About My Mean Magpie Recordings 1995-2004

My Mean Magpie began as two separate labels: My Mean Mustard and Magpie.

My Mean Mustard was started in December of 1995 to release the cassette of my very first band, Toys for Elliot. We weren't a great band and, knowing nothing about promotion, the small run of 30 cassettes never quite sold out (I have two copies remaining). For a while it seemed like that would be the first and final release.

However in December of the next year, a label started by Patti Kim under the name of Magpie put out her first release with, her own band, Meowch's Splitsville (MAG001) cassette.

Patti and I both enjoyed each others releases and, a year later during the summer and fall of 1997, the duo of Patti Kim and Five Seventeen began working on their own cassette under the name Georgia. The result of this pairing brought the two labels together and Georgia (MAG002/MMM003) came out as a split release on both labels. After deciding they wanted to continue to release their own and others music the two labels merged and My Mean Magpie was born.

Existing from 1995 as a cassette label steeped in the influences and traditions of Shrimper, Simple Machines, Teenbeat, etc. My Mean Magpie continued to release the cassette recordings of friends and like-minded acquaintances. But, by the year 2000, it was impossible not to consider the cassette a dying breed and with the purchase of a new computer (with CD burner), the second Georgia release ushered in My Mean Magpie's era as a CDR label. This release also marked the end of Patti's active involvement with the label and all operations from that point forward were handled alone.

Patti continues to occasionally produce the 'zine Fuzzy Heads are Better and currently lives happily in New York City.

Though the move to CDR improved the production and sound quality of the releases, the networks of distribution that existed within the cassette community began to erode as fanzines and mailorder were replaced by weblogs and email. Almost overnight the number of packages arriving and being sent from the post office box dwindled as people began to discover the MP3 format. Yet, the label continued to create and release recordings, all the while awaiting the return of "the album." That day never arrived.

After trying to find alternate ways to promote CDR releases and coming up empty, the services offered by archive.org/Netlabels, though utilized primarily by the electronic music community, seemed an ideal way to release (and reissue) all of the My Mean Magpie material. NetLabels allows for the free upload and download of CD quality audio and print quality artwork which would allow users all over the world immediate access. It certainly seemed worth a try.

On October 30th of 2004, My Mean Magpie uploaded Lake Holiday's Send Off the Summer EP (MMM019A) with plans to archive all previous My Mean Magpie releases and quietly retire the label. However, inspired by the minimal initial downloads, the exact opposite occurred and plans were formed for new releases.

In less than six months, My Mean Magpie has achieved increasing numbers of downloads (all promoted releases have recieved an average of 350+ downloads), and the most current release Relax Brother, Relax: A Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Teenbeat Records (MMM025) currently enjoys the number 7 position in the archives top downloaded items since the NetLabels launch in March 2001. It has been downloaded roughly 2200 times.

My Mean Magpie has no plans to expand into offering commercially available releases, nor does it intend to ever make any money off of it's efforts. The only goal of the label has always been to give exposure to music I enjoy and believe in.

— Five Seventeen. April 3rd, 2005.