Label Profile: Outlaw Recordings
March 21 2008 at 10:50:07 PM
Subverting nearly any paradigm of what constitutes homogenous and selfsame product, Omid Yamini’s Outlaw Recordings has consistently resisted trend’s vile undertow, working a singular and focused vision into a slow, driving furnace of yield. What’s brought forth from the kiln is fiercely original, at once oblivious and indifferent to the toothless din that erupts all around it. A blatant fetishization of the past—and a cogent and bona fide embrace of the future—Outlaw represents one of the last bastions of authentic music(s). Outlaw’s energetic proprietor took the time to field a few questions about the label’s methodology—or lack thereof—as well as extrapolating on his ideas and experience with the music that has helped formed his opinions and exceptional vision.
When and why did you form the Outlaw Recordings label and what was your inspiration for the name and pistol motif in the logo?
I formed the label in the later part of 1999, and the first release came out in January of 2000. The name came from the fact I was listening to a lot of David Allan Coe at the time, and he's all about the “outlaw” lyrics and stuff—so he was the inspiration. The pistol motif was something that just seemed fitting to represent the label name, and the slogan “Live By Your Own Laws.” I can't remember exactly how the idea for slogan came to be, I don't think it's something that's completely out of left field; it's been said before but this was my way of saying it. Just to do your own thing and forget the rest. In the end you're the one you have to answer to anyway.
Maybe my inspiration for that could also be linked to an evening around 1997 when I went to see Deceased and Voivod at this club in NYC right after I moved here and I was standing in the front banging my head for Deceased and nobody else in the room seemed to care that they were playing. After the show King said to me, “Thanks for having a good time man! You know that's the way to do it; doesn't matter what anyone else is doing—you just do what you want!” I have never forgotten [about] him saying that, and I mean—as long as what you're doing isn't hurting anyone I believe everyone should do things this way. Every time I go to a show and see a bunch of fools with their arms crossed looking around for a cue to see if it's OK to have fun I think of that night. King has been an inspiration in many ways; he's one of the truest and most dedicated people I have ever known. He is the King of Metal!
How did your love for vinyl evolve? Is this something that grew out of your youth—record collecting—or even before that, maybe flipping through your folks' records as a young boy?
Yeah, I have always been around music and records, I was lucky to have a Mom who was way into music and she got me hooked! I used to run around the house rocking out and had my little stack of 45s, stuff like Guess Who and Cat Stevens—that sort of stuff. This was in the early ‘70s when we lived in Oklahoma City.
The first LP I got was Glenn Campbell’s
Rhinestone Cowboy; I still have that one! The first “metal” album I got was after we moved back to the U.S. in the early ‘80s, Kiss’
Creatures of the Night in 1982. That album is one of the heaviest metal albums ever, the drum sound on that has and probably never will be matched! Sounds like a cannon! What can I say, it's been a life long thing, and is still going on. I love music, and I love vinyl! Period!
How have your earliest memories of music contributed to where the label is today?
I think that over the years as I got into “collecting” records and finding rarities and imports, limited edition things etc.—that had a great impact on how I have done things with the label. I remember going to this store in Virginia in like 1982 and seeing a Kiss
Creatures of the Night limited edition UK double-grooved 12” that had the band’s autographs etched in the b-side! It was amazing! It was like $5.99, which I didn't have, and my folks wouldn't give me—but that's a whole ‘nother story!
That 12" led to me starting to work and make my own money at a young age to finance my vinyl lust—being a busboy for $2 an hour and mowing lawns and stuff so I could pay for my own records and not have to ask anyone for money! But anyways, I'm getting sidetracked.
Eventually I got a copy of that Kiss 12” and it's something I still own today. It was something special, not some mass-produced LP you could buy anywhere; this was something that had a whole different vibe. And that's what I've wanted to do with my releases. I think for most of the vinyl ones at least I have succeeded. It's hard to do that with CD's, which is why I haven't done as many CD releases—though they're much easier and more profitable. But that's not what makes me happy, so it's kind of irrelevant, right?
Outlaw covers a lot of ground; you've got bona fide metal, thrash, doom, heavy rock, and even comedy. Are you interested in releasing other types of music? Do you have any particular records in mind that you'd like to reissue?
Well, I have done even more than that. There's some straight rock style stuff on there, and even a country album. But yeah, my tastes run all over the place, so anything is possible!
I will never put out any computer music though, or any rap or techno! Anything I release must involve instruments (except the heavy metal phone pranks record!). There's always stuff that could be reissued, but right now there are so many labels doing that sort of thing that I've kind of stepped back to see how it all pans out. I mean, these days anyone can track down a band and release some demos or a live record, and most of them are pretty half-assed affairs with no liner notes or information, which doesn't do it for me. Then there are labels like Earmark in Italy who are reissuing LP's that you can find original copies of for less than what they charge for a reissue! Where is the logic? Why reissue something that's still easy to find? I don't know, I will always put stuff out and do my thing, but it's getting harder to actually sell records with so much on the market. I'll have to go back to doing 100 copies of things, which is how I started. My theory at the beginning of Outlaw was that I would only do as many copies of a release as I wouldn't mind having in my collection for the rest of my life! That way, if none of the copies sold, it wasn't a failure! Haha....
