Independent Record Labels

It bodes well for Black & Wyatt Records that their catalog has already been anthologized. And hearing the label’s finest moments gathered together in one place casts their releases in a new, impressive light, as Always Memphis Rock & Roll, a new collection of the label’s best and brightest tracks, reveals.

Part of the revelation in hearing this new compilation, out now on both Black & Wyatt and Dresden’s Head Perfume Records, is realizing that the label can no longer be considered a “newcomer.” It’s an established voice of Memphis that’s recognized globally. Five years have passed since the Memphis Flyer’s Chris McCoy first profiled the two Memphis doctors who launched the label out of a sheer love of gritty rock-and-roll. And yet the historical sweep of the compilation goes far beyond that half-decade, as Head Perfume’s website proudly announces tracks spanning “1956-2019!”

And that’s technically true, with the lead cut being none other than Black & Wyatt’s archival release of two takes of “Steady Girl” by the Heathens, a teen band who recorded at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service in 1956 but didn’t make it onto wax at the time. Fittingly, Side B opens with Mario Monterosso’s reimagining of “Steady Girl,” also recorded in the very studio that Sam Phillips designed, 63 years later.

Those bookends are a good indication that Black & Wyatt’s heart is in the right place, a place of bacon grease and mud clods and the buzz of old amps. Indeed, hearing these cuts jump from one artist to another, one hears certain common denominators: great guitar sounds, with many varieties of crunch delivered, track by track; punchy songwriting that’s willing to dwell on the dramatic edge, from Turnstyles’ “Cut You Off” or Jack Oblivian & the Sheiks’ “Fast Friends” to Fingers Like Saturn’s “Candy’s Dead” or Tyler Keith’s “Born Again Virgin”; and a glorious preponderance of driving drums and bass. One notable exception? Ironically, a demo recorded by Jack Oblivian & the Dream Killers way back in 2000, the tough-yet-wistful “Loose Diamonds,” which sports only the sparest of snare-hits.

Better yet, for those working on their own Black & Wyatt collection at home, each track opens a potential rabbit hole, as it sends you to the albums from which these tracks are sourced. Such was the case on hearing Toy Trucks’ “Schoolbus,” which led me to marvel at that group’s Rockets Bells and Poetry LP, a power pop diamond in the rough. With Always Memphis Rock & Roll, one can discover such gems all over again.

Always Memphis Rock & Roll will be featured tonight, Friday, May 20, in Memphis Listening Lab’s SoundRoom. Albums will be available; music starts at 6:30 p.m.

Memphis has long been a city of independent record labels, and now a new contender is throwing its hat in the ring — or on the turntable, as the case may be. Blast Habit Records is the new project being launched by local musical scene makers Jared McStay (Shangri-La Records), his wife Lori McStay, and Graham Winchester. Tomorrow, they’ll hold court at Bar DKDC to celebrate this new chapter in Memphis music history.

Given the prolific and diverse musical output of all three, together and separately, the prospect of a label providing a platform for them is a promising one. I asked Jared McStay about the beginnings of Blast Habit recently, and he clued me in to what’s in store.

Memphis Flyer: You and Lori have been great collaborators around town for years now, forming ad hoc bands with other musicians, and generally following the path of fun. Is the new label an extension of that?

Jared McStay: A couple of years ago, I started a band called So Gung Ho with Graham Winchester and Seth Moody, and we did a whole record in 2019 with Andrew McCalla. We were going to put it out last year, and then the pandemic hit. But the record was finished, and I really liked the way it turned out. So, talking with Graham about wanting to put this record out, and not wanting to shop it around, we decided,’ Let’s just do our own label.’ And Lori is part of the label, too. I’m kind of a package deal with her these days [laughs]. The radio show, the label, married.

Seth Moody is also in So Gung Ho. Is he involved in Blast Habit?

Just the three of us. It’s me and Lori and Graham. The Moody’s [Seth and Coco] are going to be on the label, but they’re so tied up with other stuff. And it’s such a small thing right now, three people seemed like plenty. But we’re going to do a record with the Moody McStays, the group Lori and I have with the Moodys, and there are a few others we have in the pipeline. We all have other projects. Graham obviously has quite a few.

Blast Habit. What’s it mean? “Blast” sounds like a cyberpunk intoxicant or something.

Well, we fooled around, trying to think of a good name, and came up with Blast Habit. Like, “making a habit of having a blast,” I guess.

It grew out of So Hung Ho, but you plan to feature other artists?

It did, and hopefully there’s going to be more. Not just more people that sound like we sound, but diverse. And we’re going to focus on our own act at first, but then we’re hoping to branch out in Memphis, and then everywhere. I’ve had a lot of out of town people call me who are interested. So it’s kind of exciting. We’ve never done this. And Graham is so fun to work with. He’s so gung ho!

All of you are very prolific. Will you release some of Graham’s solo stuff?

I think we probably will do something or other. But Graham has so much stuff, and his group with Seth, the Turnstyles, are on Black & Wyatt Records. So he has other avenues.

We’re having a big party for it at Bar DKDC at 10 p.m. on Saturday. The Moody McStays and So Gung Ho are going to play, and we had t-shirts made up. And hopefully the So Gung Ho record will be out soon. Lori did all the artwork. She’s great with computers and formatted the cover. I’m excited about it!

Will Blast Habit mainly be focused on vinyl?

Yeah. Probably all the releases will be on vinyl. We might put some CDs out, but I kinda doubt it. I don’t know. Maybe if we sell out all the vinyl. But nobody’s figuring we’ll get rich from this or anything. We just want people to hear it, and what better way than to just bet on yourself?