Started by a group of local music friends, Crossroads of America (XRA) Records embraces Indiana musicians, giving them a firm platform for sharing their music with the Midwest and beyond.
On Saturday, Village Green Records will host the XRA Showcase Show, recognizing one of Indiana's own independent record labels. Releasing local music from the likes of husband&wife, Rodeo Ruby Love, Sleeping Bag and more, XRA Records is headquartered in Bloomington, Ind. Working to support local music across the state, the label releases new material almost every month.
Frank Schweikhardt releases solo material on the label. Now 26, Schweikhardt remembers the label's initial sprouting.
"We [his former band, Away With Vega] were on tour with husband&wife," Schweikhardt said. "We're sitting at Denny's and we're like, ‘Man, there are a lot of bands between us.' "I started doing solo stuff, and Zack [Melton] had started Rodeo Ruby Love, and husband&wife's bass player Bryant Fox had his band Alexander the Great. So it's like, man, there's all these bands. We should start a record label and just start putting out our own records. That's how XRA started, to give some legitimacy to our own bands."
The label has added several musicians to its family since the Denny's discussion, including Wet Blankets, Sleeping Bag and Muncie's State Park. Although many of the new bands did not grow up playing music in the initial husband&wife era, they are now tightly united through local music.
"I've always been a fan of the stuff they do, so it's rad to feel like they're on your side, digging the stuff you make," Aaron Bragg, vocalist and guitarist for Wet Blankets, said. "It's strange talking about it this way just because these dudes are all close friends who I'm with all the time. I never think of them as label owners. It's hilarious to think of them like that, but I guess it's what they are. I joke with Mike [Adams from husband&wife] about scouting out the next big band, but it's different and I think more appealing what those dudes do."
Speaking for the record label, Tim Felton, who plays guitar in husband&wife and also works for XRA, said the label's top priority is not making money.
"The goal of it now is to represent the regional music scene that we're apart of and to help those artists to be more widely recognized for the good music that they are making," he said. "We haven't focused a lot of time ‘making it.' It's more about getting the music out there."
The XRA Showcase show is slated to start at 6 p.m. at VGR. Two of the bands that will be playing the show are Sleeping Bag and husband&wife.
Sleeping Bag
Back in the winter of 2010, Dave Segedy, lead vocalist and drummer of Sleeping Bag, began writing songs that would later take Bloomington by storm. Recording his first full-length album with Joyful Noise, Segedy recruited friends Lewis Rogers, guitarist, and David Woodruff, bassist, to play his songs live.
Having played in many local Indiana bands, including Arrah and the Ferns and Prayer Breakfast, Segedy has made his share of music connections. Growing up in Muncie, he doesn't know where he would be today without VGR.
"When it started, I was senior in high school and I used to go there all the time and hang out," he said. "I met a lot of people there. I met everyone from Arrah and the Ferns there, so I probably wouldn't be where I am today without it, in some ways."
facebook.com/pages/Sleeping-Bag/123865644306837
husband&wife
Having met in Bloomington, husband&wife know Indiana backwards and forwards, playing well-attended VGR shows often.
Now working on their fifth full-length album, the band is returning to a collaborative songwriting approach.
"This time, we're going to rent some space," Felton said. "We're going to be at a relatively abandoned or empty warehouse and we're going to set up and practice and write the songs there, let the context influence the sound we get and the music that we make."
From there, the band plans to record the album on its own, something they have not done since 2006's "Operation: Surgery."
facebook.com/husbandandwife.band
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