My favorite record in your catalog is the Dying Light's Survival Guide to the Apocalypse. It's difficult to believe that this record didn't make a bigger impression on people. What were you thinking when you released this? Did you ever see them play?
I agree; The Dying Light record is incredible—I love that album, too! I have known Lino (the original singer, who is on that album) for years. I actually met him when I had just joined that band Enemy Soil and we went out to Fiesta Grande in 1997, and I think he was there with Cattlepress. We hung out in this motel in SF getting wrecked and have been friends ever since! So, when I moved to NYC, we hung out and I always followed his bands—Hemlock, Ceremonium, etc. and then there was the Dying Light, which was my favorite of those bands. So, when they released the album there wasn't a vinyl release scheduled and I stepped up to do it.
As far as what I was thinking, well, it was cool because it was Lino and he's my friend and I liked his band! But as far as musically—well, quite honestly I had and have completely managed to ignore the 2nd wave of “Black Metal” that happened. To me it was total garbage. I mean, Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc.—all that stuff sounded like watered down, bad Hellhammer demos to me. I never owned one of those records (except the first Mayhem, which I sold for $800 to pay rent one month like 10 years ago!). And while they definitely had a slight nod to those types of bands, the Dying Light was more rooted in traditional thrash metal like Slayer and the good Death Metal bands like early Morbid Angel and stuff. And they have fuckin' hooks on those records, it's not some buzzsaw, bumblebee guitar riffs that make me sick—I mean, listen to "Warstrike;” that song is unbelievably catchy!
Yeah, [The Dying Light] never did get too “huge” or whatever, but that doesn't matter; they're still more important and interesting than 99.9 percent of the metal released in the last decade or more! Regarding seeing them live and stuff, yeah—of course—I saw them more times than I can remember! All over town, if they played we'd all go check them out! Most of the time they were great—sometimes the bang out would take its toll... and it wasn't as tight, but still sounded cool!
The last show they played with that original lineup was with Battletorn and Unearthly Trance in a basement in the Lower East Side at this place The Pyramid... It was a blow out: too much of everything, then there were some words said and that was it. I only saw them once after that; we got booked with them again, and though I won't say anything bad about the new lineup, let's just leave it at this: I liked the first the Dying Light lineup best.
Outlaw has put out some incredible picture discs over the years. What guides your decision to release a record as a picture disc and what is it about the medium that is so closely tied to metal?
Picture discs used to be something special that you would get if you could find them; they were pretty rare collectors items! So when I found a pressing plant that could make them in limited quantities as small as 100-200 I was elated, and did a bunch of stuff on picture disc all at once. Now I can't use that plant for that anymore, so those days are done, but it was cool while it lasted!
Yes, picture discs are cool, [but] I don't know that they're necessarily associated only with “metal.” There were definitely a lot of classic metal albums that came out on picture disc back in the day. Maybe it's because that metal isn't as concerned with “sonics” since most metal is pretty loud and proud, and since picture discs don't have as good sound quality as regular vinyl this may keep other types of music from using the format. Like, I've never seen a jazz or classical picture disc!
It seems that Outlaw's “successes” have been at the hands of friends—most of the people involved in layout, artwork, and even the musicians are the same people that you're hanging out and draining brew with.
I think the successes have gone both ways, it's been people working together to create something cool—that's all. [As for] having friends do layout/artwork, that's because I wanted to work with friends, and couldn't afford to hire professionals! No offense to any of them as some of them are professionals, but I wasn't and am still not in a position to hire a designer to do an LP layout, so people around would kick in. They liked to be involved and see these things come together, so it was mutually beneficial I guess, and I always appreciated and acknowledged them for this. I would pay them with vinyls from my collection or if the release made a little cheese I'd give them some when we were out at a show when they weren't expecting it or something.
It was always me who had to pay the bills for pressing and stuff though! Haha.. so nobody else wanted to jump in to enjoy those “glories!” The goal of every release was just to break even—I have never and will never do this label to make money—it was just somewhere to channel my energies and stuff after I stopped partying, and stay involved with and give back to the music community I had enjoyed for so long. I had a lot of time and money I could put to better use once I didn't spend it on raging—been clean/sober for almost nine years!—this was another big reason for Outlaw forming and my ability to keep it going.
Regarding the bands, well yes—many of them are friends from NYC or VA and stuff, and that's again just a natural and organic thing that happened—I never accepted 'demos' from band in the mail or anything, most of it has just been my friends or bands I was into. I don't really have a wish list of bands to release—we'll see what comes up, there's always something around the corner!
