Arts & Culture
Most Excellent Records presents What’s the point?: Local music compilation
The Pointer
nmeye177@uwsp.edu
Sixteen bands and one comedian will come together for a 9 hour-long event on May 9 in the Dreyfus University Center Encore to celebrate the release of the “What’s the Point?” compilation of local music on Most Excellent Records.
The show will be fast and dirty, with each artist getting about 10 minutes to set up and 20-25 minutes to present what they’re all about. It’s almost impossible to imagine the show running smoothly, but the mastermind behind it all, local music lover and motivator Tyler Debelak, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s going to be a long day; it’s going to be fast-paced, and it’s going to be really fun,” Debelak said.
The show will be a mishmash of musical stylings and attitudes, featuring everything from the metal of Wrath of the Girth to the folk styling’s of Troubadour to the wall of sound that is Electric Storm. The show is sure to offer something familiar and new for everyone.
Booking massive shows and doing all he can to support local music is nothing new for Debelak, who started booking shows in college and began his own hobby label, Most Excellent Records, to help his friends put out records.
“It’s sort of to help people remember that they can put out CDs. There are people who should be putting out albums who aren’t going to unless I step in there and say, ‘Hey man, we need to do this,’” Debelak said.
Debelak is a person who understands his place in life; he is a motivator. When someone needs that little extra push to step out and do something with his or her music, he’s there to do the shoving. When he arrived in Stevens Point after a short stint living in Toledo and got a feel for the local talent, he knew exactly what he could do to help the music scene grow.
“When I moved to Stevens Point I thought, ‘Oh that’s cool, there’s stuff going on here and people are playing music,’” Debelak said. “I noticed that there’s not a real sense of community with it. It’s like a bunch of bands just doing their own thing.”
So he set out to promote that sense of community that makes music scenes so special to those involved. Debelak, who grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, started going to shows when he was in eleventh grade.
He learned about what he calls “creating community” growing up in place where everyone knows everyone and there isn’t much to do, so music was something everyone could get excited about together. In the same way, he was trying to create that common excitement here.
“I was like, ‘Man, the easiest way to build community is to get something to rally around … let’s do this comp, lets get people on the same page,’” Debelak said.
Once the idea of the compilation became a reality and people in town began to get excited, the idea of having a show was thrown Debelak’s way. He said was ready to make it happen, but he knew if it was going to happen, they needed to go all out.
“Someone said, ‘Man we should throw a show,’ and I said ‘Let’s do it. If we’re going to do it let’s really do it … we can get all the bands to play,’” Debelak said.
Now the stage is booked, the lineup, which was picked out of a hat, is set, and the compilations are being printed. Once again, Debelak’s skills to motivate are creating action.
But the compilation isn’t the only thing he has done: he’s also created a zine called “The Motivator” and brought his brand of noise rock to the music community with his own bands, “Wild Animalz” and “Electric Storm,” which will take the stage third on May 9.
“I’m not that good at playing music but I do two different bands, ‘Electric Storm,’ which is like me playing guitar pedals and stuff doing noise … It’s exploring sonic possibilities rather than sound structures,” Debelak said.
Debelak’s drive to help the local music scene has also inspired 90FM to do more to support it. 90FM is sponsoring the event, which made it much easier for the bands to have the show on campus and was a return to old form for the station.
“We’ve talked a lot in the past couple years about why we don’t sponsor shows anymore. 90FM as an organization used to sponsor a lot of concerts and we haven’t really done that in the past five years,” Station Manager and soul member of Troubadour Jim Priniski said. “It’s the first time any of us have done anything like this.”
The show will start on May 9 at 1 p.m. and go until 10 p.m. The cost is $3 or $5 if you want the compilation. The money will go back to pay for the costs of making the compilation, which Debelak paid for himself. The show and compilation are just the beginning for Debelak, who said he has more planned for Stevens Point.
“I want to book shows this summer at a house. I want to do basement shows. I want people to put out more albums. I want people to write more zines. I just want stuff to happen,” he said.
