Northwest of Nowhere

It's a label. Sort of. A collective? It's life on the prairie--people helping people because we've got to take care of each other.Of course, that's all nice and poetic (and fairly vague), but what is it that actually happens Northwest of Nowhere? A few things, hopefully.

1. Great music. We love the things we put out--and we hope you will, too. We don't really have a clear rubric for taste, but we try to trust our ears and cross our fingers and we really hope you love it all as much as we do. (Laremy and I have been known to stand in the kitchen of the Fruited Plain, trying to work out a strange quadrant-graphed idea, some kind of amoebic nonagon).

2. Community and support. Making music can be a lonely (and sometimes cutthroat) endeavor. We want to support bands and build community in any way that we can. Sometimes that's fronting a band some money to print beautiful music. Sometimes that's connecting bands to artists to design rad merchandise. Sometimes that pulling together shows, putting bands we love on tickets with bands we love. (And vice versa?)

3. The Back Back. This is our secret weapon. We live in an area sparser in original and honest art than a lot of big cities. That doesn't mean the art is less impressive or necessary, just that there are fewer opportunities to run into it. And we think that collision is vital, not just to community, but to the richness that precipitates human flourishing. So we run a venue, The Back Back, that strives to collide excellent bands with the excellent people of our community.