Bettina Richards is celebrating twentieth anniversary of Chicago-based Thrill Jockey label
THRILL JOCKEY: 20 YEARS
Friday, September 14, Death by Audio, 49 South Second St., $13.50, 8:00
Saturday, September 15, Webster Hall Grand Ballroom, 125 East Eleventh St., $20, 5:30
www.thrilljockey.com
For twenty years, Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records has been releasing some of the most exciting and challenging music around, from well-known bands and emerging up-and-comers, in multiple genres, often with highly sought after special limited-edition vinyl pressings. The label, whose wide-ranging roster includes such groups as the Sea and Cake, Oval, Eleventh Dream Day, the Fiery Furnaces, High Places, Future Islands, Tortoise, and Pontiak, was started back in 1992 by Bettina Richards, a major music fan who is still running things today. “Bettina is a shining light in the increasingly dark recording industry who still has an unwavering enthusiasm for discovering new music and championing the people she believes in,” notes David Halstead, who worked with Bettina at Thrill Jockey for many years and is now at Solid Gold in Brooklyn. “Her dedication to DIY music culture and her ability to make it work in today’s climate is nothing short of inspiring. Thrill Jockey never panders to the lowest common musical denominator, and she deserves massive amounts of respect for still wanting to take chances — even if she’ll never admit that ‘classic era’ Guided by Voices was nothing but pure genius.”
Richards and Thrill Jockey are celebrating their twentieth anniversary with a series of live shows around the country and in London. The tour stops in New York this weekend for a pair of concerts, Friday night at Death by Audio with White Hills, Guardian Alien, Man Forever, Dan Friel (formerly of Parts & Labor), and Rhyton, followed by Tortoise, Future Islands, Matmos, Liturgy, D. Charles Speer and the Helix, and the Black Twig Pickers at Webster Hall on Saturday. In between taking care of her twins and blasting black metal, Richards discussed Thrill Jockey and the state of the music business in our latest twi-ny talk.
twi-ny: How did you come up with the name Thrill Jockey?
Bettina Richards: In 1992, I was working at Pier Platters records store in Hoboken while living on the Lower East Side. I also was an intern for Todd Abramson, the head honcho at Telstar Records; as a side, he also books many clubs today, like Maxwell’s. Todd is not only a serious music geek, he is a big fan of some B movies, especially, it seems, of a more delinquent nature. At about the time that I was planning on starting the label, Todd showed me an especially funny preview for a film called Speed Crazy. In this film a few hooligans disrupt a small town by behaving in a simply terrible fashion, being loud, driving their hot rods too fast, etc. As I recall it, the voice-over proclaimed that three thrill jockeys terrorized Mercerville.
I was printing the jackets for the Zipgun single that I did, and I had found a really cheap printer around 42nd St. (This was in 1992.) They were very friendly and chatty on the phone; they kept saying they did not work with too many companies run by women. I really did not think much of it at the time. I went to pick up the sleeves and discovered that the printer almost exclusively printed VHS cases for pornographic films. They said, “Great company name! We do not have many people that print soundtrack records for their films.” So, good record label name — perhaps. Great pornographic film company name — for sure!
twi-ny: What were your initial goals when you started Thrill Jockey? Did you ever think it would still be thriving after twenty years?
Bettina Richards: My goals were pretty much what they remain today: Simply put, to release music we love, and to treat the musicians as equal partners in our advocacy. I followed the model of Dischord and Touch and Go, two labels that I admire. While we work hard to keep ahead of technology and to be creative thinkers in the way we approach the business of music, I never much think about Thrill Jockey as an entity beyond a few years into the future. So the short answer to the question would be no, I never imagined the label at twenty years old.
twi-ny: What does it take to be a Thrill Jockey band?
Bettina Richards: It is very hard to put that into just a few words, but I will try. I think a common thread among musicians we work for is that they would all be doing what they are doing regardless of who was listening, that they are willing to take risks musically, and finally that they always have a certain aspect of abandon in their music. From one of our newest artists, Black Pus, to one of our oldest bands still recording, the Sea and Cake, they are all-in and uncompromising.
twi-ny: How has the Chicago indie music scene changed since 1992? Who are some of your favorite signings?
Bettina Richards: Everywhere has changed since 1992, considerably. I really do not have favorites among the records that I have released. I really do love them all. I could tell you a story about each and every release. While the label owes its longevity, in large part, to our better known bands like Tortoise, Freakwater, Trans Am, the Sea and Cake, the Fiery Furnaces, Future Islands, Wooden Shjips, and Liturgy, we simply would not be the same label without Oval, Radian, Eleventh Dream Day, Pontiak, the Lonesome Organist, Barn Owl, Sidi Touré, Jack Rose, or Gaunt. To borrow some words from John Coltrane, “It all has to do with it.”
twi-ny: You mentioned before that you are equal partners with your artists. Does that 50-50 model still work in the digital online era?
Bettina Richards: Indeed it does — extremely well.
twi-ny: What kind of music do you listen to when you’re away from the office, relaxing at home?
Bettina Richards: I have four-year-old twins, so you will have to refresh my memory as to what relaxing is like!
There is very little difference between what I listen to while at work and while at home, even to what I play for my twins. So aside from the records that we put out, I play lots of records on the always exciting Drag City Records, Blackest Rainbow, Experimedia, Immune, and reissue labels like Monk, Four Men with Beards, and Mississippi Records. I have lately been on a real heavy bent playing a lot of Watain, the Body, Mutilation Rites, Krallice, and Hell. While that has been my most recent tear, it has been peppered with a healthy dose of Charlie Parr, Elektro Guzzi, Joe Bataan, Porter Ricks, Duke Ellington, Cat Stevens, and music from the early twentieth century from India and Pakistan. (Yesterday it was an early recording by Ali Akbar Khan). Been getting into those Fugazi live recordings that Dischord has been posting. Always close to my record player are Fleetwood Mac, Fats Waller, Wanda Jackson, the Jesus Lizard, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, EPMD, and Neil Young.