[Stewart Voegtlin]
Outlaw Recordings is mother to a small selection of great, and even timeless records. Some are the results of patience and serendipity, others a handshake and informed process. No two are alike; art, sound and vision makes this one of the most underrated imprints alive. A lot of them have been relegated to the grave; a few are still wheeling and dealing, in infinitesimal quantity. This is merely a short list of standouts; other quick burners—like Rancid Decay’s Presumed Dead, and the Boulder Degenerate 7” should be sought out.
Bad Wizard
Steal Your Balls
OLR 017; Edition of 214
Nearly every bit the band that Bon Scott’s AC/DC aspired to be, Athens, Georgia’s Bad Wizard’s
Steal Your Balls is one of those long, lost rock records that ‘70s era-
Creem would have solid gold-plated and baptized in a tidal wave of Miller High Life. Recorded live at New Jersey’s WFMU, this nine-song set is relentlessly linear, built on the sweaty, Southern-fried foundations of Skynyrd and early ZZ Top, and razed by the blackened cannons of excess. Touchstones are at once dizzyingly innumerable and pointless. Incomparably energetic, fervently rocking, and undeniably timeless, Steal Your Balls makes mincemeat of opportunistic sleaze raiding the mid-‘70s footlocker for instant street cred. Arik Roper’s adorning artwork—a dementedly inbred transliteration of the Grateful Dead’s instantly recognizable lysergic totenkopf, adds additional flavor, as does the layout prowess of Patrick Delaney. Absolutely fucking essential.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
Victor Griffin
Late for an Early Grave
OLR-027; Edition of 525
Pentagram, Place of Skulls, and Death Row madman Vic Griff empties the vault. Demos, fuzz-brained, besotted ideas, and fully-formed bipedal froth is sketched in full with Jolly Roger riffs, vocal husk, and a shitty drum machine that sounds just about all right. Gasoline and bum-wine soaked, asphalt seared and sun-stained,
Late for and Early Grave is Iron Horse spirituality—thee gospel via chrome dragons. Griffin toys with phantasmal influence—Steppenwolf, Motörhead—and stitches them into stark, sun-setting rockers. The cover shot of Griff & Hawg sets the tone; Jersey layout wizard Chris Alpino packages the goods in ludicrously tasteful manner, replete with wall of shame photos. Note shot of Griff disgorging the day’s drink on Wino’s smiling mug.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
Midnight
Complete and Total F@#cking Midnight
OLR-033; Edition of 1,000
Cleveland filth comes forth in a thrash bash;
Complete and Total F@#cking Midnight collects the wealth of this belligerent juggernaut, a vomit-stained tank churning up the white-belted horde with an unmitigated selection that slashes through time-worn structures, flying colors proud and true. Early Venom, Slayer, the Accüsed, Motörhead, English Dogs, and a host of others are held close and convincingly brandished. Like kindred spirits, Villains, Midnight approaches influence as useful means, rather than a means to an artificial end. Favorites are not genuflected to; they are used as whiskey or hammer: to blunt, to inspire, to pound through a woefully giving surface. Muscular guitars, churning drums, vindictive vocals: Bar-mat rock; all spilled well brands and slammed shots, suds on the floor and sticks in the air. Night of thee long knives, motherfuckers.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
SunnO)))
The GrimmRobe Demos
OLR-022; Edition of 220
Packaged and re-packaged in about a billion different versions, this is the gen-you-wine artifact, even as there are hardly any two alike. Soundly jettisoned into the e-Bay ruled stratosphere armed with a coat of hilariously variegated color, Outlaw’s
Grimm Robe simultaneously enticed and incited collector yen and ire respectively. The music contained therein is arguably the most potent and forward contribution from O’Malley and Anderson, in no small part to the mastodonic and gonad rattlin’ baritone yaw via Herr Bootsy Kronos, AKA Stuart “Kickin’ Chicken” Dhalquist. In all the duo’s greenness, the Drone Bros. were upfront about their raison d'etre, even going so far as to entitle a selection “Dylan Carlson.” Another standout track, “Defeating: Earth’s Gravity,”—get it?—works drone ropes into the planet’s core and sends onesied and bearded post-grad lummoxes therein to fight it out via folded
Vice mags.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
The Dying Light
Survival Guide to the Apocalypse
OLR 020-Edition of 330
Staten Island Street Metal is as evocative and as useful a phrase as any; music like this is always more about confrontation that coddling. No bullshit; no quarter. Technically and emotionally potent, pushed to inhuman limits by submachine gunning drums and vocals at once acrobatically operatic and demonically willy-nilly, the Dying Light encapsulates wanton destruction, self-absorbed nihilism, snotty, turf-obsessed bat and broken bottle mongrels. Terrifically inspired by hate and filth, each song razors along, cut on the preponderance of its own spite, prejudicially empowered by the black blood that runs river like, coldly through thick, blue veins. Simply put, one of the greatest metal records ever recorded. Period.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
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