Behind the label

McCord, 27, plays with bassist Nich Richard, 26, and drummer Hattie Danby, 29, in the local alt-rock band the Plurals. The trio frequently tours the country in a van while releasing discs and booking shows under their label, GTG Records. McCord said the band has been well received on both coasts, throughout the Midwest and parts of the Great Plains.

“Basically (our fan base) was built by old fashioned touring,” McCord said. “We’ll play pretty much anywhere once, and if there´s any interest we make sure to go back.”

All of the members of the Plurals manage GTG (which stands for “good time gang”), but the GTG label is much bigger than them.

“GTG is a group of friends who play music, set up shows and promote releases of people we think could use the help,” Richard said. “It’s also an ever-expanding web of new folks we’ve met through touring. It’s slowly turning into a fully national outfit as we put out stuff from people on either coast.”

McCord, Richard and Danby work out of what’s informally known as the GTG House, a two-story, ivy-wrapped brick building near Old Town filled with guitars, recording equipment and the label’s back catalog of CDs, vinyl and other assorted band merch.

“(The GTG House) has taken on a life of its own since the Plurals moved there in 2006,” McCord said. “It’s equal parts recording studio, rehearsal space and DIY music venue, as well as living space to a rotating cast of musicians and artists. But I’m pretty sure at this point the cats might be the legal owners of the property.”

This weekend’s seventh annual GTG Fest will serve as a showcase for the label’s catalog of 70-plus releases. GTG Fest launches with a concert Saturday at the Avenue Café. More than 20 bands are slated to perform, including Red Teeth, Rick Johnson Rock & Roll Machine, Cat Midway and Frank and Earnest. GTG Fest continues Sunday with a daylong after party at an undisclosed location.

The label has progressed since its loose inception in 2005 when the Plurals was just a bunch of Ionia High School students. Back then, GTG was a logo they’d throw on rough demos. By 2007, however, the Plurals and the label were steeped in the Lansing scene, and its handshake business model had taken shape.

“The main function of the label these days is promoting shows and providing funds for bands to do physical releases.” McCord said. “Mainly vinyl.”

The festival started on a patch of farmland in Ionia County in 2008 as an excuse to celebrate.

“It was pretty much an all-day outdoor party with a ton of bands playing,” McCord said. “In 2011, we started hosting it at different venues in Lansing. Last year we turned it into a weekend thing.”

Details for the after-party are only shared by word-of-mouth, but Danby said if you show up at the Avenue on Saturday and make friends with some of the musicians wandering about, it’s not hard to find out.

“It’s like a big group of friends getting together and people meeting new people,” she said. “There are bands from different parts of Michigan and out-of-state bands, too. It’s just a big networking party. It’s very supportive.”

McCord said GTG has grown from a threeperson operation to a crew of comrades, many attached to the Lansing music scene, including Ben Hassenger of Frank and Earnest and Isaac Vander Schuur of the Hat Madder. One of the bands on the 2014 GTG Fest schedule is a new Lansing band, the Fiction Junkies, which McCord says brings together elements of pop songwriting with “weird musical changes and off-kilter lyrics.” The band’s debut EP, “Morbidly Obtuse,” is a GTG imprint. Cale Sauter of Cavalcade can identify with GTG: He operates his own local label, Bermuda Mohawk Productions.

“It’s all in the name of having fun, temporarily escaping reality and/ or getting annihilated,” Sauter said. “I have an immense amount of respect for Tommy McCord and the work he puts into all things GTG.”

Solo artist Peter Richards said the label is obliging, but not intrusive when it comes to the creative process.

“There’s no shortage of willing collaborators or people willing to share skills,” he said. “GTG takes a decidedly handsoff stance towards indi- vidual artistic decisions.”

And while the label has expanded its geographical reach, Danby said GTG’s ethics have remained intact.

“We’ve been able to branch out into other states and get people outside of Michigan involved,” she said. “But we haven’t really changed the way we go about doing things — I think we’re just getting better at it.”

And McCord said there’s no end in sight. “This label was built on friendship,” he said. “Things go up and down, (but) I don’t think the label will end until all of the principal players have either died or forgotten how to make music.”

GTG Fest 2014

5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 The Avenue Café 2021 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing $5 facebook.com/thegtg