Tiny Saddle Creek Records Becomes a Mutual Omaha Admiration Society

Being among the most coveted unsigned rock acts in America has been a profitable experience for Omaha band the Faint.

“We’ve been going around and picking up free CDs from all the record companies that have been talking to us,” singer Todd Baechle says.

What the band has not been picking up, though, are the lucrative contract offers from several major labels--including Interscope, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks--eager to have it on their rosters.

The band has made it pretty clear to suitors that it’s happy with its tiny Omaha label, Saddle Creek Records, also home to local phenoms Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos and a recent release by ethereal Athens, Ga., duo Azure Ray.

“The label’s doing well,” Baechle says. “We’re meeting with the big label people in order to learn, get a better understanding of the music business in general. We’re a hands-on group, not willing to give up a lot of power or say in our band.”

So far it seems to have worked out fine. The band’s third album, “Danse Macabre,” came out last year to indie press and college radio acclaim for its synth-centered sound, which recalls the early-’80s electronic pop of Gary Numan and Depeche Mode.

The band has also won a strong live following (it headlines L.A.’s El Rey Theatre on Thursday) and is picking up such high-profile supporters as No Doubt, which has invited the Faint to open an upcoming series of dates (including March 27-28 at the Universal Amphitheatre). In England, the band is the latest import rock sensation, following the Strokes and the White Stripes.

“Nobody’s getting rich,” says Saddle Creek President Robb Nansel, estimating “Danse Macabre” sales at about 15,000. “But the bands are able to make a living, and the label can sustain itself and put out the records we want to. It grows every year, and it seems like it’s heading in the right direction. Doesn’t seem we should mess with what’s going right.”

Singer Baechle says that he really isn’t sure what advantages a major label would bring to the band, other than financial resources--a belief that’s becoming more common as many artists, veterans and newcomers, question the practices of corporate record labels and look for alternatives. The White Stripes’ deal with V2, for example, gives the group full creative control and ownership of its master tapes, something rarely done in major-label contracts.

“We don’t really care if we get on the radio or not,” Baechle says. “From where we’re from, the radio is [bad]. Honestly, what we’re interested in is becoming a better band and making a better record, and the sales of it all doesn’t matter to us a whole lot. Even if we couldn’t make any money selling records anymore, we would still be a band and hopefully make a living.”

Most major-label A&R; executives courting the band take Baechle and Nansel at their word--at least for now. The White Stripes and ... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead also rebuffed major offers before signing last year with V2 and Interscope, respectively

“I think they’re still educating themselves on where they want to fit in the record business,” DreamWorks executive Luke Wood says. “They’re happy with Saddle Creek. But at the same time, they want the resources and market reach of a major. They’re true artists. I listen to ‘Danse Macabre,’ and to me that record could become enormous the way it is.

“They’ll someday have videos on MTV, and songs on that album would light up the phones at KROQ. It’s a matter of finding a partner and at the same time protect their core values.”

AUCTION ACTION: A lot of rock stars have had to sleep on friends’ couches on their way up the ladder. Now you could sleep on Korn singer Jonathan Davis’ couch. It’s one of the more intriguing items being auctioned on Startrader, a new Web site dedicated to selling musician-owned ephemera for charity.

Startrader (www.startrader.com) was founded by Bobby Hewitt, drummer in the band Orgy, basically as a vehicle for meaningful housecleaning.

“Over the years of touring and being in bands, like anyone else, I collected things, and they kept piling up in my closet and garage,” Hewitt says. “I thought, ‘It’s worth money, I’m not going to throw it all away, but I don’t want to put it in the paper and have people come to my house. I could have a Web site and sell it myself.’ And then I thought it would be great to have other artists, sort of an online Recycler for musicians. And it started to grow and we brought in charities.”

The venture was in development for a year and a half before its recent launch, and already it has a range of items, mostly more explicitly connected to rockdom than the sofa (bidding on which starts at $800).

Items range from the red jumpsuit worn on last year’s Ozzfest tour by Tommy Lee (bidding starts at $600) to a drum machine owned by Hewitt ($300) to various backstage laminates and posters autographed by members of Sugar Ray, Orgy, Kid Rock’s band and others ($15 and up).

Startrader, run by Hewitt and Skip McNevin, a former Web designer and video producer for NASA, is not-for-profit, with the sellers allowed to designate charitable organizations to receive proceeds from their items. Participating artists or companies will benefit from links to their sites or streaming audio and video. But even before any promotional element was considered, Hewitt says, he had no trouble finding musicians interested in donating.

“A lot of artists I know have come to the same conclusions--’I have all this stuff,’” he says. “They don’t care about getting money back but are into helping out others.”

SMALL FACES: Bay Area hip-hop duo Blackalicious makes its major-label debut with “Blazing Arrow,” due April 30 from MCA Records. Lyricist Gift of Gab and DJ-producer Chief Xcel are joined on the album by, among others, Zack de la Rocha, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Jurassic 5’s Chali 2Na and Cut Chemist, Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori, DJ Shadow, and urban poets Saul Williams and Gil Scott-Heron.... “Since I Left You,” by Australian act the Avalanches, which makes its music entirely of samples from obscure ‘50s and ‘60s records found in record-store bargain bins, has been picked up in the U.S. by Elektra Records after Sire Records was shuttered shortly after releasing the album last year. Elektra plans an aggressive promotion campaign for the single “Frontier Psychiatrist.” Tour plans are on hold indefinitely, though, while member Darren Seltmann recovers from serious leg injuries suffered when he leaped off a speaker during a London concert last summer....

Having achieved a platinum-selling album with R&B; singer Avant’s 2000 album, “My Thoughts,” Magic Johnson Music, the former Lakers star’s MCA-distributed label, has made its second signing--Hawaii-raised singer Yasmeen. Her debut album is due in July.

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Steve Hochman is a regular contributor to Calendar.