3 Hours of Gearhead on Up To No Good Radio!

Our pal Frank over at FOE zine and Up to No Good Radio did a 3 Hour long radio show featuring almost all Gearhead bands. The link for streaming the show is up now, so click on it to check out this awesome show. I couldn't have done a better job myself of choosing great tracks to play. Just click on the link and be patient while it loads, then let this baby rock your world for the next 3 hours!!
Streaming Radio Show:
http://foe.firstpress.net/Up%20To%20No%20Good%20Radio/august%2012%202012.mp3

Play List:
http://frankfoe.blogspot.com/2012/08/up-to-no-good-radio-playlist-download.html

Summer 2012 Newsletter

The season of relaxing, playtime and outdoor entertaining is upon us. In the Sacramento Valley, Summer time also means an abundance of fresh locally grown organic fruits and vegetables. I’m incredibly lucky; I have a huge backyard with planter boxes filled with ripening tomatoes, traveling vines of cucumbers and melons and plenty of fresh herbs to season this bounty. As a Master gardener, I’ve learned to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water and wait. If you do things right, little green shoots will pop up through the dark rich earth with in a couple of weeks and start growing like crazy. But sometimes, you have to go in and weed out the extra stuff that wasn’t planned for in your otherwise well-prepared beds. It’s the same with running Gearhead. I’m fully in the middle of weeding now, creating space for the little seedlings to come.

Thank you so much for the overwhelming support and encouragement so many of you sent in regards to the last newsletter I sent out. I was blown away by the outpouring of shared stories, many similar to mine, and the appreciation for the honesty that I shared when telling my story.

The response was so overwhelming I have not been able to answer all the wonderful emails I’ve received.  I am deeply grateful my words were an inspiration to others and honestly, I cried when I read some of those emails. If you haven’t heard back from me yet, know I will answer your email. I believe in saying thank you and making a personal connection to the best of my ability.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about who I am, and what I believe in. There’s an ad that runs on TV and radio for Kaiser Permanente, a health care provider here in the US that states all the things they stand for and encourage their patients to reach for: exercise, healthy relationships, good food and plenty of sleep, play time and balance, and clear honest communication.

It got me to thinking: what do I stand for? What are the most important values in my life, and how do I share that with the world? A few that come to mind are sincerity, honesty, patience, enthusiasm, great customer service, speaking my truth (even if it seems counter productive), treating others as I wish to be treated, connecting with my customers personally, and transparency in all actions. As I look back on the twelve years I’ve spent running and building my business, these are values I’ve tried to incorporate into Gearhead on a daily basis.

When I first started the label I had another goal: I wanted Gearhead to be the first label in the history of the music business that was honest with the bands, and put out music I totally loved and believed in.

As I take a hard look at where I am today personally, and where Gearhead is, I see it’s more important than ever to honor all these values. There’s always been the myth of label vs. band, and that myth has created a lot of false impressions and bad feelings between record labels and the bands they’re supposedly helping even if they are being totally honest. It seems when you mix financial gains with art, there’s bound to be misunderstandings somewhere along the line. It’s enough to make me want to throw my hands up, and ask, can anyone be honest in this day and age? Can a business truly be transparent in their business practices and still be successful?

As I sort through the remnants of Gearhead Records, and get honest with myself about what was and wasn’t working, I realize now that despite my best intentions at transparency, there were a lot of times where my actions seem to go against everything I stood for. Although I have never lied to a band or anyone I’ve worked with, I see now that I was totally lying to myself, and that’s just as bad, if not worse. I have made a whole lot of mistakes because of ignorance and getting caught up in the ego of creating a “successful” business.

I’ve been applying many of the Alcoholics Anonymous principles to healing my life and bringing it into balance, and the one area I’ve really been stuck on is Step 4: taking an honest and fearless inventory of who I’ve harmed with my actions and making amends. In order to build on a solid foundation, you have to find and fix all the cracks in it. It’s not a pretty place to be, and honestly, I was able to justify my actions because my intentions were always the same: treat people as I want to be treated, always be honest and truthful even if it’s painful. But in my misguided effort to “grow the business” I let a lot of these values get varnished over by thinking I was making the best decisions for everyone.  I forgot to be honest with myself.

