About Dead Turtle Recordings
Dead Turtle began in the summer of 1998, in an effort to promote the awesome scene that I observed taking place in Sacramento. Everyone seemed to be either in a band entertaining the kids, or volunteering at the record store for the kids, or have meetings about important things or owning a record label to promote the kids. Well, I'm not that great at the whole band thing and I'm not the social type to go to femme meetings and stuff. Although I did tag along with a friend while he volunteered at the store, I myself never did anything to help directly. That is why I started this label. To try to do my part to promote the bands. The sound. The sound is wonderful. I grew up in a town where I was fortunate enough to have some punk people pave the D.I.Y. road before me. Having the pleasure of seeing Los Huevos, Yah Mos, Pope Smashers, Bananas, Nar...and many other Sacramento greats. It just inspired me. After a short stint in the zine scene with a zine called Asterisk, I turned the efforts towards a label, to pass the sound on to others. People ask about the name, dead turtle. Well, its sort of an environment thing. It's supposed to be shocking, so that people realize how important taking care of the Earth is.
People who have contributed to DTR: Leon from Bug Bite mixed down DTR2 and Victor sponsored it. Thanks Victor, were ever you are. Leon also helped with making the CDR for DTR3 for radio play. Tippy Young designed the cover for DTR3 using her own art and some of Karl Blau's. Krista Puett drew both the DTR4 and DTR5 covers. I did a tape trade and the guy drew the DTR logo in exchange.
Thanks to all the bands who let me use their tracks on my compilations and split cs. Rock on.
Krista Puett - official illustrator
Marissa Mandell - promotion