GATHERING OF THE PUNKS
Undertow, Death by Stereo and more will turn out for Indecision Records' 30-year show
Hard-core punk music fan Dave Mandel wasn't really planning to start a record label three decades ago.
But the photographer and fanzine editor truly found his calling back in 1992, when he thought he was simply helping out a friend's band release new music.
“I was just someone who loved music and I wanted to put my fingerprint on the music I loved,” Mandel said during a recent phone interview. He's definitely made his mark, especially in the Southern California hard-core and punk rock music scenes, when he launched his independent record label Indecision Records.
The Garden Grove-based label is throwing a 30th anniversary bash in the form of a two-day concert at Garden Amp in Garden Grove tonight and Saturday. The pair of gigs in the intimate outdoor amphitheater, which sold out quickly, will feature more than two dozen bands on the label or that are part of its legacy.
It's a who's who of hard-core royalty that will include reunions from acts like Seattle-based straight edge punk band Undertow, San Diego straight edge metalcore group Unbroken and Lancaster hard-core band Coolside.
Boston's The Suicide File will play its first West Coast show in more than a decade; Beyond Repair will perform a set featuring original Throwdown singer Keith Barney; Orange County hard-core band Death by Stereo will play its debut full length album, Indecision Records' “If Looks Could Kill, I'd Watch You Die,” from front to back; and Orange County band Adamantium will play its classic album, “The Depths of Depression,” with the original lineup from that record.
Other performers include Mean Season, Over My Dead Body, Bleeding Through and the band with the first release on Indecision Records, Thousand Oaks hardcore punk outfit Strife.
“It's just going to be such a great reunion,” Mandel said. “I'm excited to see all the bands playing, of course, but I am way more excited (just) to see all these people.”
Prior to starting the label, Mandel was out almost nightly photographing punk rock shows at clubs and then editing his Indecision Magazine in the early '90s. It was through this work that he met Strife and befriended the members. In 1992, they contacted him about helping to put out some of their music.
“It was just a pretty humble start,” Mandel recalled, describing himself as an “organizational nerd” who likes things done neatly and cleanly. Mandel took the reins on the release of the band's foursong, 7-inch vinyl record.
“It was just a matter of function that the label even started,” he said.
Through his connections in the punk scene, Mandel began working with other bands to release vinyl records, tapes and CDs.
“It started out as a little one-off thing to help my friends get a release out, to a full-fledged, like, we're in it, we're doing all the industry stuff label,” he said of the rapid turn of events. “I'm really here to find people that I like and put out music that I like and do whatever I can to support them.”
About a dozen bands are currently on Indecision Records, and over the past 30 years, it has put out more than 175 records from more than 100 bands. Many of the most prominent are a part of the 30th anniversary shows.
“I think Indecision is important because it's always been about friends and it's always been about just loving music,” said Death by Stereo frontman Efrem Schulz. The band released its first record on the label in 1999 before going on to sign with Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz's Los Angeles-based Epitaph Records.
Death by Stereo has come full circle with Indecision Records, since the band returned to the label in 2020 to release its latest album, “We're all Dying Just in Time.”
“Dave always just puts out things he likes,” Schulz said. “I think it's a true art label. He's basically putting out your record because he likes what you do. There's never any sort of telling anyone what to do or how to write a song or how to sound. It's just expression and art, the way it should be.”
Ahead of the anniversary shows, Death by Stereo is dusting off several songs from that first record that haven't been played in years, as it readies to give it a go from start to finish during the first evening of the event on Friday.
“We wanted to do something old school and we want it to feel like the old days and just have fun,” said Schulz, who will also perform with Death by Stereo at the Punk in the Park Festival from Nov. 4-5 at Oak Canyon Park in Silverado.
Since the shows are sold out, Mandel said, they will be recorded and available for everyone to enjoy — by streaming or physical release — at a later date.
After the big anniversary bash, Mandel is getting back to work and continuing to put out the music he loves.
“We're going to do what we keep doing,” he said. “We never let industry trends or money ever influence what we do.”
“I thi■k I■decisio■ is importa■t because it's always bee■ about frie■ds a■d it's always bee■ about just lovi■g music.”
— Efrem Schulz, frontman for Death by Stereo