Music

7 Kelp Records memories for the Ottawa label's 20th anniversary

by Mark Teo

It’s hard to believe that Fredricton, N.B.-born, Toronto-tested, and Ottawa-dwelling label Kelp Records is already turning 20. Mostly, it’s because the label has flown under the radar, quietly racking up excellent releases: As an imprint, it’s cut releases from acts as diverse as The Acorn, Ohbijou, Jim Bryson, and Rhume, the band fronted by label founder Jon Bartlett.

On the eve of Kelp’s 20th anniversary showcases—one in Toronto, where Bartlett lived while working for Exclaim!, the other in Ottawa, the label’s current home—Bartlett is growing his label in different ways. Re-christening itself as Kelp Music, it’ll be part independent label, part management company (it counts Saskatchewan folk prodigy Andy Shauf and Toronto alt-roots act New Country Rehab among its clients), and most intriguingly, he hints that he’s developing an Ottawa-based band incubator.

Indeed, Kelp has come a long way from its decidedly hand-made roots. “I come from the musical, creative, sitting-around-in-the-basement-with-a-four-track side,” says Bartlett. “I didn’t come to music via a law degree—there are people who come to it from a business perspective, and there are people who figure out the business stuff over time and learn how to make it last. It’s hard to have that lens, and that’s taken me 20 years to figure it out.”

Nonetheless, Kelp’s legacy has been built on some seriously influential records. We caught up with Bartlett—who, at the time, was ranking the label’s definitive releases, surely humming and hawing over Michael Parks, Andy Swan, and Andrew Vincent LPs—to ask him to reminisce on 20 years of Kelp.

 

The Acorn’sPink Ghosts

Though the Acorn’s 2010 LP, No Ghost, came out on Paper Bag, their story begins with Kelp. The Ottawa indie-folk act’s 2004 debut, Pink Ghosts, was one of the label’s hallmark records—along with the Acorn’s Blankets! EP and their split 12-inch with another Canadian orchestral folk mainstay, Toronto’s Ohbijou. “But from a label profile perspective a record that grew things significantly was Pink Ghosts. They went on to sign with Paper Bag and tour a lot, and they put Ottawa on the map musically—and they remained in Ottawa during the time [of their ascent].”

 

The Hilotrons’At Least There’s Commotion

Mike Dubue’s project made a name for itself with 2008’s Happymatic, but, according to Bartlett, it really hit its stride with 2012’s At Least There’s Commotion. Unveiling caffeinated pop rock informed by new wave greats—see: Talking Heads and Devo—the LP is one that Bartlett admits flew under the radar. Undeservedly so.

“Everything fell apart with the last Hilotrons records, At Least There’s Commotion,” he says. “It’s one of the best records ever made in Ottawa, and unfortunately, a bit before it was released, communication broke down, I was managing Mike, and… it wasn’t working.

“But we had this great record sitting there, with a lot of financial support behind it from various organizations. And it still stands as an incredible record. [In terms of] what’s coming out now, it blows most things out of the water—certainly in Canada. We hung out for the first time in a year and a half the other night, which was good, because there was a lot of bad blood for a long time. He’s a brilliant artist.”

 

The double-sided Fisher Price record

This two-song record—the only double-sided disc that played on a Fisher Price toy record player—displayed the bizarre, playful side of the label. Sure, Kelp hosted parades running down Elgin St., had a Detective Kalita CD release show performed in white-face mime, and hosted wrestling at Wavelength (“this wrestlerbeat me up and did his signature move, the Nexus Six,” adds Bartlett, “and metal chairs hurt when they’re smashed over your face”). But their Fisher Price record was next-level cool.

“This guy in the U.K. figured out how to use a CNC cutting setup, and he figured out how carve out plastic Fisher Price records,” says Bartlett. “I was just blown away by this. [The record players were] a huge part of my youth. I emailed him, and asked him, ‘Want to put out the first-ever double-sided Fisher Price record?’ I took a few Hilotrons songs and created these scaled-down versions of them. It was a cool little project.”

 

Jim Bryson’s community-focused LP, Where the Bungalows Roam

In 2014, Ottawa-based Jim Bryson is a well-established name in Canadian folk. But back in the early aughts, he began his career with two LPs—The Occasionals and North Side Benches—and spent some time signed to Universal Records. By the time he’d come to Kelp to release his third, Where the Bungalows Roam, he was looking for a new direction. “Where the Bungalows Roam, that was a key [record for Kelp],” says Bartlett. “Jim Bryson had done things with a major—or a mini-major—and he was this troubadour guy everyone in Ottawa was really excited about.

“But he wasn’t 100 per cent happy with the way things were working out, and for the next record, he was like, ‘I just want to appreciate what we do, I want to do something that’s a little more family and community and a little more Ottawa. That record was that. That’s when we started working with Outside, too.”

Bryson’s work with Kelp would continue—the label would also release The Falcon Lake Incident, his excellent LP with the Weakerthans.

 

New Country Rehab’s Ghost of Your Charm

Aside from releasing Ghost of Your Charms—and being some of Toronto’s most respected country players—New Country Rehab represented a big step for Kelp: They were the first band Bartlett and co. managed and cut records for. The country collective signified that Kelp was moving in new directions—releasing records was only part of the equation.

“We came on as management first, then we just decided to put the record out too,” says Bartlett. “We could control everything with the band, and it was unique, it was the first time we’d done that, where we were managers first; the label was only part of the services we provide. They’re a fantastic band that continues to grow.”

 

Rhume—Jeu de Puissance and Snack of Choice

Remember when Bartlett recalled getting smashed in the face with a metal chair? That happened when his hard-charging fuzz rock outfit Rhume was playing. But aside from teaching Bartlett the meaning of pain, the band’s two LPs, Jeu de Puissance and Snack of Choice, taught him other lessons.

“I think I might’ve had this real brief idea, when I was 24 or 25,” he says, “that I wanted to make a living as a musician, where I’d quit my job and go on tour when we put out Snack of Choice.Reality caught up with me pretty quick, and I’m more of the cheerleader-manager-side person now. I learned about what it was like to be an artist, and I appreciate it, but it’s not necessarily for me. I miss writing songs, but it’s so low on my priority list.”

Rhume, of course, will be taking stage during Kelp’s reunion shows—and, at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern, they’ll be taking the stage withJim Bryson, Andrew Vincent, Evening Hymns, Andy Swan, Rhume, Flecton Big Sky, and one-time Rhume memberChris Page.

 

The early cassette releases of Bartlett’s solo material

Kelp’s publicist sent us a package of Kelp artifacts, including a photo of this one cassette, featuring, oddly, two Smashing Pumpkins covers credited to “William Corgan.” But while these cassettes are quaint, they’re an indicator of how far Kelp has travelled—they, after all, began from a Fredericton basement in an era when Bartlett DJed on campus radio. “Last time I remember listening to [the tape], I was thinking that I was so timid—the recording level is super low, and a lot of it was barely audible. I had no confidence in the beginning,” laughs Bartlett.

“I was just learning about a Fostex four-track player and how they worked. A lot of those early years were spent experimenting, turning the tape around backwards, recording, and noodling in the basement.”