Billboard Magazine

April 23, 2005,
The Indies: Redeye Lights Up Deal With Fire Records

By TODD MARTENS


Fire Records is one of the latest signings in a busy 2005 for Redeye Distribution. The U.K. label launched in 1986 but had fallen under the radar by the mid-'90s. Its catalog includes releases from such acts as Pulp, Blue Aeroplanes and Television Personalities.

Fire is in the midst of a massive, multi-artist project that could be one of the more fascinating compilations of the year-or a colossal, pretentious failure. The label asked 36 acts to create a song using a portion of James Joyce's poem "Chamber Music." Among the participants are Mercury Rev, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Mike Watt, members of Sonic Youth, Willy Mason, Jessica Bailiff, Alan Licht and Mary Lorson.

Label manager James Nichols says the idea for the compilation came to him as he was reading the poem.

"I thought it would be a good idea to get 36 bands to turn each part of the poem into a song," he recalls. "Label compilations are so weak that we thought we'd do something interesting, and as we don't have 36 bands on the roster, we just started asking all of our favorite bands. We tried to get as many people onboard influenced by Joyce as we could."

Nichols says Fire is working with the Joyce estate. The project does not yet have a release date.

Fire's roster includes psychedelic folk duo Puerto Muerto, ambient rock act Bark Psychosis and pop oddity War Against Sleep. For the United Kingdom only, the label will reissue Neutral Milk Hotel's "On Avery Island" album.

In addition to picking up Fire, Redeye recently obtained exclusive U.S. distribution for Los Angeles-based pop label Eenie Meenie, Philadelphia rock imprint Steel Cage, Chicago dance label Pulseblack and Seattle's spirituality/world music-oriented Ajna Records.

Eenie Meenie, which has released albums from Apples in Stereo side projects Ulysses and the High Water Marks, is planning a tribute to electronic act Dimension 5 dubbed "Dimension Mix." Beck, Stereolab and eels are among those slated to participate.

In addition, Redeye reached an agreement with producer Daniel Lanois to distribute his debut album, "Acadie," and the previously Internet-only "Rockets" collection of outtakes and live cuts.