Longtime friends Henry Rollins and Fugazi main man Ian MacKaye have joined forces to create a uniquely local record label – which already has two releases lined up.
The hardcore duo’s new label, District Line, will focus on rare and unreleased music from the Washington DC, USA area, and will operate under the auspices of 2-13-61 Publications, the entity that releases Rollins’s books and spoken word CDs.
Speaking on an email list run from his website, Rollins stated that the label will focus on rare and unreleased music from the Washington DC area, as a means for keeping rare music from his hometown in print for the future.
The label’s name was a suggestion from MacKaye.
“Music this good was made to be heard,” says Rollins of the label’s first two releases – an assortment of works by Trouble Funk as well as a compilation of DC bands entitled 30 Seconds Over DC.
“Trouble can be considered one of DC’s foremost Go-Go funk bands,” said the singer. “The Go-Go beat stands on its own. Nothing sounds like it and it belongs to Washington DC. The singles and the live album in this set date back to the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The live album is absolutely unimpeachable.”
Previously, Rollins and Rick Rubin had released some of Trouble Funk’s output on a label called Infinite Zero, but the material has since been out of print. Rollins had possession of the tapes, and has recently – with the aid of seminal Dischord producer Skip Groff and mastering specialist Phil Klum - worked to ensure that the albums are of the highest possible standard. “We are lucky that the tapes held up, I was expecting some problems because of their age but we lucked out,” he said.
30 Seconds Over DC proves to be an important find for DC aficionados. “It features DC luminaries such as Half Japanese, The Slickee Boys and The Nurses. It’s a great slice of music and history,” said Rollins.
It’s planned that the releases will be sold for $US10 each – including the Trouble Funk 2CD compile – with more to follow should the discs break even. As with many of the albums released on Rollins’ 2-13-61 label, $US1 will be donated to a worthy cause, though the recipient organisation had not been named at time of writing.
For further information, check out the official Henry Rollins website.
