Q: Is BSTB a record label or a concert promoter?

A: Both!

BSTB started with the intention of being a record label sometime at the end of 1999. While we were both music lovers neither of us really knew any bands personally. Added to that, many of the bands we did like did not seem to play in Montreal or worse they would come through these parts and skip our fair city. Using our connections at CJLO radio (where we did a radio show) we contacted several labels and bands to try and attract them here. We met with very little or no success...

One label that did get back to us was DISCHORD. We had approached them not for a band but for a film. The Fugazi movie, Instrument, had just been released and to promote the film there were several screenings happening in different cities. We kept wishing someone would do one here when it hit us - we should do it! Although dischord was skeptical at first (who are these 2 guys with no experience...) they agreed to it and we set it up.

The date for this was March 16 2000. Having almost 2 months to promote the event we hit the pavement armed with just a bucket and some glue. We must have put up hundreds of posters wherever we could. We also printed up tons of flyers and left them at record stores and cafes. Then we reached out to as many media outlets (newspapers, radio, etc) as we could and hoped for the best.

The hard work we put into it paid off and we got several articles in many of the weeklies as well as college papers. We got over 250 people to our screening and Dischord was impressed. It turned out our screening was one of the most successful they had had!

We were really happy with how things had played out for this event and while we wanted to do more we again began thinking of our label. A friend of ours who went by the name YUL had just finished recording a full length album. He was shopping it around and met with little success. He gave us a copy and we were impressed. We asked him what he thought about releasing on our label and he agreed.

Looking into costs and such the reality hit. Putting out a record was going to be costly. We decided to do as much of the packaging we could ourselves. We silk screened over a 100 covers (which Meyer actually did for an assignment for school!) and decided for the 1st batch we would just make Cdrs. The package came together but the release never saw a wider release as Yul could not commit to touring. While we sold a few copies of this record we were disappointed with the end result. We felt we had a great record on our hands that ultimately many people would never hear.