Musician Dan Hanke (Crime and Judy, Sometime Sweet Susan and others) has been running one of Milwaukee's best record labels ever for nearly a decade now.
After a stint in Chicago, Hanke and Latest Flame are once again Milwaukee-based and has a string of impressive new releases.
We caught up with him recently for a chat about what's going on with the label these days.
OnMilwaukee.com: Latest Flame is once again Milwaukee-based, right? Can you tell us a bit about the move to Chicago and why you came back? How long have you been back?
Dan Hanke: I moved to Chicago in February 2008 partly due to my job and partly due to the fact I'm from the area – born in Downers Grove, Ill., my parents moved to Wisconsin when I was around 9 – and had wanted to move back "home" for some time.
About two years later my job situation began to change and I began looking elsewhere, when I found something I wanted it was back in Milwaukee, so in September 2010 about 2 1/2 years after my initial move I was heading back north on 94. So we've been back for about nine or so months.
For the label, it is based in Milwaukee now, back where it started in October 2002 with myself, Tony Olveda and Aaron Gorski.
OMC: These days, does it really matter where you're physically located?
DH: I'm not sure if physical location matters at this point in time. I mean it always helps of course to put a face with a name but there are people we've been corresponding with and developed great relationships with in college radio or a writer or blogger where we might first be meeting today – after five or six years of email, phone or instant message conversations – at a show here, Chicago or Minneapolis, and it's like, "hey, finally great to meet you."
But without that point of physically shaking hands and maybe getting a drink we'd still be talking, sharing similar interests and hopefully turning each other on to new and great music.
OMC: When you put out that first Troubled Hubble record did you think the label would have this long a life?
DH: Absolutely not. In fact I was the one telling the other two guys this was a bad idea from the start! Then I was handed the keys in 2005 when both Tony and Aaron moved on to other things and I started meeting new bands that were really inspiring – The Gunshy, The Dials – and it just continued from there. Hard to believe 2012 will be 10 years.
OMC: Do you foresee a time when you could do it full time?
DH: I haven't thought of the label that way really; mainly as I've treated it like playing in a band. It's something I love to do and am driven to do, but honestly the focus has been on each release as it comes.
OMC: There seemed to be a bit of a dip in 2008-09, with only five releases over those years, as compared to at least seven in 2007 alone and four in 2010. Was that a result of the economy, the music out there for release, something else?
DH: The fluctuation within bands led to that change from '07 and then into '08 and '09. Mustangs and Madras and Skull Time disbanded, Crime & Judy and Protest Hill were one-off releases – the first being a sort of posthumous release of the final record and the latter being a solo effort by Ryan Heise from System and Station – The Dials moved to a new label, and then we began pressing vinyl with System and Station in '09 and Nervous Curtains in 2010, which changed the economics of the label for sure.
Right now I think we're getting back to a more comfortable level of three-four releases annually.
DH: In terms of finding new bands to help release, we'll work with bands who move us regardless of where they're from, though we have generally focused on the Midwest and specifically Milwaukee and Chicago, as that's where we're going to shows mostly.
And to add to that between IfIHadAHiFi – Waxeater, Police Teeth, Trophy Wives – and The Gunshy – Brief Candles, Hitch and by proxy Nervous Curtains – most of our recent releases are the result of bands going on tour or supporting bands on tour through Milwaukee/Chicago and calling up and saying, "hey, you better check these guys out, they're going to blow you away!"
OMC: Can you tell us about some of the most recent, and upcoming, discs?
DH: The current release is by a Seattle band called Police Teeth: "Awesomer Than The Devil" LP came out April 26.
The next several releases fall into the same scenario as Police Teeth in terms of being bands that were highly recommended to us.
Trophy Wives I saw play for the first time at Quenchers (in Chicago) with HiFi in the fall of 2009 and they were amazing: great riffs, great energy and fun. Their debut LP "Old Scratch" will be out Aug. 16. I've heard people comparing them to Kyuss which I have to say I can't disagree with.
On Sept. 27 (we release) IfIHadAHiFi's "Nada Surf EP +3," their first release since 2008. It's been far too long and this EP really encapsulates the raucous energy of their live shows. The name of the EP of course is a bit of a lark in that Nada Surf's covers record is entitled "If I Had A Hi-Fi"
OMC: The Police Teeth disc is really getting some attention, isn't it?
DH: Yeah, they've been getting consistently good reviews or previews – Buddyhead, Eastbay Express, Punknews, Soundonthesound, etc. – and I couldn't be happier for those guys. They're one of those bands who just knocked it out of the park for me musically and lyrically.
OMC: How did you hook up with them?
DH: About a year after I had settled in Wicker Park I got a recommendation from DJ (Hostetler of IfIHadAHiFi) to check out this band called Police Teeth, and it wasn't like "check these guys out" it was more emphatic "buy their stuff now! They're going to be your favorite band, period. I know you, this band will dominate stereo."
And sure enough they did. All through the summer of 2009 that's all I can remember playing when I was working from home. It was like the first time I'd heard Bad Brains, Superchunk or Archers of Loaf it was that immediate ... I started talking with them casually and caught them at a show the following year and not too long afterward we both agreed it would be a good fit to release the next record.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