There’s a quote from Ayn Rand that really reflects this: “You came as a solemn army to bring new life to man [or in my case, to bands]. You tore that life you knew nothing about out of their guts–and you told them what it had to be. You took their every hour, every minute, every nerve, every thought in the farthest corners of their souls–and you told them what it had to be. You came and you forbade life to the living.”

It started out so pure, so honest. I had no intention of creating a “business”. I only wanted to share my passion with the world, to share all this great music that I had access to. I was completely ignorant about what I was doing; I have a degree in Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis on Ethnobotany. I never took a business class in my life. I just flew by the seat of my pants, working full-time as a sales person for Mordam Records by day, and at night, learning how to put out records by just doing it: DIY baby! And gradually, it all shifted after the massive commercial success of The Hives.  That’s when I started pushing the bands to be something they weren’t, to do something bigger and better. That’s when the silent destruction began. I started lying to myself, and following my ego instead of my heart.

I told the bands what they had to do to “make it” even if they had no desire deep down to become successful. Certainly, almost all bands I’ve worked with say they want to be successful, but the truth is, it’s really hard work, and most bands just want to have fun, play music, party and get laid. And I have always told bands just starting out: “If it’s not fun, don’t do it. Don’t become a band because you think you’re gonna be famous.” My pal Toothless George has just released a book called Band Together about this very topic in which I am quoted saying this very thing! I encourage everyone one of you reading this newsletter to check out his book; it has a lot of sage advice from some of the greatest talent in the world of independent music!

I took something pure, and as Ayn Rand so eloquently puts it,“tore it out of their guts”.  No wonder most of the bands on the label ended up breaking up, and no wonder so few of the records ended up breaking even. I owe every one of those bands, every single customer and person I came in contact with over the years an apology. I made some terrible mistakes thinking I was doing the right thing. Even though I was completely transparent in all business practices, including all the accounting, sales and money, I was lying to myself. I wanted the label to grow, and to sell a lot of records. I wanted the bands to be splashed across the covers of the big music magazines. I wanted to look cool because I discovered a band and brought them to the world.

One of my favorite movies, Almost Famous, has some great lines in it that really highlight reality of the music industry. If you don’t know this movie, go rent it!!  It’s a semi-autobiography by the now famous movie director Cameron Crowe (Singles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Macquire among others) about a geeky music fanatic high school kid who wrote for Creem Magazine and Rolling Stone.  The kid, William, finds himself on the road with a fictional rock band in order to get an inside look at the band for Rolling Stone Magazine, and during the tour it becomes clear he is not part of the “in-crowd”.

 This movie reflects my life in so many ways. I started out Djing for a college radio station, KBVR in Corvallis OR, in 1986. Before that I went to the occasional concert: The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Heart, and the occasional punk show that came to town (Dead Kennedys and The Miracle Workers in 1982 stand out big time). As a DJ, and then as a music critic for the Oregon State University paper The Barometer, I began going to shows almost every night. I found myself wanting to be one of the “cool kids”. I was going to tons of shows, interviewing bands, writing about music and in general surrounding myself with the “in crowd.” Being around those bands made me feel cool, and I became friends with many of them. Or so I thought. There’s a line in the movie where the Lester Bangs character, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman says to the kid, William “Oh God, you made friends with them! They make you feel cool, and hey, I’ve met you, you are not cool.” That one line perfectly describes my life in a nutshell: I’m not cool; I never was, despite hanging around cool people.

I’ve been sorting through all the old posters I’ve collected from my past twenty-five plus years in the music industry, and listing them for sale in the Gearhead eBay store. I’ve decided to liquidate everything. I’ve dragged boxes of this stuff around all these years, holding onto them as badges of “coolness”, looking for validation in these colorful rolled pieces of paper. The truth is, I’ve seen and done a lot of cool stuff, hung with amazing people and witnessed the emergence of some unbelievable talent. I don’t need those posters to prove that I’m cool, because I’m not.

I’m just a music geek girl who got sucked into a life that fed my soul and my passion, because it made me feel. There’s another line in that movie where William is interviewing Russell Hammond, lead guitar player for the (fictional) band Stillwater, played by Billy Crudup. He asks him “What do you like about music?” and Russell pauses, and then answers “EVERYTHING”. The movie closes with a line, spoken by the groupie Sapphire (played by Fairuza Balk): “They don’t know what it is to be a fan, to truly love some silly piece of music or some band so much that it hurts”.  And that’s what it’s all about: loving music and being so moved by it that it hurts.

