{"id":20551,"date":"2021-02-22T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T10:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20551"},"modified":"2021-11-12T09:36:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T14:36:06","slug":"the-411-on-415","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/22\/the-411-on-415\/","title":{"rendered":"The 411 on 415"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An early working version of the cover art<\/p><\/div>\n

Last November I wrote a cover story for SF Weekly<\/em><\/a>; it focused on a series of reissue\/compilation CDs on the Liberation Hall label. Those releases contained music originally released on 415 Records, an influential and trend-setting indie label based in San Francisco in the late \u201870s and early-to-mid 1980s. Founded by Howie Klein and Chris Knab, 415 was at the forefront of new wave (and sometimes punk) or the era, and its early releases provided a tidy and representative cross-section of what was happening in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

For that feature, I interviewed several personalities relevant to the story. Those included Klein, Sally Webster of theatrical punk outfit the Mutants, Joe \u201cPop-O-Pie\u201d Callahan of the irreverent Pop-O-Pies, Jonathan Postal of the Readymades, Eric Din of under-recognized U.S. ska pioneers the Uptones, and Jack Casady of SVT (and, of course, of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna).<\/p>\n

Those six conversations made it clear to me that the 415 Records story was a much larger \u2013 and more compelling — one than could reasonably be told in the space of 3000 words. Moreover, the label\u2019s later period \u2013 a time when it had inked a deal with industry giant CBS\/Columbia \u2013 featured some of my favorite music. On a personal level, the albums Between Two Words<\/em> by Wire Train and Evening of the Harvest<\/em> by Translator were the soundtrack of my senior year of college. And they remain favorites to this day.<\/p>\n

Those two bands were among the handful of comparatively high-profile acts from 415\u2019s Columbia era, joining Red Rockers (responsible for the hit single \u201cChina\u201d) and Romeo Void \u201c(\u201cNever Say Never\u201d). There were others, too: former 13th<\/sup> Floor Elevators guitarist Roky Erickson arguably created his most enduring work with 1980\u2019s The Evil One<\/i>, released in the U.S. by 415. And a little-known band called Until December combined synthdance and rock textures in a way that few others did.<\/p>\n

In all, some 29 bands released music on 415 Records. Some did only a single track, or a two-sided single. A few made EPs. But all were significant in their own way. And their stories — as well as that of 415 Records — have yet to be told in a comprehensive manner.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my job. Coming later this year courtesy of HoZac Books is Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave<\/i>. I\u2019m hard at work on the project right now, having completed more than two dozen interviews [EDIT March 9: now more than 70<\/strong>!] [EDIT June 9: now more than 95<\/strong>!]<\/span>, and with more than that many remaining. I\u2019m speaking in depth with the artists, managers, producers, engineers, label executives and friends and fans whose stories come together to paint a picture of the 415 era.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be providing more info as things progress. It\u2019s a very exciting project, and each successive interview serves to tie together the narrative in unexpected ways. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last November I wrote a cover story for SF Weekly; it focused on a series of reissue\/compilation CDs on the Liberation Hall label. Those releases contained music originally released on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3668,50,59],"tags":[4390],"class_list":["post-20551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-music-business","category-new-wave","category-punk","tag-415-records","cat-10-id","cat-3668-id","cat-50-id","cat-59-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20551"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21972,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions\/21972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}