Music Emerging: N.C. indie label Merge turns 20

Jenn Wasner never gave it a thought when Merge Records co-founder Mac Mc-Caughan asked for a copy of If Children, the self-made debut album by Wye Oak, an indie-rock duo composed of Wasner and Andy Stack.

McCaughan had heard a couple of Wye Oak's tracks online and was curious about the band. But after that first call some time went by and the duo heard nothing else. That didn't surprise Wasner.

"I didn't think much of it because it never crossed my mind that a label like Merge would want to have anything to do with a completely unknown band from Baltimore," she said.

Then, out of the blue, McCaughan called and asked if Wye Oak wanted to be on the Merge label.

"It was totally ridiculous," Wasner said. "I didn't think it worked that way. They are the kind of label that if they like something and want people to hear it, they will put it out. With other labels, it is a lot of business-speak. Merge is like, ‘Hey, we like this music.' They are always amazingly supportive and hands-off, artistically speaking."

Merge must be doing something right with its artists. The Durham record company that started out recording friends' bands on blank cassettes is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of concerts at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill and at Memorial Hall on the campus of UNC at Chapel Hill.

The shows at Cat's Cradle have long been sold out. There are a few ticket's left for celebration's grand finale on Sunday in Memorial Hall when Wye Oak will share the bill with American Music Club and She & Him. This week, Merge also released The Knot, Wye Oak's second album.

Although classed among indie-rock labels, Merge's roster of artists includes straight-out rockers, introspective folkies and the offbeat: The Music Tapes, a project led by eccentric musician Julian Koster, features a 7-foot-tall metronome and a hand-clapping machine in performances.

"Mac and I just have to like it," said Laura Ballance, the other co-founder of Merge Records. "Our label sounds like our musical tastes. I listen to a variety of things. As a label it doesn't have a uniform sound. It is mostly alternative rock, but it is a convenient term. It is not across-the-board one thing or another."

Ballance and McCaughan were members of the band Superchunk when they formed Merge. McCaughan played guitar and sang, while Ballance played bass.

"We were in Chapel Hill and it seemed like everyone we knew was in a band," Ballance said. "That was what people did to entertain themselves. There was always a party somewhere. A lot of people were from Chapel Hill and had never left or had come to go to UNC and never left. They worked in restaurants by day and had to have some sort of creative outlet."

Forming an independent label seemed like a good way to capture that energy, she said.

"There were so many bands coming and going with nary a record of their existence," she said. "It seemed like a good idea to give people seven inches (a single) that they could sell at the shows and give the fans something to listen to. Also, to give the bands some greater longevity. Something they could tour with."

Using $500 they borrowed from McCaughan's dad, he and Ballance used the money to put out their first single on vinyl. They made cassettes on a home recorder. Later, the label put out full-length vinyl LPs with the help of distributors.

"Back then it was so much easier," Ballance said. "There were a bunch of distributors that dealt with mom-and-pop record stores. There was Peaches and Record Bar. Now you are dealing with Best Buy, and you have to go through a middleman. But back then I would mail a copy to a distributor I wanted to deal with … and they would sell them and pay us for them."

The label's first album, issued in 1992, was a compilation of Superchunk singles.

"We got our first check from Touch and Go (the distributor), and that was more money than Merge had ever seen," Ballance said. The $20,000 check went back into the business and to paying the bands on the label's roster.

"It was many, many years before we were able to compensate ourselves in any way," Ballance said.

The label's second album was that of a band called Polvo. Ballance said Polvo didn't have a lot of options but was still taking a chance to let Merge handle them.

"They were totally weird-sounding, and indie had not become the cash cow that it is now perceived as," Ballance said.

Over the years, Merge has developed a reputation as an artist-friendly label.

"I have never heard anything bad about them," said Mitch Easter, a musician and producer who runs a studio in Kernersville. "They seem to be a real good outfit that treats people fairly. They have been really smart about who they have done their stuff with. There is never going to be anything about them putting out records to please the investors. They have had the perfect sort of slow rise."

Although it's based in North Carolina, Merge makes no special effort to be a marketer of North Carolina bands. But area bands can draw inspiration from Merge's presence in the state, Easter said.

"Most people don't know how hard it is to make any money," Easter said, recalling how when he was in junior high "people in bands had no idea what to do next."

"Even a band that is playing here that is not ever going to be playing on Merge Records gets a little hope that they know this is real," Easter said. "I think it is inspiring to know that people are doing business here."

Easter said he associates Merge with "a certain kind of hipness," adding (at 54) that if he were young and trying to make his name he would like having them behind him.

Merge has had some hits worthy of bigger record labels. Its biggest seller so far has been Arcade Fire's album Neon Bible, which entered the Billboard Top 200 chart at No. 2, and has sold about 500,000 copies. Another Merge artist, Spoon, placed its Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga album as high at the number 10 slot on the Billboard Top 200.

Most bands won't do that well, and that's OK with Merge.

"We are not like music-industry players," Ballance said. "We are more the nice kids next door who run a record label."

Still, Merge has had to adopt some practices of the bigger labels -- such as signing contracts with its bands so they don't simply walk to greener pastures.

Wasner said Wye Oak worked out a 10-year contract with Merge that includes putting out three records.

"They are the kind of label that likes to work with artists and not crush their careers," Wasner said. "It is like going to the very top of what you would go for."