As I continue to reassess Gearhead and where I’m at spiritually, emotionally, financially, and physically, that’s all that really matters. I still love music deeply, passionately, and joyfully, and it doesn’t matter that I totally get off on listening to Cat Stevens or John Denver when I need to feel a little sad and introspective, or that I throw on The Go-Gos or The Runaways when I need a pick-me-up, or Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris when I need to feel the ache of raw longing. It’s all about the music, and despite my mistakes, that will never change.

I deeply love the music I helped release into the world: I still sing along at the top of my lungs with That Dukes of Hamburg record every time I listen to it. That White Barons record totally reminds me of what a fool for love I’ve been when I listen to their anthem “Drank Myself Right Back to You”. The Mansfields make me want to dance every time I crank it up, and Mensen and Puffball get my blood flowing and I air-guitar along like a cool rocker chick when I listen to them. I Walk The Line is still one of my favorite records for it’s honest dark emotional lyrics, and I still think Red Planet is still the greatest pop band that no one ever heard. Every single record in the Gearhead catalog does something for me and I’m grateful that I got to share that with the bands who created the music, and the fans who supported Gearhead by buying the records and going to the shows and giving me the guts and inspiration to keep putting out records by bands no one ever heard of, just because I thought someone else might dig it as much as I did.

As I find redemption in the music, I know I’m going to be ok. Gearhead will continue on. I know now I’ll put out another record when the time is right, and this time, I’ll just let it be what it is; a captured moment of self-expression, creativity, and passion, not just a cog in the financial success of a business. In the words of the Flaming Sideburns “We gotta testify, we gotta go to church, we gotta drink the wine, we got to testify!!” Rock n’ roll still feeds my soul!

Michelle Gearhead

White Barons on Tour!!

White Barons 2012 spring tour schedule--go check 'em out if you're in one of these areas, and tell 'em Gearhead sentcha!

May 23 2012 The Shakedown San Diego, CA
May 24 2012 The Redwood Los Angeles, CA
May 25 Eli's Mile High Club Oakland, CA
May 26 Bender's Bar San Francisco, CA
May 27 Blue Lamp Sacramento, CA

Spring 2012 Newsletter

Spring has gently arrived in the beautiful Sacramento Valley. The bright yellow heads of daffodils wave gently in the breeze. Star Magnolias have exploded in a haze of soft pinks and purples, emitting waves of fragrance from these clouds of color as one walks past. The intoxicating sweet spicy scents of orange blossoms, honeysuckle and jasmine fill the air. The earth is waking up again, poking up exploratory leaves, color and sound and I find my mood matching the awakening of new life all around me.

I too am slowly waking up from a deep dark winter. This month, I celebrate the 12th Anniversary of Gearhead Record’s first release, the CD compilation called “Runnin’ on Fumes”. In quick succession, my former partner and I released 8 more records, and Gearhead Records was off and zooming down the drag strip. Twelve years later, things are very different. I’ve spent the last few weeks digging through the past to find out just where my original pure intentions of finding great music and sharing it with the world hit the wall and exploded in a spectacular display of flames and smoke. Bankruptcy, frustration, anger, blame, betrayal, competition, and jealousy—if the story of Gearhead were a soap opera, Days of our Lives would have nothing on us.

Old battered cardboard boxes of show fliers I’ve kept since the early 80s have captured my attention lately; It’s like finding a diamond mine in your own backyard. Just looking at those fliers and remembering all the amazing bands I've seen, I have slowly been rediscovering the love and passion I felt for the music at the beginning of this long winding journey. There was a pure childlike intention at the start of creating Gearhead; find great new music and share it with the world. I just wanted to put out records I wanted to buy for bands I loved. It was fun!! Nothing more, nothing less. Put out a great record that people might really dig of a fantastic band I saw play at a crumby little dive-bar.

I consciously took a step back these last two years, not putting out any records, not striving to find the “next big thing”; just selling the existing catalog and merchandise, trying to clear some space. Because of this, the wonderful people I worked with daily to keep Gearhead going, my beloved Wrecking Crew, all moved on, so now it’s just me. You’re shocked and surprised, right?

