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Touch and Go was started in late 1981 by Corey Rusk. They got the name from
Tesco Vee (the Meatmen) because he had a fanzine out by the same name. They
were friends, so Corey just adopted the name. The first release was a Necros
single. Corey played bass in the Necros, so that figures. This was all from
the Detroit/Ann Arbor area, although Corey was still living in Toledo at
the start. They started to put out other punk rock band's music as well.
All the bands were from Detroit/Lansing/Ohio area. Corey moved to Detroit
in January '84. Bands like L7 (not the same), Angry Red Planet, The Fix.
Then Corey and his girlfriend started putting out releases by bands not
in the immediate area: Die Kreuzen-Milwaukee, The Butthole Surfers-Austin,
Killdozer-Madison, Big Black-Chicago, Scratch Acid-Austin, Laughing Hyenas-Detroit.
Things were a bit different then as they were doing it for the fun and love
of music; there was NO commerical viability for punk or even the term 'alternative'.
Then Corey and Lisa, his wife, moved to Chicago in December 1986. Things
went on, and Corey started Quarterstick records - a sort of sister label
of TnG. Bands like the Rollins band, Pegboy, Mule, the Bad Livers. This
was about 1990. He also started distributing other labels. Merge-N. Carolina,
Trance-Austin, Invisible-Chicago, and then later Drag City-Chicago, Skin
Graft-Chicago, and then Thrill Jockey-formerly of New York, now Chi-town.
We no longer distribute Trance, Skin Graft or Invisible, but we do now distribute
Atavistic-Chicago, All City Overcoat-Chicago and Estrus-Bellingham, WA.
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