It was the summer of 2013 when Terence Shipp and Joshua Luttrull met at a solitary, abandoned convenience store in suburban Far North Dallas and decided to break up their band, Art For Motels. For them, it was a defining moment that would lead to the start of something new – a music label of the same name – and now the label’s first official release, Greetings from the 214, which came out at the end of May.
After the band split up, Shipp said the idea for a label formed over several months as a result of chemical reactions with neurons in his and Luttrull’s brains. Less scientifically speaking, it began with a conversation over some macaroni and cheese.
“I think before then, the word ‘label’ wasn’t being associated [with the idea],” Shipp said. “More of a collective crew of some sort.”
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Greetings, a compilation album, features an abundance of local talent that ranges across a spectrum of genres including twee rock, hip-hop, and experimental noise. Most of the acts come from a group of musicians who perform at The Compound, a house venue that is becoming a center of music activity in the North Dallas area. Many are relatively new to Dallas music.
“Stay Lit,” the first official track from the band Field Guide, is in the tune of “femme-fronted” surf pop, a modern walk through a color-splashed dream. C M A C’s “Only Tonight” is a fiery flow of gritty hip-hop on a compilation that is largely made up of rock and ambient noise.
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“Daddy Dirt” by Load-in is another hot track in the same musical vein as the chaotic punk of Denton’s Bukkake Moms, although it’s more of a disorganized slop that eschews any traditional song structure. “A New Language” by Bare Mountain, with its tribal rhythm behind a biological dronescape, tops off the compilation.
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Greetings From The 214 seems like the beginning of a DIY venture capturing the freshest, sprouting Dallas music of 2015. And it all comes from the close friendship between Shipp and Luttrull, who met in a music theory class four years ago during their junior year at Plano Senior High School.
“We knew each other for a good, solid two years between talking to each other in the library about various things, certain conspiracy theories,” Shipp said.
Eventually, they formed a band. The group played a few shows in the suburbs before that moment at the abandoned convenience store. After that, Shipp and Luttrull started brainstorming the idea of Art For Motels as a label.
“It’s all kind of like a giant experiment that I want to throw my full confidence in…” Shipp said. “That’s why the neurons are firing.”
Luttrull said the label plans to help local artists release their music, including Shipp’s own solo project, Hello! Scenic Dreams, and Luttrull’s new band, Jihadi Gap Year. Ultimately, their aim is to give a voice to young Dallas artists.
“Nobody’s ever going to love you quite as much as the people from your hometown will love you if you make it in your hometown,” Luttrull said. “That might be overly romanticized, but for me, it always just comes back to Dallas.”