Maybe I’ve done all I could do, and it is time to let it go and move on. The world of independent music has changed so much; I don’t recognize it anymore. But as I looked at all those old fliers, and remembered how great I felt witnessing something new, something fresh, I see now I had to go through this time of darkness to discover the tiny little flicker of life that is still there, like that bud of a new leaf just waiting for the warmth of a spring day to burst again.

Change is always scary. It’s hard for us to change, and it’s really hard to let others change. But we change or we die. It’s that simple. Clearly, Gearhead is not ready to die yet. The amazing letters I get every day from people thanking me for the records I’ve released give me hope. But I can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. Gearhead needs to change. It’s time to roll up that checked flag, and reach for something new. What that is, I don’t know yet.

As I celebrate twelve years in business, a remarkable feat in this day and age, I am excited and inspired for what may be around the corner. Eventually, that will mean re-doing the Gearhead website, something I’ve wanted to do for several years. As I wait for inspiration, the right person to help design it, and the financial resources to upgrade, I continue to clear out the old. Since the current website is hopelessly out of date, you can find all the great Gearhead products in the EBay store. There's some nifty options, like paying what you want with the “make an offer” feature. Think that Red Planet CD is too expensive? Make an offer on what you think is a fair price, and chances are, I’m gonna say yes and sell it to you for what you want to pay, because everyone should hear this great band!! I still regularly process orders from the webstore, but just be aware there’s probably a lot more cool stuff worth checking out on EBay. There is also an Amazon.com storefront, so check there too for special deals just for that site.

I’ve started listing rare and out of print records, posters, limited edition colored vinyl and more for auction; another neat feature on EBay that I’ve not really taken advantage of. You’d be surprised the things I’ve found while digging through those dusty boxes, and now I’m letting them see the light of day, and hopefully a new home where someone will love and appreciate these things as much as I have.

Gearhead has also finally won a very long trademark battle, which started over 7 years ago. The word Gearhead is now officially a registered trademark, so this opens the door to opportunities for expansion that I’ve dreamed about almost since the beginning of the company. It also means I now have the right to go after other companies using the name Gearhead without permission, and once and for all clean up all the imposters out there who have been hanging on the Gearhead bumper.

Little by little, the Gearhead Facebook page is taking shape as I find stashes of pictures from the last twelve years documenting the incredible ride this little company has been on. I’m not the fastest at this whole Facebook posting thing: frankly, I get a little overwhelmed at how easy it is to kill a day just reading all the updates. In the meantime, you can also friend me directly, (where you’ll get the first heads up on new stuff going up on the EBay site) and follow Gearhead on Twitter (@GearheadRecords) as well. As I decide what I’m doing that’s where I’ll be posting it first.

For now, let’s all sing Happy Birthday to Gearhead Records. I’m excited to see how this year will unfold, and while I can’t say for sure I’m ready yet to put out a new record, I’m at least ready to share more of the behind the scenes stuff that occurs every day.

Here’s to a joyful, change-filled spring!
Michelle Gearhead

Itunes Promotion Starts Dec. 19!

Our dear friends over at Itunes have helped put together this fantastic promotion, and you lucky folks can take advantage of it Dec. 19 starting at 10 pm through Jan 11 2012. The following list of titles will be on sale for the special price of $5.99, and the compilations will be on sale for an astounding .99 each! So roll on over to iTunes.com/ROCK and download these awesome records!
Happy Holidays!


V/A Greaseball Melodrama
V/A The Thingmaker
V/A Smash Up Derby
V/A Welcome to Gearhead Country
V/A Hot Rod Pinups: The Soundtrack

Red Planet "Let's Degenerate"
Puffball "Super Commando"
Wildhearts "Riff After Riff"
Gtogito Hustler "Love and Roll"
The Spunks "Yellow Fever Blues"
Mensen "Oslo City"
White Barons "Up All Night"
Bob Burns and the Breakups "Terminal Breakdown"
Black Tie Revue "Code Fun"
Demons "Stockholm Slump"
Pink Swords "Shut Up and Take It"
I Walk The Line "Desolation Street"
Dragons "Sin Salvation"
NRA "Machine"
Mansfields "Cramp Your Style"
Million Dollar Marxists "Give it a Name"
New Bomb Turks "The Night Before the Day The Earth STood STill"
Hypnomen "Trip With Satan"
Black Furies "Death Trip Saturday Night"
The Thunder Boys "...Are Go!"
Dukes of Hamburg "Some Folks"

Free Shipping Ends Soon!

