Lost Origin LODD Evan Keeling Dischord Direct
Evan Keeling - Dischord Direct BOOK Limited Stock: 5 Available
Amanda, my little sister, she ran it. and I worked there. I took orders on the phone and boxed all the stuff. and the best part was, for a couple of years, I delivered truly directly to all the stores in the d.c. region. I would drive around in my 1967 comet all day, particularly for the new releases, take orders from all the stores, load all the boxes into my car and just drive around and go hang out at all the record stores. it was such a gas, you know, because kids would be in there… a lot of them are actually Dischord fans who are waiting the new release to arrive or whatever… and then I would walk in – not even u.p.s., just show up directly. It’s the most direct. but it was kind of crazy how much it cost us. the gas, and to pay me an hourly rate to drive around the city… but then u.p.s. started to happen, and everybody got their deliveries at the same time, between 9 and 10 a.m. on whatever the release day was. so yeah, that’s really one of the things I did at Dischord, was drive around in my old car and hang out. it was fun for us. we stay tight with all our stores; we know who’s in bands or what’s happening. that was a really nice communication and I think the stores really enjoyed it. But after a while - there were no record stores.
Hand-bound blank journal
Approximately 200 pgs.
Part of a series of paintings in a vintage paperback book cover style based on Evan Keeling’s research into the history of the DC punk scene. Imitating a variety of vintage illustration and cover styles the back cover has the quote from Evan’s interviews that informed the cover illustration.
Cover text:
Dischord Direct
Dischord Direct started because there was this constant situation where record stores would want to carry Dischord records, but they would have to buy them from distributors. and the distributors would mark up our prices. Dischord had printed right on the sleeve: “$5 postpaid” and the stores would get really mad because, in some cases, that was less than what they had to charge to break even. but they wanted to carry them. so Dischord set up our own direct distribution. it’s one more phone call, but then they can bring down their price.
Amanda, my little sister, she ran it. and I worked there. I took orders on the phone and boxed all the stuff. and the best part was, for a couple of years, I delivered truly directly to all the stores in the d.c. region. I would drive around in my 1967 comet all day, particularly for the new releases, take orders from all the stores, load all the boxes into my car and just drive around and go hang out at all the record stores. it was such a gas, you know, because kids would be in there… a lot of them are actually Dischord fans who are waiting the new release to arrive or whatever… and then I would walk in – not even u.p.s., just show up directly. It’s the most direct. but it was kind of crazy how much it cost us. the gas, and to pay me an hourly rate to drive around the city… but then u.p.s. started to happen, and everybody got their deliveries at the same time, between 9 and 10 a.m. on whatever the release day was. so yeah, that’s really one of the things I did at Dischord, was drive around in my old car and hang out. it was fun for us. we stay tight with all our stores; we know who’s in bands or what’s happening. that was a really nice communication and I think the stores really enjoyed it. But after a while - there were no record stores.
-Alec MacKaye