Base Trip Records

A couple weeks back, during Easter break, I visited some friends up in Boston at BU. Since all my friends are also really into music, especially my boy Garrett, with whom I was staying, a music swap occurred. As with every other music swap that's occurred, I give Garrett mostly hip-hop (you don't have any El-P?!), and he gives me mostly indie/alternative (The Smiths!). But this last time, Garrett gave me a track by the hip-hop group The Throwbacks, whom I had never heard of before. I really liked their sound, so I asked Garrett about them. He told me that they were local, maybe even students at BU. I sort of disregarded it and added the track "American Phenomenon" to my iTunes. Later that week, I did the BU High Fidelity radio show with Garrett. Towards the end of the show, a guy named Conor showed up. Cool guy, but I thought he was just another DJ.

The Throwbacks

Returning to Georgetown, I decided to play The Throwbacks on our show. Not knowing much about them, I did a quick Google search on these guys and found out that they are signed to the small, independent record-label Base Trip Records. Being the curious guy I am, I had to look Base Trip up as well. Heading to their website, I realized that the label was started out of a BU dorm room, akin to the way Def Jam was started by Rick Rubin out of his NYU dorm. Even more surprising was that the label was started by that guy I met at the WTBU station, Conor Loughman.

Check out Base Trip: Facebook. MySpace. Blog. Home Page. Flickr.

Though I was aware of businesses being started out of dorm rooms, I was absolutely amazed that, in this day and age with music piracy the way it is, a record label could be launched by a student. The label specializes in folk, acoustic artists as well as in hip-hop. I recommend checking out all their sites, especially their blog, which has recent news and press coverage. And listen to their music. A lot of their artists should be touring this summer around New England and the Mid-Atlantic, so if you are in the area, check them out.