Ren Schofield steps into Plastic Bags
1.10.18 by Mike Haley

I Just Live Here was a flagship label for a scene that I’m not sure had a name, but definitely raged a strong existence. They weren’t really bound by sound, because their sounds were usually in mid-transformation, morphing off into all kinds of crazy shapes and sizes. It was more like a forward-looking crew whose mind vibrations throbbed on the exact same frequency. As if stick and poke tattoos and background characters from Thunderdome forced themselves into reality then tried to blend in. Along with kinsfolk like Ekhein and Arbor, I Just Live Here went hard from about 2005 – 2010, fizzling out over the net few years. In that time they released close to 100 albums, mostly on cassette with on point silk screening. You knew a tape had an IJLH screen job when the ink coated the cover like cake frosting. A+

Occupants of that post-nihilist bouncy house of jammers included Work/Death, Copper Glove, Lazy Magnet, Leslie Keffer, Privy Seals, Unicorn Hard-On, and on and on and on into a swirling vortex of pizza and broken gear. Plus projects by or including Ren Schofield. Oh shit, I don’t think I even mentioned it yet – Ren Schofield is the hu-man that was calling the I Just Live Here shots. He also made sounds as God Willing and with the tape hacking trio Form A Log, who released “Air Circus” in 2009 as a C30 on the imprint.

In 2013 I Just Live Here went *poof* and naturally sublimated into a gas. ” I sort of just got discouraged by and disinterested in music for a while and didn’t care about having a label.” said Schofield. Focus was shifted to his Container project, which big-timed a run of LPs on Spectrum Spools, and life went on.

Fast forward to 2018. PLASTIC BAGS! Plastic Bags? Yes! Plastic Bags! Getting out of bed with a slightly different haircut, but basically the same complexion, I Just Live Here is up and about, but with the new name Plastic Bags. Maybe it’s a witness protection thing? “It probably barely will be [different from I Just Live Here] to be honest” Schofield described the old/new operation. “Except I’m planning on all the releases to be a lot less limited, because I like the idea of having a large back catalog of things that are in stock as opposed to getting rid of everything immediately, and I want to pay a lot more attention to the quality this time in terms of everything, music, design, production, etc.”

Wilted Woman, a project currently based out of Berlin by Lizzie Davis, has the first release on Plastic Bags with “Trapezoid Tappers” C52. “She’s super prolific with the project, has tons of releases out, all pretty different from each other, but still retaining a signature sound. Not afraid to try out totally new things or go into uncharted realms. A true ‘experimental’ artist I’d have to say. One of my favorite underground weirdo jammers of the last several years.”

Releases on the label will be infrequent, but “Trapezoid Tappers” is available now through the 2005 – 2010 method of straight Paypal with no website.

US: $10 – CAN/MEX: $15 – WORLD: $20 paypal to gentledefect@gmail.com