For the purposes of this assignment, and also for personal interest, I was lucky to get my hands on a copy of a documentary detailing the first 10 years of Omaha, Nebraska's Saddle Creek Records. Saddle Creek was at the centre of a scene described by the New York Times as "The most vital underground rock scene in the [US]".
The story is told through interviews with the people who were involved in the bands and the label, and is peppered with footage of shows, recording sessions and other label activities. It is useful for gaining insight into the defining characteristic of the mid-nineties Omaha scene, at least from the perspective of those directly involved with the music and production side of things.
Community Ethic
A theme reiterated by practically everyone interviewed is that the label was set up and maintained with the intent to benefit everyone making music within a particular circle of friends. This community ideal is stressed throughout the documentary, which begins with various band members stating how long they've known each other - many of them since primary school. We learn that the label's predecessor - Lumberjack Records - produced it's first major release with the help of donations from friends and college dorm residents. Says Cursive's Ted Stevens, of the Slowdown Virginia cd:
"it seemed like everyone kicked in 100 bucks here, or 200... it was a really nice thing that happened, this record just kinda came out of it."
As the community continued making and releasing music, members comment that while some bands stopped making music, often they never decisively "broke up", rather, individual members would move on to other activities they felt were more important to the label's development - such, collaborating with another artist, or learning the recording process so they could work with bands in the studio.
The DVD is accompanied with a glossy booklet that is laid out like a record yearbook. Flipping through this you can really see this practice of collaboration, community and rotating memberships in bands - most people who were in a given band show up later in another group.
Eclecticism
This eclectic membership is reflected in the range of sounds on the Saddle Creek roster, and goes hand in hand with a homespun, DIY aesthetic. Offhand references to a "Saddle Creek Sound" that the various bands began to attract in the media are somewhat problematic, given that the bands encompass a wide range of styles and production techniques. For example, the three acts that gained the most widespread success run the gamut of indie rock. From Bright Eyes lo-fi teenage bedroom recordings, through Cursive making the kind of emotionally fraught hardcore that became termed 'Screamo', to the Faint, who mixed indie rock with drum machines, electronic music and death metal vocals.
A number of the artist discuss how being involved with different bands was for them an opportunity to experiment with different sounds. Says Conor Oberst about starting the Desapareicidos:
"I always liked rock music, and screaming... I'd kinda abandoned that kind of music and had done Bright Eyes for a couple years, and only that... I didn't want to get up and just like, play Bright Eyes songs, like louder.. i wanted it to have its own identity and so I really tried to craft the lyrics a lot different than Bright Eyes and make it more external, looking out on the world instead of always the internal."
The DVD also reveals the DIY nature of the scene, showing the recording of a number of releases taking place in basement studios or even just living rooms. One scene shows the construction of the packaging of Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors LP, which included mirrored cardboard on either side. We see Roger Lewis of The Good Life installing the mirrors and polishing them one by one!
Insularity
The interviewees also admit to a certain insularness that came with the community involvement of the scene. The bands involved were accused early on of elitism, something they more or less seem to have made a joke out of. Two anecdotes reveal how the players began to realise that happenings outside of Omaha had a tendency to go unnoticed. Firstly, as the initial Lumberjack Records grew, they realised they would have to change the name. Says Kasher: "Once we opened our eyes and noticed that there's a world outside of Omaha, and there's actually a huge distributor called Lumberjack."
Joel Petersen of The Faint talks about realising their sound was not as unique at first as they thought:
"We kinda wanted to make it like a mix tape.. like, a bunch of different sounds.. we were kinda playing what we heard other people playing, but trying to do it a little differently, and i think travelling round and seeing other bands and guitar players pretty much doing the same thing.. was a, you know, kinda kick in the head.. 'alright, this puts things in a wider perspective.. we're just another band in another city doing the same thing.'"
However, this importance of the scene at home also ensured the continuing relevance of Saddle Creek. A number of bands, including The Faint, received interest from major labels. The descision was made to turn these offers down, citing an uneasiness with the larger corporations and a lack of interest in what they had to offer leading them to question "why do we need it?". In the end, says Dapose of The Faint, "we were completely happy with Saddle Creek". This allowed them to resist what Matt Maginn describes as a "temptation to our collective ideal".
