Various Artists
Issue #34
Thrill Jockey 7” Box Set (Thrill Jockey)
By AK Gold
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 3:39pm
In 1992, former Atlantic Records employee Bettina Richards took $35,000 of her own money and started a record label called Thrill Jockey in New York. Three years later, the label moved to Chicago, where it gained its indie cred by putting out local post-rock bands like Tortoise and the Sea and Cake, and releasing rock and alt-country records by Midwesterners Eleventh Dream Day and Freakwater. To celebrate 15 years of business, Thrill Jockey invited its artists to cover a favorite track from the label’s extensive catalogue.
The songs featured on 7” Box Set include a large helping of the post-rock and Midwestern artists that the label is best known for. However, the 7” Box Set’s standout tracks reflect how Thrill Jockey’s roster has grown and diversified.
On their cover of OOIOO’s “Umo,” multi-instrumental duo Sue Garner & Rick Brown convert the original, which sounded like Japanese cheerleaders screaming over industrial percussion, into a summery, latin-style dance track worthy of one of Rio’s favelas. David Byrne makes the Fiery Furnaces’ “Ex Guru” sound like one of his own by toning down the original track’s cheesy keyboard effects, samba-ing up the rhythms, and kicking up his cool, melodic vocals. And, Arbouretum and Victoria Legrand (of Beach House) turn “Bus Stop” by throaty Patti Smith–evoking Thalia Zedek into an epic, Fleetwood Mac–style, blues track.
Like any curious and complex 15-year-old Chicagoan, Thrill Jockey is proving that it has expanded its interests beyond sparse and swirling Midwestern rock, post-rock, and alt-country to include dance rhythms, blues riffs, and industrial sounds from across the country and the oceans.
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