"How do you make something unknown again, when it's burned into your heart?" For those of us riding the Saturday night wave of the Dusty Medical 10 year Anniversary Fest (8/29/15), that question had no answer. We relived our "youth" to the soundtrack of 2006. I don't know how old you were at the time, but I was 9 years younger than I am now.
I had moved back to Milwaukee after spending college years in Madison and post-college years in Seattle. I moved to Bay View... Milwaukee's "new East Side". Before long I was making googly eyes at the Hi-Fi Cafe guy with the goofy mustache. Reuniting with my prom date of 1993 may seem like an obvious choice in hindsight, but took me by surprise at the time.
We drove along the Lakefront in his blue Chevelle. He shared new music with me as he had in years before. We had now moved on from cassettes to cds, but the songs were intentionally ordered and selected for my ears. "Listen to this, EVEN YOU would like it, "he said handing me a cd. (I of course took this as an insult.) I listened to it and he was right, I did like it. The music was a train ride, the words were a poem. I was forever hooked on the Goodnight Loving.
So then he nonchalantly mentions how he will be putting out a record by these guys on his record label. Hmm, record label ? Chevelle? Who is this mysterious prom date from my past? One half of the Get Drunk DJ's; one third of the Night Terrors. Sounds like the guy for me!
"The thing you love about your partner will be the thing that drives you crazy later, " I remember hearing at the time. Music. I loved his love of music; his passion for authentic music and his persistence in sharing it.
Sadly, I have discovered that this tendency does not lead to monstrous financial gain :) It does however lead to a catalog of unique, original artists pouring out what they carry inside. (see www.dustymedical.com ) Many of these songs would have disappeared like drops of water on dry earth. Happily they are now captured on vinyl.
I am proud of my guy and the hours he has devoted to this "of the people, by the people, for the people" record label that strives to break even so it can put out another release. And yes, sometimes I do have to ask him to turn down the music.
