June 2014 saw Jade Tree releasing their entire catalog on Bandcamp. True, this was preceded by several quiet years from the label, in fact, the general consensus of east coast punks was that Jade Tree had silently dissolved, that it had become something that wasâ something only remembered for the likes of Kid Dynamite, Cap'n Jazz and Pedro The Lion.
Jade Treeâs action in 2014 came with excitement from some and skepticism from others. No matter whose opinion you favor, Jade Tree was and is the same label it has always been, propelled by the same motivations that led founders Tim Owen and Darren Walters to start Jade Treeâ for the love and appreciation of music.
After meeting in 1990, both of the founders' previous imprintsâ Owenâs Axtion-Packed Records and Walters' Hi-Impact Recordsâ were put to rest, and Jade Tree was formed. The last 25 years have brought about a catalog of releases that showcase sounds true to both labels. With the melding of Owenâs Baltimore/DC hardcore influence and Walterâs ear for the fastest and raw punk music in the tri-state area, Jade Tree was born to be eclectic. Their roster of bands range so far in either direction of the musical spectrum, the evidence shows that Walters and Owen appreciate music for what it naturally is and have no interest in championing any one genre. Walters and Owen were looking to bring as much quality material to the community as possible, and because of that, what kind of label the two were looking to create was never in question.
"Ruth Schwartz of Mordam once told us that you should never start a label to make money," Walters says. âShe said that it would be the biggest mistake you could make in the world. That really sums up my thinking in those days. Tim and I just hoped for a great label that would make a difference in the independent scene. To make a living off of it as a 'business' was something we never expected.â
The advent of the digital age altered the music industry forever. Jade Tree was forced to weather the tides of a changing market in the face of an uncertain future. People were buying music digitally instead of on vinyl, prompting Jade Tree to ask themselves, whatâs the point of making a product noone wants to buy?
âTim and I became really disillusioned with what we were doing so through 2006-2008 we made a conscious decision to stop releasing CD EPâs and in a sense get back to our roots and not try to push stuff out. Like a lot of individuals, we were swept up in the fact that we had a certain prestige we needed to adhere to and we needed to continue to pump out releases. But then, it became âFuck it, who cares what the other labels are doing.â Like, if we release one record a year or five records a year, who really gives a shit?â We cared about the perception but not enough to drive it. We wanted quality instead of quantity. Thatâs what people had come to know us for and we were starting to feel like we were trying to fit into the standards of the artist or to other peopleâs perceptions rather continue along our lines.â
Vinyl recordsâ commercial and cultural presence throughout the last 10 years has proven to be an effective case-study in the subject of supply-demand economics: what a consumer wants, the market gives. Because of that, more often than not, consumersâ view of the music industry primarily reflects the availability of records at any given time. However, Walters does not subscribe to the belief that record labels exist solely at the behest of the changes, times, and tastes of the world of music at large.
In the new paradigm, the highest-selling records sell 3 million copies and gas prices make touring a test of endurance and survival. That same survivalist instinct needed to be adopted by Jade Tree if they wanted to make it to calmer waters. Marriage to a specific format is irrelevant when the ultimate goal is to continue releasing good music and ensuring the business stays afloat. They needed to get hip, or get out. For Jade Tree, this meant reassessing how to serve their bands and the scene, while also maintaining a path toward a secure future for the label.
Jade Tree needed to do what was best for Jade Tree.
In a June 2014 Billboard.com op-ed about Jade Treeâs tenure and the perception of the labelâs activity, Walters had this to say:
âSome people thought Jade Tree stopped releasing records. Some think Jade Tree is making a comeback. Neither is true.â
The truth is that Jade Tree made conscious decisions to ensure they could weather the storm known as the digital revolution and come out (mostly) unscathed. The label chose to turn down the quick money offered by new file sharing companies and hold onto their catalogue. From 2007-2012, there were many young artists coming forward and disappearing just as quickly, influencing them to scale back on the production of less popular formats. They let digital music grow into itself, to become settled and less variable, a necessary step that would preserve Jade Tree until the industry proved more stable.
It goes without saying that punk has gained some years and put on some weight as it approaches middle age but, this comes with the territory. The new standard for 21st century rock nâ roll is stressful and includes about 10 extra hours of data entry because digital sales are hard to keep track of.
Jade Tree isnât âcoming back,â theyâre just reconfiguring their outlook so that the labelâs original goals and intentions are accomplished in the best way possible. Fortunately the label is right next door to the veritable hotbed that is Philadelphiaâs underground rock scene. In fact, many of Jade Treeâs new releases are coming from some of the best and brightest of the Philadelphia DIY scene.
Bands like certified real-rockers Dogs on Acid, the unashamedly observational Socialite, the achingly honest and inspiring alt-punk of Spraynard, scene-veterans Dark Blue, and post-punk-meets-shoegaze art-rockers The Spirit of the Beehive, are ready to take their places amongst the celebrated members of Jade Treeâs roster. Along with the release of a 25 year anniversary retrospective compilation LP, Jade Tree is also working on a myriad of new initiatives that promise to make these upcoming years the busiest the labelâs ever seen.
Jade Treeâs past ten years are a reminder that the world of music is as alive as it is volatileâ a combination which relentlessly tests the resolve of the most desperately obsessed fan. Jade Treeâs past twenty-five years should teach anyone who got into Paint it Blackâs album CVA because of Tony Hawkâs Pro Skater that when it comes to an undertaking like this, the unexpected will happen and that oneâs inner sense of truth will dictate whether or not you had any business starting a record label in the first place.
Our first installment of Bands On Bands is with Pat Graham of Spraynard talking about Strike Anywhere's influence on him, his music and his song choice for open mic nights.
