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Some Party
How the Fantabulous World of Three Gut Records Created a National Hum
By Michael Barclay
That an indie record label is calling it a day after six years is not news. But when that label is Three Gut Records, it’s worth examining exactly how it helped make the last five years so pivotal in the history of Toronto indie rock.
In 1999, Toronto was adrift. Indie rock was dead. Every band was an island. The industry didn’t care, and neither did the rest of Canada. Compare that to the Toronto of today, and it really does seem a millennium away. A number of people and events transformed the situation — primarily the weekly live music series Wavelength — but Three Gut was the record label that maintained consistent quality and a small but stellar artist roster (Constantines, Royal City, Jim Guthrie, Cuff the Duke, and Gentleman Reg) that helped define the time.
When Three Gut began in Jim Guthrie’s living room, it was only a name to put on his first CD, A Thousand Songs, which collected his lo-fi cassette work of the late ’90s. Aaron Riches, his friend and new bandleader in Royal City, suggested turning it into a real label. Aaron had a decade of experience as a teen punk (Burn 51, Minnow) and promoter. Their friend Gentleman Reg, who had just assembled a Guelph compilation called The Goods, was also invited. Aaron brought his manager, Lisa Moran, and graphic designer Tyler Clark Burke into the fold.
Three Gut was ostensibly the name of a record label, although it was always much more than that. Everyone involved will tell you it was about community. It’s a cliché, but Three Gut practiced it on every scale. For starters, there was the living/working environment that five Three Gutters have called home, located on a hidden back street in the shadow of MuchMusic’s Queen Street studios. This would be host to family dinners, numerous house parties and shows, and the centre of operations for the label that also booked shows and handled publicity and business affairs for its artists. It was about keeping it in the family.
Three Gut was also interested in building other communities. Their first big splash occurred when Tyler threw massive parties in the courtyard of her loft space. All sorts of DJs and artists would be involved in the production, and all the bands were put to work constructing props and decorations. The parties attracted up to a thousand people — 99 percent of whom would be bewildered when a cardboard spaceship would descend at some point in the evening, full of Three Gut paraphernalia. The label’s second anniversary party involved circus acts, burlesque, a Three Gut Family Band playing rock’n’roll revival songs, and a headlining set by soon-to-be label-mates, Brooklyn band Oneida — a set that concluded with the Constantines’ Bry Webb naked on stage, screaming and preaching.
The irony is that early Three Gut albums were the antithesis of party music. They were quirky, fragile bedroom affairs, and in the case of Royal City’s At Rush Hour the Cars, adorned with minimal artwork that looked like it was drawn in pen. This was music that would have easily been lost in the shuffle and bustle of Toronto’s music scene were it not for Tyler’s promotional flair. One Royal City show — featuring opening act Leslie Feist, who was briefly also one of the band’s guitarists — was promoted with wax-sealed “invitations” strung up with twine and clothes pegs outside record stores on Queen Street; the band would painstakingly repeat the gimmick every night of one American tour.
Nothing, however, prepared the label for the arrival of the Constantines in February of 2001. When the Constantines became the hottest band in Toronto after only their second gig there, they were already signed to the label. The meal that sealed the deal was a spaghetti dinner with the whole family at the Three Gut house.
This launched the label’s golden period. Royal City’s Alone at the Microphone set longevity records at campus radio. Gentleman Reg came into his own on Make Me Pretty. Jim Guthrie emerged as more a full-fledged songwriter than merely a lo-fi creative genius on Morning Noon Night. A new band from Oshawa called Cuff the Duke casually dropped a classic debut album of their own. Royal City signed to Rough Trade. The Constantines signed to Sub Pop. Both bands kept Three Gut as their Canadian label. The label that knew nothing about the Canadian music industry ended up with 25 percent of its output (four out of a total of 16 albums) being nominated for Juno awards.
In 2002, Tyler started to retreat from the label to focus on her own artwork, leaving Lisa to deal with increasing business demands; Tyler formally announced her departure a year later. Two new signees, Toronto’s Sea Snakes and Brooklyn’s Oneida, put out decent records, but didn’t excite people like the rest of the roster. In 2004, Royal City put out an underrated final album that many considered a disappointment; they’ve been on permanent hiatus since last fall.
Last month, Three Gut Records announced that its next release, the Constantines’ Tournament of Hearts, will be its final one, though the back catalogue will be maintained. Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie are looking for new labels. Aaron Riches is doing his doctorate in theology in the UK. Tyler Burke continues to be successful with her artwork and party promotion. Lisa Moran is tour-managing Sufjan Stevens and Oneida.
Three Gut leaves Toronto a different place. A better place. There is no shortage of labels that can point to Three Gut for inspiration: everything from the love-in family atmosphere of the major-label-affiliated Arts and Crafts to the totally DIY, hand-assembled CDs of the Blocks Recording Club. Acts that the label helped out early on — Feist, Sufjan Stevens, Hidden Cameras, Arcade Fire, Final Fantasy — have gone on to international acclaim and even stardom.
Not that any of this was ever Three Gut’s goal. It was always about helping out your friends. That one community begat many, and it didn’t matter if you’re in Guelph, Toronto, Brooklyn or Montreal: home is always where the rock is.
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Warped Vs. Warped
 While other day-long festivals suffer through planning snafus and organisational hurdles, the Warped Tour continues to be pop-punk's summer juggernaut. Joining the tour for a week in the sound's home-state of California and we discover that the battles of the music industry are clashing in the pit. By Sam Sutherland...Read More
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An Oral History of Three Gut Records Lisa Moran, LABEL MANAGER
When did you decide that this would be the time?
I've known for a long time, and I've been in the process of letting the artists know and talking to everyone on the label about it. Going away [to road manage] on the Oneida tour [of Europe in June 2005] gave me the space from all of this to c...Read More
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An Oral History of Three Gut Records Bry Webb, THE CONSTANTINES
Thoughts on the end?
It's hard to see it end, but it's been gradually ending for a while. I have an “all things must pass” way of looking at it. Things have changed over the last couple of years. It does make logical sense that it's the end. But it's hard to admit that it's done, and that it...Read More
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An Oral History of Three Gut Records Gentleman Reg Vermue
Thoughts on the end?
It's been happening slowly over the last year. Definitely since Tyler left, the label has changed. It's totally sad, and it's like a relationship and you know you have to break up at some point.
How do you see the label having changed?
It had some stages, I gu...Read More
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An Oral History of Three Gut Records Aaron Riches, ROYAL CITY
Thoughts? Memories?
I wouldn't trade the first two years of touring with Royal City for the world. That was the best experience of my life. Our first two American tours, and going to Whitehorse and stuff like that. What was good about it too was that I feel I had that sense at the time. I ha...Read More
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An Oral History of Three Gut Records Jim Guthrie, SOLO ARTIST and ROYAL CITY GUITARIST
Thoughts on the end?
I knew for a bit that it was bound to happen at some point. When it did happen I was a bit scared and worried about the future. The only label I've ever been on was with all of my friends, and all of my relationships were really good and I never had a bad experience with...Read More
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Though recently implying that he's tapped out musically, Sufjan Stevens has never created something as pointedly ambitious as The BQE. Originally commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a 2007 performance, as a take-home release The BQE consists of an uncompromising essay ostensibly all about the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, a visually stunning film, a stirring orchestral soundtrack, a stereoscopic View-Master reel, and, in limited edition, a 40-page comic book about characters known as the Hooper Heroes....
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