Sheiks of Industry
Austin record labels, part 2
By Michael Chamy, Fri., Nov. 21, 2003
Tight Spot: Guided by Choices
"Isn't indie rock dead?" puzzles Tight Spot Records' Chuck Stephens, one of the art form's biggest local boosters. "Does anybody listen to jingle-jangle guitars anymore?"It's not easy being the sole beacon of optimism among a group of musicians renowned for their fatalism. As Stephens stares into his bowl of pho bemoaning the tasks ahead of him, clearly this is a down day for Tight Spot, so named after a cease-and-desist order. Atlanta's Two Sheds Music sent the papers that doomed the label's original name, putting the 27-year-old entrepreneur in a gargantuan pinch only days before Bedbug's Happiest of Hours was set to mint.
Catch Stephens on a bright day, at one of his bands' better gigs, and he's liable to throw you into a flying headlock as he pogos to the jingle-jangle guitars of Fivehead, Bedbug, and Subset, local bands that rock with way too much sincerity for today's sardonic post-punk crowds. Forget the too-cool facade, Stephens believes in the music and its powers.
"I spend 12 hours a day on this record label on my days off," says Stephens, who part-times at Star Seeds Cafe under manager and Fivehead co-frontman John Hunt. "I don't think I should be some sort of shining example to record label folks everywhere. I get to go out and get drunk and fall off the stage at the Guided by Voices Hoot Nite if I want to!"
That sort of behavior is contagious at Tight Spot shows, especially the GBV Hoot Nites and the Porchlight Pop Fest, fast becoming a yearly SXSW daytime highlight.
"I don't work to sell records as much as I work to sell bands," says Stephens, who recently started doing press as NO! PR for locals Canoe, Shane Bartell, and Oliver Future in addition to the Tight Spot bands. "I'll put as much into a record as a band will put into it.
"Sometimes the guys see me as annoying. I tell them they need to be on the road, 'What're you doing getting married?' ... things like that. If you're going to put the time and effort and money into making a record, you should put the same into making sure as many people as possible hear that record."
If anybody can pump life into a dead art form, it's Stephens.
Established: 2001
Kingpin: Chuck Stephens
Notable Releases: Masonic, Never Stood a Chance; Subset, Dueling Devotions
New & Upcoming: Fivehead, Guests of the Nation; Bedbug EP
Average Print Run: 2,000
