These days I am too old, slow, and decrepit to go trolling around on my hands and knees digging through crates of seven inch records to find those hidden gemstones of the early 80s. Luckily, the guys at Sing Sing are doing the leg work for elderly cranks such as myself by re-issuing punk rock and power pop obscurities from around the world and selling them at a reasonable rate.

Sure, I guess some uber collector can one up me by claiming to own an original copy of, say, the Tunnelrunners Plasticland EP, but he more than likely also possesses perpetual plumbers’ crack, no lady, and a very peculiar smell. As I sit in the house roasting chick peas and romancing the wife while jamming these Sing Sing singles, I’ll think of such a dude and grin the grin of a victor.

I recently spoke with Jeremy Thompson and Trey Lindsay who run Sing Sing and they were delightful fellows who were more than happy to discuss rare records. Wudda surprise!

Vice: So I guess just give me a basic rundown of how the label got started.
Jeremy Thompson: Trey approached me about starting a label. He also does the label Robs House and already knew how to actually run things in a smart way. He’s a real prince. We started with a few suggestions each and the whole thing came together really quickly. We’ve been releasing three singles every three months since then.
Trey Lindsay: I had been doing Rob’s House for a few years before I moved to New York and a lot of my motivation for that label was aimed towards Atlanta bands and brethren. Having left, however, it wasn’t quite the same and I was toying with the idea of starting a new label in New York. It only took a few short conversations with Jeremy and we had pretty much figured out the whole game plan.

Although you seem to stick to a certain era of music, it doesn’t seem you stick to a certain sound. Is there any set idea of what gets re-issued? Would you re-issue something from the 60s or 90s if you deemed it worthy? Jeremy: There’s an era for all the stuff we re-issue but I don’t think the sound of the records we’ve released has been very restrictive. It’s all leaning towards the pop end of the spectrum I guess. I can’t see us ever releasing anything from the 1960s really. There are so many labels that do that so well and I can’t see myself liking anything from the 1990s enough to even buy the record much less re-issue it.
Trey: Agreed, although when we first started there were a few conversations about releasing some records by current bands that would make sense in the mix, but we got over that idea pretty quickly. There are tons of labels that cater to those bands–Rob’s House included–and very few doing what we’re doing.

Is it a pain in the ass tracking down some of these bands?
Jeremy: Almost anyone can be found through the internet and by making a few phone calls, it’s pretty easy. You see the guys name on the back of the record sleeve and then you type his name into the computer and you find him. Almost everyone has been really pleasant to deal with, especially bands from Amsterdam. All the bands we’ve worked with from there are thrilled about having their music re- released in the states and are genuinely easy going. We had the Cylinders come over here last winter and they were all really cool people. I have had a few bad experiences though.

Do tell!
The first was with this Irish power pop/metal musician from the early 80s who did a couple of singles and then disappeared. I was emailing all these guys from the scene back then trying to find her. After like five months, I finally tracked her down. She’s a super-religious country performer now with a totally different name. So, I called her at home and asked to speak with April South–which was her metal name–and she paused for a minute then screamed “FUCK OFF!!” and hung up. We didn’t even want to reissue her recordings, I just wanted to interview her for our blog or something. It was really weird though, she totally freaked out.

The other really, really bad one was pretty recent. I had very high hopes for re-releasing this Irish Beatlesque power pop group called the Peasants and I spent a really long time trying to track the guys down. After almost a year of getting stonewalled, I finally got the songwriter/singer’s home number. I called his house and got his wife who was like “Oh… he’s out right now call back in 15 minutes. He’s gonna be SO happy someone is calling him about his old band the Peasants!” I was really excited because I had been looking for this guy forever. I called him back. He was super angry and really wasted. He literally gave me a lecture for like 15 minutes about how the Peasants were a “shite” band and how I was a moron for wanting to re-release the record. I had seen a photo of the guy online before I called him. He had a huge beard and was holding a pan flute or something in the picture, so I figured I was gonna be talking to some laidback hippy guy but he was really pissed off at me for some reason. The conversation ended with me telling him he was insane and that his old band was amazing. I was telling him how sad I was that he hated his own record–it was pathetic.

How do you keep finding out about this stuff? Do you deal with a sole dealer of this stuff or do you just have friends who dig through crates a lot or what?
As completely lame as it sounds, I mostly just dig around online a lot. I’m also constantly emailing and calling folks in Europe. I talk with older guys who were in bands when this stuff was actually happening…basically just being a dork.
Trey: Yeah, I do a lot of the same stuff but I’m not quite as intense about it. It works out OK though because Jeremy always fills me in on the stuff I miss. Have you gotten any flack from people who were there to witness these bands? I know when I went hog wild collecting rare Psych stuff in the 90’s, most of the older dudes I would buy these records from would be like “Why are you re-issuing THAT?” I thought they were just dummy old men until those “Killed by Hardcore” compilations started coming out… then I knew exactly how they felt. I was like “Why would anyone care about Chronic Sick?”

Jeremy: I cared about Chronic Sick the second I saw the cover of their Cutest Band in Hardcore EP. That’s one of the best looking bands I’ve ever seen. I’ve never caught any flack from anyone about the stuff we release, I had one guy from Atlanta tell me the Tinopeners record sucks but that’s obviously wrong and I can’t even take it seriously. Sometimes I’ll play something for someone and they won’t like it, but I honestly have no idea what people are gonna deem “re-issue worthy.” With most of these records, it’s hard to find more than a few paragraphs on some blog somewhere about them. If you’re lucky you’ll get a couple of terrible sounding MP3s. I guess that’s what’s really cool about doing this label is that the music is totally new for a lot of people buying the records.

What label is the antithesis of Sing Sing?
Jeremy: Slap-A-Ham.
Trey: Slap-A-Ham?

Here are a few gems from the Sing Sing collection.
[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/tunnelrunners-plasticland.mp3]
Tunnel Runners – “Plastic Land”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/tinopeners-set-me-free.mp3]
Tin Openers – “Set Me Free”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/straightshooter-shes-so-fine.mp3]
Straightshooter – “She’s so Fine”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/spider-back-to-the-wall.mp3]
Spider – “Back to the Wall”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/rudi-big-time.mp3]
Rudi – “Big Time”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/roses-are-red-your-love-is-like-a-ballistic-missile.mp3]
Roses are Red – “Your Love Is Like A Ballistic Missile”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/rollerball-savage-eyes.mp3]
Rollerball – “Savage Eyes”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/jetz-catch-me.mp3]
Jetz – “Catch Me”

[audio: http://viceland-assets-cdn.vice.com/blogs/en/files/2010/07/blaze-x-some-hope.mp3]
Blaze X – “Some Hope”

TONY RETTMAN