Lots of Bay area bands rehearse in converted garages.The Starlits run a record label out of theirs.
It's freaking hot in the former car-hole of singer/bassist Heidi Peel's Kenwood home. Several industrial-size fans move the air around. Two gargoyle-esque bulldogs compete for attention, more mirthful than menacing. On one side of the space, amplifiers form a rough circle around an empty spot just the right size for a drum kit.
The other side of the garage is crammed with three homespun computer workstations. This is where Peel and partner Chris Francis operate their own wholesale software company, Genesis TechSource. It's also headquarters for Peephole Records, the independent label run by Peel, Francis, Starlits guitarist Tara Lightfoot and Peel's sister Melanie Shaffer.
"We're basically taking the money from our company and dumping it into the label," says Peel, "because you know there's no money in starting up a label."
On one computer, Francis compares bulk-rate prices for padded mailers of various sizes — they just got their first substantial pre-orders for the debut Peephole release, an ambitious 50-track sampler called Serving the Best in Rock & Roll. At another station, Lightfoot trolls the Internet for webzines and distributors that might be interested in reviewing or stocking the double-disc compilation. Peel bounces between tasks: giving a tour of the Peephole website, responding to interview queries, answering Francis' and Lightfoot's questions, and bounding into the house every couple of minutes to check on the dinner she's preparing for her two kids.
(And I used to fantasize about working at home.)
Peel is a local and national punk-scene veteran who played with several acts — most notably The Jackie Papers — before cooking up the slightly more melodic, rock-oriented Starlits and Peephole at roughly the same time late last year. Starting another band was a no-brainer; that's what lifers do. But after years of watching friends deal with struggling indies, from both musical and entrepreneurial sides, what made her decide to give label ownership a go?
"Most labels these days totally screw the bands they sign," she says of her desire to offer another option. "Either they don't promote them, or don't give them any money when they actually sell a lot of records."
While most local imprints begin life as little more than a name and logo for an area band to put on their own CD, and rarely expand beyond providing a name and logo for their friends to put on their bands' CDs, the Peephole quorum has bigger plans. They want to provide the kind of attention and promotion for promising underground bands that bigger indies with flagship acts to pimp don't. They also plan to contribute booking and management help to the artists they choose to support.
"I've just seen a lot of really good fucking bands with great albums only sell 2,000 copies of an album when they should be selling 10,000, because the labels they're on only promote the big bands, and these bands become little fish," says Peel. "Most bands that sign to bigger indies don't even have management, or tour support."
Launching a brand new brand name is never easy; Peel and company's task is compounded by both the current economic climate's devastating effect on lifestyle/discretionary income markets like music, and the fact that an awful lot of young fans like their punk proven by association with one of the bigger, trendier indies. But Peephole found early support from globally established but now-defunct St. Pete punk 'n' roll label Stiff Pole Records and its infamous proprietor, Stiff.
"He's the biggest pessimist in the world, so when I told him I was putting out a comp with 46 bands on it, he said I might as well plan on putting it out in July of 2004," says Peel with a laugh. "But really, he gave me a lot of encouragement."
He also gave her the entire Stiff Pole catalog, some 200 titles; legally, Stiff couldn't sell the records once Stiff Pole folded, so he passed them along to Peephole, who offers them all for order and distribution on its website, www.peepholerecords.com. The connection may provide the fledgling imprint with a little out-of-the-box cred, intriguing fans enough to plunk down 10 bucks for the mammoth Serving The Best in Rock & Roll.
The Stiff Pole connection isn't the only thing the comp has in its favor — hell, the track listing alone should entice most discerning underground-rock pundits. Rather than using Peephole as a vehicle to highlight The Starlits right out of the gate, the label is wisely employing a tactic successfully used by such now-goliaths as Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords and Lookout: offering a fat, inexpensive sampler heavy on exclusive or unreleased material by well-known acts, with an eye on making the practice an annual franchise. In addition to the wealth of category-spanning punk from an assload of under-the-radar acts (of which an impressive 17 hail from Florida), the two discs feature largely unheard material by Moral Crux, The Queers, Squirtgun, The Groovie Ghoulies, Teen Idols, The Spitvalves and The Independents. Peel's experience through touring with her own groups garnered various connections over the years, and she called every number in her little black book in order to stock the album with rare and varied material from some truly venerated names.
"It jumps from genre to genre," says Lightfoot, a USF student and part-time actress, of the comp's wide variety of fringe-rock sounds. "I think we're helping to show people it's OK to like [everything from] emo to thrash punk."
The label's first single-band release, a full-length by Jersey horror-swing rockers The Cryptkeeper 5, is already in the works, but Peel says the label isn't in any hurry to bite off more than it can chew. Peephole's business plan includes a strict schedule of releasing only four records a year, and spending three months intensely marketing each with equal fervor.
Right now, however, they have this weekend's label kickoff/CD release party/multi-band barbecue to tend to (Northeastern pop-punk heroes The Queers are named on the flyers as headlining, but at press time, Peel is still awaiting the final confirmation), pre-orders to get out, and a maiden release to pimp. It's a lot of work for four people with outside day gigs, bands, families, and assorted other responsibilities that demand equal and constant attention. It's a labor of love for Peel, though, and she says if it can garner a little bit of attention and a little bit of return for some bands who might otherwise never see any — including her own — then it'll be worth it.
"I was tired of doing music and no one appreciating it," she says. "I knew there had to be a million other people who deserved to have someone put some money behind them."
Scott Harrell can be reached at 813-248-8888, ext. 109, or by e-mail at scott.harrell@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2003.