Hey Gang! Just a heads up that you have one more day to take advantage of our World Wide Free Shipping for all orders placed through the secure Gearhead Web Store http://www.gearheadrecords.com/site/store/index.php?band_id=1&categories=1

Any thing you purchase in the store will ship free world wide, but hurry! This incredible offer ends Thursday Dec. 15th! Ho ho ho....
Happy Holidays!

World Wide Free Shipping From Gearhead Records

The frosty fingers of winter have started to stroke the lush Sacramento Valley. Freeze warnings on the local news have triggered the frantic covering of cold-tender plants like orange and lemon trees, hibiscus and other tropical plants that grow so wonderfully in the rich warm climate of Northern California. As a Master Gardener, these changes are foremost in my mind as I balance running my business with my love of gardening. Do I concentrate on getting the website updated for the Gearhead Records annual holiday Free Shipping Sale, or do I take the next few days off to take care of my plants? It’s the daily balancing act that makes running a small business so exciting, and so challenging, especially as the holidays approach. Since the last newsletter just went out a few weeks ago, you dear subscribers already know what’s been going on, so I can just send out this short update, and then get back to my plants!

ANNUAL HOLIDAY FREE SHIPPING SALE WORLDWIDE STARTS DEC. 8

For one week every year, Gearhead says thank you to our customers around the world by offering free shipping on any item purchased through our Secure Web Store. As a small business, there’s not a lot of room to mark merchandise up, and since all the items we sell in our Web Store are custom, and therefore by definition, unique and limited, there usually isn’t any room for big sales and discounts like our brethren at the Big Box Stores.

I’m not knocking those giant corporate chains at all– they serve a purpose in our economic climate. But the holidays are a time to focus on the unique, the different, the unexpected, and what better way to blow the minds of your gift recipients than by giving them the Gift of Gearhead and saving a few bucks on shipping for you! As most of you long-time subscribers know, we have something for everyone: rockin’ tunes for the indie music fan, shot glasses for the drinker in your life, t-shirts and hoodies, and stickers and posters for that wrencher working on their wheels in your garage.

So head over to our Secure Web Store, Dec 8 through Dec. 15 and click on any item to add it to your shopping cart, and at check out, you’ll just pay for the items, minus shipping! And yes, no matter where you live on this lovely planet, your order will ship to you free of charge. Now, there may be a small fee for using your credit card, and there’s nothing I can do about that–it’s built into the back end of the credit card processor, but honestly, its just pennies, not the full cost of shipping. That is my gift to you my friends, for sticking with Gearhead, and supporting us these last eleven years! World Wide Free Shipping ends Dec. 15! Happy Holidays!

GEARHEAD TO BE FEATURED LABEL ON ITUNES FOR CHRISTMAS!!

While I have never actually downloaded music off of Itunes, I hear tell its all the rage these days. Our pals at Itunes really want to get Gearhead into the present and have asked us to be their featured label during the frantic holiday season, and we’ve said yes! So what does that mean for you, the downloader extraordinaire, or newbie like myself? From December 22 through January 3 2012, a number of Gearhead records will be on sale for download through Itunes at a special discounted rate!

Many of you may already use Itunes to purchase digital music, so just log into your account and download these select titles for the discounted rate. If you don’t have an Itunes account, it’s really easy to set up. I even finally set one up myself! Maybe you’ll get a new Iphone or other MP3 player or computer for the holidays, so have some fun and check out some new music, or talk your friends into doing it, and download away!

As we wrap up this year, and look towards the future, may you all enjoy the spirit of the holidays, and share what you have with those you love. The holiday season is about recognizing and appreciating the community you find yourselves in, whether it’s a group of punk rockers, car buffs, gardening fanatics or your crazy family that never got who you were. Love them anyway and enjoy how they enhance your life.

Sending you all greetings and best wishes for a festive and abundant holiday season.

Michelle

Gearhead Records