Comments (0) Best Local Label - 2007
Roadhouse Tunes
Roadhouse Tunes formed "out of necessity" in 2001 when playful punk-rock aficionados Mario Viele and Maysam Attaran of the Pubes (and subsequently, then simultaneously, the Sex Robots) decided they needed a record deal. "Nobody wanted to touch anything called the Pubes, so we just started it as a platform to release our record," says Viele. The Pubes' first CD-R, Lewd, Crude and Socially Unacceptable, was peddled on the streets in front of Vintage Vinyl till the cops came. Today the group has gained such local acclaim that their tab in the Loop's primo record store is usually sold out. According to Viele, they learned every aspect of recording and production by the seat of their pants. The result of such persistence many years later is the danceable DIY punk rock and singer/songwriter platforms that the label builds upon, with several releases by artists such as Anna Roland, Frankenhookers and one of Viele's many side projects, Butt. "They're like my retarded children," Viele attests. The latest Roadhouse release, the Pubes' sweeter-than-sugar album Peat Sounds, perpetuates the cartoonlike theme of the Sex Robots' successful self-titled CD and reminds us to wake up, smell the potpourri and to not take life too seriously. Who wants ice cream?
