photo by Sanchez and Kitahara
Down to Business
Issue #34
Indie label Rococo Records builds a home for obscure vinyl
By Genevieve Diesing
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 2:12pm
A label you can take home to mom
Rococo Records, the 3-year-old baby of Chicagoans Nicole Blaje and Joe Rococo, might be just what the anti-corporate, record-player-loyalists ordered. Blaje, 26, and Rococo, 34, build personal relationships with supporters of the 35 bands on their vinyl-based label with hand-written letters, mix CD exchanges, and even the notion of a book club. “I want there to be a sense of connection between all of us more than just a stripper and client kind of way,” Blaje says. “I also want to make sure that Rococo Records is always inclusive and never cooler-than-you pretentious.”
Limited release
Blaje, who made riot grrrl zines in the ’90s and currently studies social work at NorthEastern Illinois University, launched the label with Rococo because they were, she said, “rabid collectors of vinyl and failed musicians.” Now the company boasts such projects as Baltimore’s Video Hippos, which Blaje describes as “happy-core plus projectors that make you less murderous about technology” and the Feeling of Love from Metz, France, a one-man show “obsessed with Kurt Cobain, Michael Jordan, and the ‘90s who plays no-wave rocknroll.” If the collection of wild and explorative musicians isn’t enough, Rococo maintains its indie cred by refusing to release anything in an edition of more than 1,000 copies.
Rivers of diamonds
”It's very much a statement of purpose that we want there to be a sense of urgency and appreciation of the records and the artists,” Blaje says. “It's the same excitement that we have for people that still have record players and are loyal like a lobster to that format. … Our motto is that ‘we would spill torrents of blood to give you rivers of diamonds,’ and that's true for our bands and our baby donuts.”
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