COMPANY
Reptile House Records was formed by me, Todd Perkins, in 1999, both in an acknowledgment of the swiftly changing times in music and technology and as a response to what I term the "Basic Suckyness Of The Commercial Music Industry". I wanted a place where I could release my own work and the work of my friends with little or no BS, and have a place to launch CDs of some of the talented people I sometimes help record and produce albums for.
With friend and fellow Musician/Entrepeneur Dan Pratt, the advice and help of CPA Michael Thomas and Attorney Sheldon Kane, Reptile House came to being. That year our first CD, "My Whole Life" (under my pseudonym Dr. Toddzilla) was produced at Cameron Sound Studios, and made a modest splash in both the US and in Holland, distributed online by our friends and allies at CD Baby. In 2001 Danny and I released our debut as Kingsley & Durango (we both enjoy pen names) titled "Cosmic R&B Debris" which became a rather deep underground hit in the Midwest. After a brief hiatus due to three Euopean tours, Regional hijinks and studio craziness ,"Church Of Dreams" was released in 2004, with my friends The Flexible Flyers. It's gotten a good deal of critical acclaim and world-wide airplay, although somehow we still haven't been made millonares yet! Dang. And most recently, 2008 has seen my new solo album (again in my alter ego of Beowulf Kingsley) called "Arphus Schmarphus Horkus Porkus"....which personally I think is more fun than a big pile of toxic waste! And easier to get into your CD player or MP3 device as well.
I think that these are the best of times and the worst of times for Musicians...the known structures are collapsing, live music is in great peril of effectively vanishing, and yet there are amazing possibilities for more creative expression and communication than we've ever had before. A kid with a PC can create a masterpiece in his room, and stream it into the collective conciousness (with a little skill and luck). And opportunities for us to work together, to collaborate and to generally have a blast with these new mediums are many and mind-blowing! I urge anyone who can hear my voice to work together with us and the many others out here, to link our forces together and to create strange and wonderful new projects to touch and amuse our fellow beings. And hey, if someone wants to buy me a boat (or even a cold beer), that's cool as well. If things work out, I'll buy you one too.
