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Underground Operations

 

.THE END OF UNDERGROUND OPERATIONS.

Dec 2nd – 2016

All things come to an end and I like to believe that the only thing you can sometimes be lucky enough to control it how. So as of today, Underground Operations has released it’s last record. Fittingly it is my band Closet Monster’s anthological offering entitled- Suicide Note. I mean ’fittingly’ because c.m. was the whole start of this beast we called UO. And in the positive spirit of the band, we are all proud to say that any money raised from it or any other CM record will be directly donated to a wonderful cause, if you have a moment, or are a sucker for nostalgia… check out the info here:

www.closetmonster.bandcamp.com

It’s a weird thing to type after so many years, that UO is officially shutting its doors. I want to personally give a big thank you to Dan Hand who gracefully took control of the label for the last few years and ran the company with the an integrity and passion to be proud of. He started as in intern so many years ago, and in the end became so much more than i could have ever imagined- my best friend. It’s what UO was built to always be: awesome friends doing rad shit together. And over the last 15 years or so all of the people working here and all of the artist we worked with really did something special. We had our ups and downs, it was chaos most of the time, but it was beautiful chaos and out of it came some wonderful records, memories, and emotions to never be forgotten.

In the end, there are two things that stood like pillars at the fundamental core of Underground Operations from day one until today: intention and individuals

Our intention was to always stand by our music and to make sure that we believed so passionately we could alchemize that belief into reality. From the heart, even when it went south, built on romantic ideals and friendships that we knew back then would be remembered for a lifetime.

And secondly, it was the individuals that held the true weight upon their shoulders. The people who composed the always unique and evolving collective group working their asses off to get good music heard. Even though UO could not have existed without the music and artists, its clear to me that in the end it would have been even less without it’s good people fuelling it and breathing life into its lungs year after year. I may have started Underground Operations in my mom’s basement all alone, but it became each one of ours until the memory fades. You know who you are, thank you.

And on a final note, i want to thank each of the artists we released personally. You took a shot on us, just like we did you. And no matter how it all ended up I’m proud of every single record we ever released. I hope one day we can find it in our lives to reconnect and laugh at how fucking stupid it was to take something so wonderful as indie music so seriously. But that is the big lesson at the end of it all, it was all just music. Beautiful wonderful inspiring life changing indie music.

… Mark Spicoluk*
& the UO crew