Interviews Photo courtesy of Table-Turned

Published on January 8th, 2018 | by Darren Paltrowitz

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Dane Erbach On Vinyl, Jetsam-Flotsam & The Future Of Table-Turned

A common narrative among media and casual music listeners is that “nobody buys albums anymore.” We music loyalists know this is not true, as recent albums by Adele, Drake and Taylor Swift have sold in the millions. Furthermore, due to streaming services, overall music consumption is as heavy as ever. Meanwhile, vinyl sales seem to be the strongest they have been in years.

The Chicago-based vinyl subscription service Table-Turned is smartly catering to true music fans. Sending subscribers records in the mail each month, Table-Turned curates new music releases as part of subscription packages. Among the labels it has partnered with are Sub Pop, Topshelf Records, Constellation Records, No Sleep Records, and Fat Possum Records. Southern Lord Recordings recently joined the Table-Turned fold for a “Noise Rock Package” and Bloodshot Records for an “American Punk” package. Not only is Table-Turned offering exclusive packages to its subscribers, but its packages are discounted, making it cheaper per-unit than it would to purchase each title individually.

On behalf of The Hype Magazine, I had the pleasure of speaking with Table-Turned founder Dane Erbach. Erbach is also responsible for the indie label Jetsam-Flotsam, in addition to being a writer for various music publications. More on Table-Turned can be found online at www.table-turned.com.

Where did the idea for Table-Turned come from?

Dane Erbach: My father-in-law actually came up with the idea, sort of. He called me a couple winters ago after watching an episode of Shark Tank where someone had a subscription service for socks. He knew I ran a record label and liked vinyl, so he wondered if it would be a good idea to create a modern version of the old record-of-the-month clubs.

At first, I wasn’t interested. There are other services out there, and I knew I’d never want to subscribe to one of those because I wouldn’t want someone else picking the LPs I get. I suppose that’s where the lightbulb went off and I thought it’d be fun to give subscribers the choice of what kind of music they’d receive and work with labels to curate a year-long “package” of that genre.

The thinking was this: If you like this genre and these bands, let us send you some records you’ll love by some bands you might know and love — and some you might not know you love yet.

Were there any names you were considering before going with Table-Turned?

Dane Erbach: Yeah, I kicked around a ton, but none of them felt right. They were too jokey or punny, or too obscure. There’s a label I loved called Secret Audio Club, and I thought it’d be fun to come up with something that had “club” in the name, but never found it. To me, “Table-Turned” felt like a play on words that described the product and didn’t seem too goofy. It all really came together when my friend Brian from Flesh & Blood Design came up with our logo; it made our name really come to life and feel like the perfect fit.

To you, what makes Table-Turned different from other subscription services?

Dane Erbach: We all basically do the same thing: Turn subscribers on to music they hopefully love while expanding their collection. I feel like we give our subscribers more choice, though. I’m a guy who likes his punk rock and hardcore and alternative rock, so I’d be a little annoyed I spent $25 to $30 a month and got a jazz record, or some Latin fusion LP, or even a hip-hop album. We hope to appeal to people who know what they like and want to discover more of it.

That, and our service is a lot cheaper — almost half the price. Some of the records our subscribers get are $3 to $5 less than the label would sell it in their store. One of our goals is to make sure that our subscribers are paying a fair price, but also that the labels are compensated fairly as well—and get to expose our subscribers to bands they feel are important, underappreciated, or in some other way deserving.

Is there a theme to the albums selected for Table-Turned each month? Or a way to ensure that listeners are into the albums they are received?

Dane Erbach: We let subscribers pick the genre they enjoy most, and they sign up for a year of records from that genre. We just finished our first two packages, which were “Emo Revival” and “Pop-Punk.” We’re halfway through the “Post-Rock” and “Grunge Revival” packages, and we will ship our new subscribers “Noise Rock” and “Americana Punk” LPs next month. But, yeah, it’s an annual subscription — 12 months — and based on genre. We try to be as transparent as possible so that our subscribers know exactly what they’re getting without ruining the surprise by dropping some of the labels they’ll be getting records from and listing some “for fans of” reference bands.

Have you always been loyal to vinyl? Or did you get back into it in recent years?

Dane Erbach: It’s sort of weird to think about, actually. We listened to records a lot when I was a little tyke; my brother and I used to stare at the back cover of Motley Crue’s Theatre Of Pain LP obsessively while singing the chorus to “Home Sweet Home.” My parents loved music — my dad has been in a lot of bands too — so it was pretty much always playing in our house and on our way to school and swim lessons and whatnot. They moved on to CDs when they could, though, and my brother and I made mixtape all the time; my dad even bought me an iPod as a graduation present as soon as they came out. By that point, it felt like records sort of fell out of favor in our family.

I definitely think I started getting more into vinyl more as an adult and actively collected it right out of college. But the more I think back, the more I remember buying LPs and 7″s a ton when I was in high school. Like, I stole my dad’s old turntable and set it up in my room; I brought it with me to college. I guess in the early to mid-2000s, vinyl didn’t seem like a big deal, so it almost didn’t register with me that I was still listening to it all the time.

