As many people around here know, T&G are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. With a weekend of concerts. Old bands like Big Black and Scratch Acid will be re-uniting for the performance. A mindboggling list of other great bands, old and recent, are also slated to play: Shellac, Uzeda, Arcwelder, Seam, Pegboy, The Ex, Brick Layer Cake, Pinback, Enon, Calexico, The Shipping News, Ted Leo, and others. For many of us who cut our teeth on these bands, this is a big deal.
Having lived in various parts of the midwest in the early 90s, I can tell you that for us, located where we were, there was no other label that garnered more respect, loyalty, or enthusiasm than Touch & Go (and by extension, Quarterstick - they were the same thing to us). By the mid-90s, the presence of Touch & Go dominated all guitar & drum music in our region. Whether you played in a band that aspired to release with them, or worked in the local independent record store selling their records, or ran sound for one of the venues where T&G bands played, the opinion was the same: Corey Rusk was a legendary mensch on account of his high musical standards and personal honesty; Touch & Go was the gold standard for bands; and the existence of all of those Albini-produced albums made the very dark darkness just a little bit brighter.
The reason I mention this is today's interview with Corey Rusk at Pitchfork - thanks to pokinatcha for directing me to it. Considering that Corey doesn't really give interviews . . . thought it might be an occasion to start a thread on the label.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38254/Interview_Interview_Corey_Rusk
Having lived in various parts of the midwest in the early 90s, I can tell you that for us, located where we were, there was no other label that garnered more respect, loyalty, or enthusiasm than Touch & Go (and by extension, Quarterstick - they were the same thing to us). By the mid-90s, the presence of Touch & Go dominated all guitar & drum music in our region. Whether you played in a band that aspired to release with them, or worked in the local independent record store selling their records, or ran sound for one of the venues where T&G bands played, the opinion was the same: Corey Rusk was a legendary mensch on account of his high musical standards and personal honesty; Touch & Go was the gold standard for bands; and the existence of all of those Albini-produced albums made the very dark darkness just a little bit brighter.
The reason I mention this is today's interview with Corey Rusk at Pitchfork - thanks to pokinatcha for directing me to it. Considering that Corey doesn't really give interviews . . . thought it might be an occasion to start a thread on the label.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38254/Interview_Interview_Corey_Rusk