About two years ago, three friends — Halle Williams, Jevon Cutler and Adam Newton– founded Schapendoes Records as a means to release music by local artists they felt deserved more attention.
Everything began when members of the label were watching a show at basement venue The Alamo. They were inspired to release an album featuring two local bands playing that night — Chevron, which Cutler is part of, and Mine Thirty Seven.
“A label seemed like the best way to do that,” Newton said.
All were avid fans of the local music scene and wanted to help expose themselves and others to the music they liked so much.
“We thought our friends were making a lot of good music that we wanted to put out,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of good bands in Eugene that would get more coverage in a bigger city where there is a more established music scene and a bigger chance of a label being interested and wanting to help out a band. But in a small city like Eugene, there is not the same opportunity.”
Most recently, the label has been working on a compilation album entitled “The Last Thing We Ever Did,” featuring tracks from 20 different bands in Eugene, Portland and Chicago. Among the bands included are: Intima, The Planet The, Chin Up Chin Up, Black Darts, Mood Area 52, Little Twos, The Love of Everything, Dutch Flat and Kickball.
“We don’t have a lot of money,” Williams said. “So we can’t put out an album by every band we like. This compilation was a way to release stuff by all those bands.”
The album will cover a wide spectrum of musical genres, from singer-songwriter to electronic and tango. However, on the whole, listeners can expect an earnest post-rock sound brimming with precocious harmonies and complex rhythms.
Both Williams and Cutler described much of the album as “subtle, awkward pop.”
“I think there’s some of the best bands from the Northwest on the compilation,” Williams said. “It’s a lot of underexposed stuff that’s more original and authentic.”
On Saturday, seven of the bands from the compilation will be performing for an album release show at Indigo District, located on the corner of Oak Street and East 13th Avenue. The night’s lineup will include Mine Thirty Seven, Chevron, Wet Confetti, Dutch Flat, Animal Beard, Testface and Mikah Sykes of the Little Twos.
“It should be a crazy show with lots of music and good bands,” Cutler said. “There will be some rare stuff too because Mikah and Testface rarely play shows.”
According to show posters, the event will “start early and end late,” but organizers say that people can expect bands to begin playing at 7 p.m. and not finish until well past midnight. The cover is $2 or free with the purchase of “The Last Thing We Ever Did.”
The album will cost $10 and can be purchased at Face the Music, House of Records, the Museum of Unfine Art and Record Store, or on the label’s Web site, [email protected].