016.2 Block All-Stars, Vol. 1: Dan Black

This is what it looks like when Dan Black (right) looks at Joe Rizzo when he’s saying something.

Block All-Stars is a series of posts about the various Hardisty-Disk collaborators. Dan Black is the proprietor of Say and Stay Said Records, brilliant designer of Landland, singer of Everybell and Whistle, Labour gang-ster and laptop wielder known as Terrorclops. He is also an MCAD ’03 homie and good dude.

I met Dan my first year at MCAD but we got our bond on more heavy when we both had the unfortunate idea to start record labels for our Senior Projects class. Because we mostly concerned with the actual releasing of records and design was only really about one or two sleeves and maybe some collateral, our projects were a little conceptually shaky for a semester-long portfolio building class. We ended up having to overly-conceptualize our projects and define them away from each other in order to keep working. Hardisty-Disk ended up being some intensely bizarre personal projects about defining my own aesthetics and produced a 12" and a few other things. I can’t remember what Dan’s rationale was but it didn't much matter because the stuff he produced (2 7" by his band, 1 being a split) was amazing. They were like the final word on the Gravity/mid-90's emo-aesthetic; both were screened in white on manila file-folders, with the Everybell 7" actually being sealed with a hand-made perforation being the only way to open it. The short of it being that Dan is kind of a genius.

He’s proven to be one of my biggest inspirations for Hardisty-Disk and has been indispensable for the re-launch. Whenever I visit him at his screen-printing studio I end up leaving with packaging concepts for HD nailed down. He’ll be contributing drawings for the I Am Heaven re-launch and his experimental cut-up/noise jam fuckery as Terrorclops is a big motivator for me to release music.

Lastly, I am extremely happy to announce he’s involved with HD 020, a 12" by his rock band Everybell and Whistle. I can’t think of a non-shitty sounding way to describe them, but all I can ever think is emo-prog. Sorry, guys. Everybell write 5–6 minute epics with constantly shifting dynamics and riffs and drum patterns that never repeat themselves. I’ve been harassing Dan to get them to write a one-riff long-ass jam for the last 2 years because a) every truly great band needs one of those songs, think Born Against’s “Well Fed Fuck”, Hoover’s “Electrolux” or the Monorchid’s “Bitch Test” and b) I’d like to hear one of the riffs for more than 3 seconds. I finally proposed that they do a 12" for me with one-side being a single-riff jam and the other being snippets, loops and outtakes. They’ve taken me up on the offer and the results look like it may be a kind of “Everybell and Whistle produced by Terrorclops” release. I couldn’t be more excited about this record and with any luck will be dropping it as part of the June ’08 release schedule. Here are 2 outtakes from a recent practice.

12.08.07 (0'58")
12.08.07-1 (1'37")

You can download Dan’s Terrorclops single for HD at his MySpace page. Or you can order one here.

Additional links:
Say-And-Stay-Said
Landland

016.1 Back in the Building

With the first real snowstorm for the ‘07–‘08 winter season falling on Minneapolis right now, it seems like a good afternoon to hole up on the internet and get this Hardisty-Disk blog to pop off.

Hardisty-Disk Records was founded by myself, J. Namdev Hardisty in 2003 as my Senior Project in Graphic Design (kind of like a thesis) at Minneapolis College of Art + Design (MCAD) with the goal of designing and manufacturing a record, producing print collateral, handling distribution and generally, just getting a record label set up. In that regard, it was successful. I released a 12" EP entitled “Ghost Call” by John Wiese in an edition of 300 with four-color screenprinted covers. I produced a website, a small run of t-shirts, poster designs and a postcard. Through-out 2003 and into 2004, I distributed “Ghost Call” and built up a small mailorder by trading with like-minded record labels. Plans were made to release more music but aside from a single limited-edition CDR release, I simply couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to keep the ’Disk active. I never quit the label, I just indefinitely put off any activity.

HD 016 and HD 006 are the beginnings of Hardisty-Disk phase 2 in earnest. So, without any further ado or apology-making, I christen this post HD 016.1 and share with you our current projects.

Beginning in 2008, Hardisty-Disk will release new music, art and apparel four times a year. Each date will coincide with a Minneapolis release party featuring label artists and special guests.

The first batch of new releases (HD 007–15) is scheduled for 3/17/08 and includes:

HD 007 John Wiese “Ghost Call” re-package 12"
When I originally released “Ghost Call”, I had only planned for 300 covers and ended up with an over press of about 80. I will be re-packaging the remaining copies with new screen-printed artwork (though it should be noted, I’m not doing the five-color thing again).

HD 009 I Am Heaven deluxe 12"
Kim and I released the I Am Heaven 12" on July95 in an edition of 480 copies in 1997 and it was a disaster in every possible way. The original ended up shipping with only a black 12" single sleeve and a laser-printed insert. I’ve been hanging to most of the original pressing in order to do them justice. We will be re-packaging them with all new screen-printed artwork by midwest visual agency (myself and Kimberlee Whaley) and Landland using elements from the original packaging scheme to act as a homage to a band that I truly loved. There will be no more than 200 of these.

HD 011 Terrorclops 7"
This catalog number is being reserved for a Terrorclops 7", though if a master isn't done in time, we will push it to a June ’08 release.

HD 013 Cages 1 cdr
HD 014 Cages 2/3 2xbcard
Minneapolis laptop noise at its worst—no microphones, recording devices or audio signals of any kind were used in the creation of these disks. Both will be available in screen-printed sleeves and editions of 25–50.

HD 019 March 08 winter release party
A collaboration with Terrorclops/Dan Black’s Say-And-Stay-Said label the line-up tentatively includes Terrorclops, Cages and Thank You plus special guests. This will be updated when we have firm information.

The remaining catalog numbers are reserved for posters and t-shirts which will be post as they are finished or in production.