Traffic Violation Records 20 Year Anniversary 25 August 2013
You're not old school, you're just old
We're coming up on 2015 which will mark the 20 year anniversary of the founding of my old record label Traffic Violation Records. The label released almost 30 records for a slew of DIY punk and hardcore bands from Long Island, NY and beyond. In it's short existence between 1995 and 2002 we released records by Splurge, I Farm, Operation: Cliff Clavin, Contra, The Insurgent, On The Might Of Princes, Latterman, and a bunch more. A lot of the folks from old TVR bands went on to be in bands like Bent Outta Shape, Small Arms Dealer, Sainte Catherines, Ghost Mice, Bridge and Tunnel, Fellow Project, RVIVR, Iron Chic, and more.
Traffic Violation band map
One of the things I'm working on ahead of the anniversary is a band map charting the relationships among TVR bands by way of shared members. Think Seattle Band Map or Band to Band. My idea is to wind up with a nice big poster illustrated by someone like Righteous Indignation (wink, wink).
Here's what I've got so far:
I have all the TVR bands on there in maroon boxes. I've connected them all to the best of my knowledge. In white I've added "connector bands." These are bands with shared members that help link TVR bands to each other.
There are a lot of related bands that I've left off so far. These are bands with shared members that are notable, but don't help in directly linking TVR bands.
Here's the list of those:
Of course, these will eventually go in. But for now, I'm more concerned with clarifying what I already have and connecting the few remaining unconnected TVR bands.
Help me, please!?!
Here's what I need help with:
- I need to figure out a way to connect the unconnected TVR bands to the larger cloud. I realize this may be a long chain, but if it's possible I'd like to do it. Here are the bands that I don't currently have connected:
- Operation: Cliff Clavin
- All The Answers
- Divide And Conquer
- Robotnicka
- I'm sure I'm missing connections between bands already on the map. Any help with that would be appreciated. Examples: Does Nakatomi Plaza share members with any bands on the map besides The Insurgent and De La Hoya? Probably Bridge and Tunnel, right? I need to clarify stuff like that.
- Some of the ways I used to connect bands to the larger crowd are probably not the best available. I think those pathways can be improved. Specifically I'm talking about:
- Latterman -> I Farm
- Disenchanted -> Striped Basstards
If you have any information you can add please, please, please, hit me up at wells.tipley@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Ideally I'd like to hook up with a few dedicated Traffic Violation nerds who can help me polish this thing off and get it into some kind of shape to pass off to an illustrator.
Other projects going forward
I've got some other ideas about ways to celebrate the anniversary by compiling audio, visual, and written documentation. My archives are spilling over with flyers, photos, records, tapes, DATS, VHS videos, zines, interviews, etc. Documenting our particular scene was always the mission of Traffic Violation, so it would be neat to revisit that mission 20 years later.
If you have any ideas or material, please don't hesitate to get in touch!