into Factory or Rough Trade. On the cover, it reads, a Chicago music compilation, #1. I guess there was supposed to be more. I was living in Chicago in 1989 when this came out, tail tucked firmly between legs from a failed stint as "college student". It was a good time to live in Chicago, the music scene was diverse and fertilizing itself.

To his credit, he was definitely a few years ahead of being in the money (a major problem with most palatable indies, wink). The most obvious evidence of that is two tracks from a jangly and gothy Smashing Pumpkins. I saw them play so many times back then. Tons of shows at Avalon or Metro. Way before Empty Bottle or Double Door. I even ended up friends with them eventually, some of them spending nights on my living room floor because I was the only one in the neighborhood with central air in the summertime. Before the symphony of hundreds of strident composite guitar tracks, these Pumpkin songs sound different, for sure. I still think of them as the ultimate indie band, even though, the "indie" crowd never really accepted them. No one in Chicago did, so they did for themselves. Isn't that what an indie band does?

Gold September, I saw open for Wonderstuff, in '89, and remembered liking them. The two tracks here are way faux British accent for me, but that was Mark Rew's thing, and he later overhauled it successfully with his band, Catherine. Catherine were one of the first bands I signed to the aforementioned beleaguered label. I don't remember Sevenletters, I'm sure I saw them around too, but strangely, this track holds up the best to these ears (doesn't the intro have an uncanny resemblance to the Cult's She Sells Sanctuary?). It's kinda Chapel Hill sounding, could've fit on Comboland. Poster Children contribute two tracks here, too.

I started my indie label in 1992 by hand picking semi-local bands (Walt Mink, Arson Garden, Gloryhounds) ripe for the championing and curated a collection called Uncharted. I was told it was the first ever compact disc to feature "local" bands (back then it cost a ton of money to press them). I remember WXRT making a huge deal about it and we convinced 6 of the bands to play a record release show at Metro. 1,000 people paid. Amazing. A good start I figured. I was able to release nearly 90 records after that. Halo, only one. Guess I'm lucky. Or dumb.

Smashing Pumpkins MY DAHLIA
Sevenletters GONE BY DAWN
Gold September DORIAN