A Dallas record label is joining the fight to support gender equality.
On Friday, Aug. 4, online music store Bandcamp announced it would donate 100 percent of every sale to a nonprofit civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities called the Transgender Law Center. The fundraiser by Bandcamp was organized in response to President Donald Trump's Twitter announcement of an upcoming ban on transgender people serving in the military.
Hundreds of artists and labels have joined Bandcamp to make additional donations, and Tofu Carnage Records, a Dallas record label, is one of them. In fact, it will donate 100 percent of proceeds from Bandcamp digital downloads for the remainder of August.
"It's important for us as musicians to step in and do something when there are damaging policies," says owner and operator Sean Mehl. "There is no imaginary dividing line between the musical community and the trans community. Those scenes are constantly overlapping."
While many labels focus on digital media, Mehl is fascinated by the idea of conveying the aesthetics of music with a physical format. His limited edition releases contain meticulous artwork and dazzling splatter-color vinyl records. Tofu Carnage records were worth obsessing over, just in time for the vinyl craze, and his company's stunning presentations helped North Texas bands -- like They Say The Wind Made Them Crazy, Tyrannosorceress and The Angelus -- gain national attention.
Mehl, a guitarist and vegetarian, started the label in 2010. Tofu Carnage is known for its quality, not quantity. This small, eclectic catalog of Texas underground music are carefully chosen. While metal is most prominent, the record label supports plenty of jazz, experimental and avant-garde.
Mehl also opposes the "Texas bathroom bill" and considers it another reason to take action. But his interest in transgender equality does not begin and end with highly publicized issues.
"There are many complicated issues surrounding transgender people," Mehl says. "And everyday they face increased homelessness and violence."
For the rest of the month, Tofu Carnage is donating all proceeds from digital Bandcamp sales to two nonprofit organizations: the Transgender Law Center from Oakland, California, which works to change laws and policies to allow freedom from discrimination regardless of gender identity; and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project from New York, which offers legal services to low-income transgender people.
"This won't be the last time I do something like this," Mehl says. "I work with trans musicians and will always back them up. Digital revenue is an easy way to give back."
Correction at 11:45 a.m. Aug. 7, 2017: This story once carried the wrong byline. It has been corrected.