For the past 10 years or so, I’ve been buying vinyl as a preferred format for physical music. I wouldn’t call myself a collector, though. I just buy what I like and jam it as often as I can.

What is your vinyl set-up at home?

Dane Erbach: When I was a senior in high school, my dad helped me pick out a Technics receiver with a turntable pre-amp in it so I could set up his old Pioneer PL-518 workhorse. That turntable eventually fell apart. Being a millennial, I didn’t really understand how fragile turntables were because CD players were pretty much indestructible. But I still have that receiver; I’ve tried others, but this is the one that has lasted.

I have a Technics SL-1700 now with an Ortofon Omega cartridge. The turntable is a beast — it’s super heavy — and a direct drive, which I’ve always preferred. I run that to the Technics receiver and into a pair of monster JBL speakers we keep in our living room.

Do you also subscribe to a service like Spotify or Sirius XM? Or are physical goods your go-to for as much music as possible?

Dane Erbach: I used to be a CD apologist until just recently, when I purchased a new car that didn’t have a CD player in it; apparently, they are passe. So I’ve been a subscriber to Apple Music for a couple of months now. It’s a weird shift. It’s hard to decide what to listen to when you can literally listen to anything.

When I’m home, I’ll pull out records pretty much whenever I want to listen to music unless I’m in the mood for something I don’t have on vinyl — or my wife is in the mood to listen to boy bands, and then we’ll just turn on Pandora. But I’d say I split my listening between Apple Music and my vinyl collection these days. That’s the downside to vinyl—you can’t take it to work with you or play it in your car.

Beyond running Table-Turned, you are also a writer and a teacher. How did you first wind up in the music business?

Dane Erbach: Writing was probably my entry. I’ve always been obsessed with music, especially independent music. I was in bands that played some cool shows, but we never toured or anything fun like that. In college, I started writing reviews for small zines, and I was thrilled to receive free music each month, back when they’d send actual CDs to writers. I started writing bigger and bigger stories for some of these smaller magazines, even wrote a couple of cover features, and it helped me see that playing music and booking shows wasn’t the only way to contribute to a music scene.

When I graduated college, I started a few other writing projects, one was called the Switchboard Sessions; here, I’d interview bands and record them playing their songs over the phone. It helped me get closer to other labels and publicists, but it was a lot of hard work. When I stopped doing that, so I decided to start a record label called Jetsam-Flotsam to fill the space that writing left behind. We’re more of a boutique label that only puts out a couple releases a year, but it’s been fun helping some of my favorite bands release records. That officially flung me into the music business, especially considering all the marketing and press and production I manage.

Since starting Table-Turned, I’ve been in contact with a lot more labels, so it feels more like I’m in “the business” even more so than with my label. There’s a lot more sales and marketing involved, and a lot more “business,” but it’s helping me feel more connected to the larger, overarching “scene” that exists in independent music.

What is coming up for your label in the coming months?

Dane Erbach: With Table-Turned, we’re going to close our “Americana Punk” and “Noise Rock” packages to subscribers and start shipping records. In fact, I was buying some of these records from labels today! By the time the holidays are over, we’ll be announcing two new genres too.

For Jetsam-Flotsam, we have a split coming out in a month or two and are just on the verge of announcing it. It’ll involve some rad bands from Minneapolis.

When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?

Dane Erbach: I have two sons, so my free time is spent playing with them more often than not — or keeping them from killing each other. Going on mini-adventures with them or my wife, who’s my partner in both Table-Turned and Jetsam-Flotsam, keeps me grounded on a daily basis. I’m an English teacher, though, so I also enjoy nerdy things like reading and writing. I have been working on writing a novel or two the past few years, and I’m in the process of figuring out the publishing process, but I also still write a lot of reviews and bios for bands, labels and publicists.

What is the last concert you attended for fun?

Dane Erbach: The most recent band my wife and I saw was a Jetsam-Flotsam band we’ll announce with our next release, so I won’t talk about that now. Living in the suburbs, we go out and see local cover bands once in a while. We saw a pop-punk cover band play recently, and I saw my dad’s band play.

Having two kids makes it hard to see shows these days, but I did bring my five-year-old to see The Aquabats over the summer. It was a ton of fun. They’ve been one of my favorite bands for a long time, and it was cool to bring him to his first real show. He has a reference for what it means to play music, now, and it’s a pretty magical thing.

Do you have a favorite album of 2017?

Dane Erbach: There’s one LP that totally punched me in the stomach this year when I first heard it: Emperor X’s Oversleepers International on Tiny Engines. It’s just the right mix of literary lyrics and scrappy acoustic punk-rock and emotional abandon. Man, I think I listened to that record all spring non-stop.

Finally, Dane, any last words for the kids?

Dane Erbach: (laughs) The only thing I can think to write is to keep supporting independent labels and the scene surrounding independent music.


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About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."


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