Justin Meyers knows firsthand the beauty and convenience of bypassing established label hierarchy in favor of single-handedly running your own. What could’ve been a futile decade of sending nudgy parcels to various label heads around the country turned instead into 10 years of glorious autonomy. His Minneapolis-based Tone Filth label has released a bevy of Meyers’s own work (as Devillock, Panther Skull, and under his given name), in addition to sponsoring limited-edition cassettes from hailed tone manipulators such as Helm, C. Spencer Yeh, Yellow Swans, John Olson (Wolf Eyes), and Jeff Witscher a.k.a. Rene Hell. More than enough to reason to keep things going, no?
No, actually! Well, yes and no. Tone Filth is done with, but in its place, Meyers — friend of the site — has just started Sympathy Limited, which he tells us is meant to “provide a format for experimental musicians to create interesting work with a focus on well designed and produced packaging.” And certainly, he would know a thing or two about design and packaging, considering much of the Tone Filth catalog was released with his own visual perspective garnishing the covers and enclosures.
Sympathy Limited starts with limited-edition CDs from Jailblazer and Meyers. Here are some exploratory samples:
And don’t forget his video work. Here’s his video for Jason Lescalleet’s Trophy Tape project:
• Sympathy Limited: http://sym-ltd.com
• Justin Meyers: http://www.justinchrismeyers.com