So, there you have it - a crash course in the collective that is Saddle Creek. Stay tuned for an analysis of how this fits in with approaches to popular music theory found in the MSTU2000 reader.
The story is told through interviews with the people who were involved in the bands and the label, and is peppered with footage of shows, recording sessions and other label activities. It is useful for gaining insight into the defining characteristic of the mid-nineties Omaha scene, at least from the perspective of those directly involved with the music and production side of things.
Community Ethic
A theme reiterated by practically everyone interviewed is that the label was set up and maintained with the intent to benefit everyone making music within a particular circle of friends. This community ideal is stressed throughout the documentary, which begins with various band members stating how long they've known each other - many of them since primary school. We learn that the label's predecessor - Lumberjack Records - produced it's first major release with the help of donations from friends and college dorm residents. Says Cursive's Ted Stevens, of the Slowdown Virginia cd:
"it seemed like everyone kicked in 100 bucks here, or 200... it was a really nice thing that happened, this record just kinda came out of it."
As the community continued making and releasing music, members comment that while some bands stopped making music, often they never decisively "broke up", rather, individual members would move on to other activities they felt were more important to the label's development - such, collaborating with another artist, or learning the recording process so they could work with bands in the studio.
The DVD is accompanied with a glossy booklet that is laid out like a record yearbook. Flipping through this you can really see this practice of collaboration, community and rotating memberships in bands - most people who were in a given band show up later in another group.
Eclecticism
This eclectic membership is reflected in the range of sounds on the Saddle Creek roster, and goes hand in hand with a homespun, DIY aesthetic. Offhand references to a "Saddle Creek Sound" that the various bands began to attract in the media are somewhat problematic, given that the bands encompass a wide range of styles and production techniques. For example, the three acts that gained the most widespread success run the gamut of indie rock. From Bright Eyes lo-fi teenage bedroom recordings, through Cursive making the kind of emotionally fraught hardcore that became termed 'Screamo', to the Faint, who mixed indie rock with drum machines, electronic music and death metal vocals.
A number of the artist discuss how being involved with different bands was for them an opportunity to experiment with different sounds. Says Conor Oberst about starting the Desapareicidos:
"I always liked rock music, and screaming... I'd kinda abandoned that kind of music and had done Bright Eyes for a couple years, and only that... I didn't want to get up and just like, play Bright Eyes songs, like louder.. i wanted it to have its own identity and so I really tried to craft the lyrics a lot different than Bright Eyes and make it more external, looking out on the world instead of always the internal."
The DVD also reveals the DIY nature of the scene, showing the recording of a number of releases taking place in basement studios or even just living rooms. One scene shows the construction of the packaging of Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors LP, which included mirrored cardboard on either side. We see Roger Lewis of The Good Life installing the mirrors and polishing them one by one!
Insularity
The interviewees also admit to a certain insularness that came with the community involvement of the scene. The bands involved were accused early on of elitism, something they more or less seem to have made a joke out of. Two anecdotes reveal how the players began to realise that happenings outside of Omaha had a tendency to go unnoticed. Firstly, as the initial Lumberjack Records grew, they realised they would have to change the name. Says Kasher: "Once we opened our eyes and noticed that there's a world outside of Omaha, and there's actually a huge distributor called Lumberjack."
Joel Petersen of The Faint talks about realising their sound was not as unique at first as they thought:
"We kinda wanted to make it like a mix tape.. like, a bunch of different sounds.. we were kinda playing what we heard other people playing, but trying to do it a little differently, and i think travelling round and seeing other bands and guitar players pretty much doing the same thing.. was a, you know, kinda kick in the head.. 'alright, this puts things in a wider perspective.. we're just another band in another city doing the same thing.'"
However, this importance of the scene at home also ensured the continuing relevance of Saddle Creek. A number of bands, including The Faint, received interest from major labels. The descision was made to turn these offers down, citing an uneasiness with the larger corporations and a lack of interest in what they had to offer leading them to question "why do we need it?". In the end, says Dapose of The Faint, "we were completely happy with Saddle Creek". This allowed them to resist what Matt Maginn describes as a "temptation to our collective ideal".
So, there you have it - a crash course in the collective that is Saddle Creek. Stay tuned for an analysis of how this fits in with approaches to popular music theory found in the MSTU2000 reader.
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