Occasionally it takes more than just the hands of Sunny Singh to film some of the higher profile and festival shows whose footage ends up on the ever-growing @hate5sixofficial database. Singhâs passion project has found him traveling all over the country, almost daily adding footage of performances from punk and hardcore shows to the growing archive that he has amassed since the project became Singhâs priority around 2007.
Singh has been using Hate5Six for the past number of years to document hardcore shows for future viewers, but has also begun compiling videos of performances from before his time. In this way, Hate5Six brings the world of punk and hardcore into a larger perspective, enlarging the perceptions of place and unifying people of different times who at one point were, are, or will be affected by the art form.
When Singh takes it upon himself to film larger shows like Philadelphiaâs This is Hardcore, he typically has a friend or two that he has made through the process that he gets to handle another camera, as well as an audio engineer to mix and master the live audio from the soundboard for the video. There is no aspiration for capital gain behind Hate5Sixâs motivations.
âThe vast majority of Hate5Six videos are done just by me,â Singh says. âFor larger productions I'll usually have an additional camera operator or two, and sometimes I'll have an audio engineer help record the soundboard feed and mix/master it for the video. I'm pretty particular about the people I work with and over the years I've assembled a set of go-to's because I know they can pull off what I need them to do. I do like working with local videographers when I'm traveling. If I'm coming into their scene I like to collaborate with them when I can.â
Above all else, hate5six exists to document and widely relate past events of concerts and other events in order to highlight their presence and importance in the exponentially larger world of art itself. Often, this is impossible without some kind of compromise involving selling ad-space or something of the kind.
Hate5Sixâs purpose of bringing information doesnât begin and end with music. Singh readily includes spoken word performances, protests, and speeches in his collection of recordings order to highlight the meanings behind the music that initially attracts people to the site. His reasoning is simple, âEverything that I do is the result of having taken every word Zack de la Rocha screamed in Inside Out and Rage Against the Machine and directly applying it to my life in some way. It was through collecting Rage bootleg VHS tapes that taught me the importance of documenting live music. Rage was subversive in their approach. Zack delivering speeches mid-song, using their music videos to visually pump ideas into homes across the country, distributing literature at shows,â Singh explains. The mutually necessitative relationship between the music and the filming of its performance shows how art forms beget each other, as well as produce new inspirations from their commingling.
As for the ends that Singh attempts to reach by doing this, itâs clear that it stems from his motivations to provide unfiltered content. âIt was a disruptive way to get people to engage with politics. I model hate5six literally after this. Anyone who explores the site will find political shorts, videos of protests, mixed in with live show footage. I use my following on social media to signal boost certain movements and push people to think about things that are pressing. By definition this project is designed to transmit information. Whether it's ideas expressed in speeches bands make at shows or these political shorts. This is my way of stopping regularly scheduled programming to inject consciousness into people, especially when hardcore punk prides itself on ostensibly caring about sociopolitical issues. This community needs to do more than simply raising money for charities.â This includes a speech given by Dr. Cornel West at an event hosted by Philadelphia organization MOVE in May of 2015.
HATE5SIXâS MANIFESTO READS:
âThis project stands for the redistribution of high-quality live music videos in as much of an anti-capitalist framework as realistically allowable. At its crux, music is the communication of ideas through rhythm and sound. The introduction of money into the equation invariably obscures that connection. In an era when the turnover rate in the community is staggeringly high, this site serves as a vehicle for preservation and posterity. Institutional memory is key in any setting, and hardcore is no exception. A band's live performance tells a story about a particular moment in time relative to a particular audience. The intention here is to share that story with people who could not be there to experience it, both physically and temporally, or with those who have no conception of what hardcore is.
Without an audience, a band is just sending acoustic vibrations into an empty room. Without a band, bodies are just standing catatonically in a room waiting for inspiration or some other activation of the senses. This interface between the two defines an impassable gap between seeing a live show in the flesh and watching a two dimensional projection of said show on a screen. They can never be equivalent, but there are ways to construct a bridge that attempts to close that gap. The retelling of these narratives in this manner is the sole mission of hate5six.com.â
More often than not, hate5sixâs videos are shot solely by Singh himself; heâs been behind a camera in some capacity for the past 15 years. This entire time Singh has been at shows, some of his first being of the early 2000âs NJ DIY scene with a sound marked by post-Saves the Day influenced pop-punk, emo, and indie. Singhâs natural limitations when it came to his desire to see live performances from every band he loved coupled with a natural inclination to, as he says, âobsessivelyâ collect bootleg recordings of bands playing shows set him down a path of nationwide travel and 250-350 videos per year.
To cut shipping costs and to assure the freshness of the product, we will now be shipping our Twenty Five Years Blend coffee collaboration with Brandywine Coffee Roasters ourselves. A bag of coffee plus our 25th anniversary mug is now just $20 with $5 shipping.
A week from today, we'll be launching a retrospective blog in celebration of our 25th anniversary. We'll be posting interviews, videos, photos, studio sessions and much more alongside the people who have helped make us who we are for the past 25 years.
With this announcement, we're giving you all the chance to win your choice of a Pedro the Lion test press. Reblog or share this post with the tag #TestPress25 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr to enter. The more platforms you share the post on, the higher chance you have of winning! You must be following our respective pages to be eligible. Winners will be announced on Monday simultaneously with our first blog post.
Jade Tree Records Puts Entire Back Catalog On Bandcamp
Jade Tree Records classics like releases from The Promise Ring, Lifetime, Jets To Brazil, and Pedro The Lion, in addition to the rest of the labelâs back catalog, are now available on Bandcamp for $5 or less. Explore the whole catalog here and check out select cuts below after the jump.
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