Indie Miami Label Houndstooth Cottage Aims to Provide Some Much-Needed Cohesion

Miami-based independent label, Houndstooth Cottage, wears many hats, but whether the organization is putting out cassettes for local bands, recording tracks by various acts for compilation albums in marathon sessions, or pressing T-shirts and other printed paraphernalia to fill merch tables, its practice always reflects a unique personal philosophy and DIY attitude.

“Houndstooth started out as just booking,” explains Tony Kapel, co-creator of the boutique label and one part of the Miami duo, Pocket of Lollipops, an art-pop act that's been tracking up and down the South Florida music scene for years. The other half of the operation, Maitejosune Urrechaga, recounts the genesis of the label. “The first releases were Juju Pie, Merbouti, In Oculus, and our album,” she notes. “We're also planning to release a compilation on vinyl, a 12-inch,” explains Urrechaga.

Kapel treasures each recording done in his home studio, which recently relocated to Westchester, but also takes the act on the road with his unique concert concept, the Lop Off Sessions. At various locales around town, bands are invited to record one track each in a sort of participatory show/studio session.

Urrechaga is sometimes dismayed by the lack of coherent organization in the Miami scene compared to, say, Los Angeles, where the duo recently toured. She says the label sometimes has to convince acts from other places to come to Miami, because of a limited perception of the musical possibilities here. “But there is definitely not a limited scope to the Miami sound,” she beams. “There is definitely something here,” Kapel adds. The duo seeks to document and preserve that sound, and continues to create limited-run goods to sate hungry local music fans.

Audiences can absorb the label's unique sound and aesthetic at the next Lop Off Sessions event, happening at the Girls' Club in Fort Lauderdale in January. Up to ten local musicians will take to the improvised recording booth to cut original tracks on-site.

But you can catch Pocket of Lollipops sooner when the band takes Churchill's with with Lydia Lunch, Period Bomb, Snakehole, and others at Churchills Pub on December 1.

Pocket of Lollipops. 6 p.m. Thursday, December 1, at Churchill's, 5501 Northeast 2nd Ave. , Miami. Tickets cost $10 via holdmyticket.com.