In deep with Philly’s Feel The Four Records

This fall, two longtime players in the east coast DIY scene teamed up in Philly to launch a new record label. Jarrett Dougherty, former drummer of Screaming Females, bonded with multi-instrumentalist and massive music fan Cristian Adams over their shared love of dance music. They got together to record some dance-punk inspired songs Jarrett had been working on — the project 34 Trolley, named for the arterial mode of transit up West Philly’s Baltimore Avenue — and decided its debut EP Relaxation would be the first release on their label Feel The Four Records.

The record came out on October 4th, and that week, on October 1st, Jarrett and Christian appeared on the WXPN Local Show for a guest DJ set. They talked about looking for inspiration to the influential late 70s / early 80s label 99 Records and its “NYC-style Post-Punk Mutant Disco,” and played a handful of cuts from its catalog, including Bush Tetras and ESG.

They also talked about finding a similarly eclectic array of working musicians in Philly, and recruiting them to play on the 34 Trolley project, playing a second set of music showcasing the primary projects from their collaborators: vibes player Victor Vieira-Branco’s band Bark Culture, guitarist Marissa Paternoster’s Noun, vocalist Brittany Luna’s Catbite, and soundscaper Zachary Fairbrother’s Countach.

“It s something about me musically personally: I love to dig, but it’s not just one genre,” says Jarrett. “Somebody opens up a door for me — ‘you didn’t realize there are all these new electronic dub records happening?’ — and then I’m down that rabbit hole.”

We also hear stories about working with Grammy Nominated artist Perry Shall on the label’s look and design, and on the lessons of launching a new label in 2024 (the last time they tried their hand at a label was before the streaming era). Listen to the full guest DJ set below, and read on for some excerpts from the conversation. And for more, follow the label on Instagram at @feelthefourrecords.

Jarrett on drawing inspiration from the legendary 99 Records…

“I love collecting records, I love searching through random bins. I started coming across these records and one by one I started realizing they’re all coming out of New York…and I really started to realize there wasn’t a unified sound but these were records made for a specific place in time, and for DJs to play them at parties. … It’s right as “disco is dead,” according to the rest of the world, but New York still loved dancing; punk is now a couple years old and people are like “is punk over, is CBGBs still a place to hang out?” House music hasn’t risen and become what it will by the mid 80s. Hip-hop is coming out of the Bronx for the first time. Punks are trying to figure out if there’s life past CBGBs, disco musicians are looking for work anywhere they can get it, you have a lot of Latin Musicians, and you have these clubs like Mudd Club where it’s kind of punk but they have DJ’s on a lot of nights and these were the records they were playing. So I’ve collected those records throughout the years and I wanted something new that I could put in a set along those records.”

Cristian on the origins of Feel The Four Records…

“We started discussing putting a label together in 2019. I had just moved back to the Philly area and want to get back involved in Philly music scene. We have both been passionate and interested in dance music for a long time. And there’s a great dance music scene here, great DJs, great parties being thrown, great venues. We were thinking “how can we get involved in this, what can we do?” And the idea of a label came up.”

Jarrett on collaborating with an array of Philly artists on the 34 Trolley EP…

“When I had this idea to really go in and record these songs I’ve been working on, I thought about those songs we were talking about as inspiration. What makes Arthur Russell’s disco records work, or the Afrika Bambatta records work? It’s the disparate musicians you get and put in the studio together.”

Playlist

Liquid Liquid – “Cavern”
ESG – “Moody”
Bush Tetras – “Too Many Creeps”
Vivien Goldman – “Launderette”

Bark Culture – “Tempered”
Noun – “Consumed”
Catbite – “Already Gone”
Countach – “Mechanical Death Wish”