Scratchie Records Is Back In The Game With New Releases

By Moira McCormack

CHICAGO--Scratchie Records is back in the groove. Formerly a joint venture with Mercury Records, the 4-year old label--started here by a coalition of alternative music colleagues, including Smashing Pumpkins founding members James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky and Fountains of Wayne principal Adam Schlesinger--had been off the radar, release-wise, since 1998.

Amid the merger between Universal and Mercury's parent company PolyGram, Scratchie had been through a year of legal wrangling to end the Mercury pact.

An agreement was reached in November 1998, at which point Scratchie partners Iha; Wretzky; Schlesinger; Wretzky's husband Kerry Brown; and Jeremy Freeman moved label headquarters from Chicago to New York and hired a locally-based label manager, Steve Yegelwel.

The label then signed with independent wholesaler Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA).

Work began anew on albums that had been held up by the legal maneuvering. The first of these, actress/singer/songwriter Eszter Balint's "Flicker" was released in October. Next up is Toronto native Dan Bryk's "Lovers Leap", due in Feburary. It will be followed up by new albums by fulflej and the Frogs, two bands whose 1996 albums were among Scratchie/Mercury's first projects.

Initial releases for Scratchie, which launced in 1995, included dancehall reggae compilations and 7'inch singles and EPs by fulflej and Chainsaw Kittens, which Freeman says "we sold out of. Then we started getting call from the majors."

In 1996, Scratchie signed the three-year joint-venture agreement with Mercury. "Initially," says Freeman, "I thought we were in a great situation. We had absolute creative control. There were aspects of our label that fit both the mass market and the independent audience, and I thought we could cover both bases. But we couldn't."

"We were frustrated for a long time before the merger," adds Schlesinger, "and Mercury was probably frustrated with [us]: We weren't delivering the next Hanson and had no intention of doing so."

in late 1997, "we got a call from Mercury", says Freeman. "They'd heard our complaints; we'd heard tell of a merger. They agreed that [the joint venture] wasn't working, and that something had to change."

Once free of the PolyGram contract, Scratchie transplanted itself to New York. Label manager Yegelwel come on board from Atlantic Records, where he was an A&R executive and worked with Schlesinger on Fountains of Wayne (whose Scratchie recording contract enjoys a separate deal with Atlantic) and Schlesinger's second band, Ivy.

Joining Scratchie is especially rewarding now, says Yegelwel, "at a time when major labels are far less willing to take a chance on new, unproven acts."

Scratchie had also recently signed with EastWest France for overseas distribution and has arranged with Cductive to sell digital downloads.

Bryk's album had its genesis when he handed demos to Schlesinger following a Fountains of Wayne concert. "Adam called me back," says Bryk, a singer/songwriter/keyboardist who has drawn Ben Folds comparisons, "and then Iha called."

A deal was struck, and though the Universal merger delayed the album's release, Bryk says he's pleased with the results.

"Obviously, Scratchie wants to reach people with my record, and I want to build my career," he says. "But I get the sense that it's about the music with them. And I know kids who buy Scratchie records because they're on Scratchie."