Our friends over at Quack!Media (who manage and have released discs by Tally Hall, the Hard Lessons, Great Lakes Myth Society, among other projects) have joined forces with the Livonia-based record label Suburban Sprawl Music (home of Javelins, the Pop Project, Child Bite, the Word Play, the Recital and El Boxeo). The label will exist as an imprint of Quack!Media and focus on smaller-budget, regional and more experimental artists, while Quack!Media continues to focus on larger-budget, national releases.

The Pop Project, Javelins, Child Bite and The Word Play will be releasing new full-length recordings under the new Suburban Sprawl imprint, beginning with Child Bite's Exquisite Luxury EP, scheduled for release this month.

“Bringing Suburban Sprawl into the family allows us to quickly expand our catalog, and try some new and more experimental things without diluting our reputation as a big-budget indie,” Al McWilliams of Quack!Media said in a statement. “Our infrastructure will bring Suburban Sprawl artists to a much larger audience while fostering a stable of artists who may be ready for the national stage in the near future.”

Partnered with Quack!Media, Suburban Sprawl Music will now be one of the Midwest’s most substantial independent music entities.

In related news, Quack!Media is sponsoring a series of shows every Thursday this month at Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig, spotlighting what McWilliams terms “a Top 10 Detroit bands of ‘right now’ list.” The series kicked off last night with Deastro, Friendly Foes, Javelins and Child Bite. The rest of the schedule is as follows: Jan. 10th: The Hard Lessons (who have entered a “partnership” deal with Quack! as opposed to a traditional label relationship; McWilliams describes it as "fairly revolutionary"), bingo with Tally Hall, Child Bite and the Javelins. Jan. 17th: Great Lakes Myth Society, Child Bite, Javelins, The Pop Project. Jan. 24th: Thunderbirds are Now!, The Word Play, Child Bite and Javelins.

Watch the print edition of Metro Times for even more news on these events.

The Hard Lessons: a "fairly revolutionary concept."