By Stephen Cipoletto

Believe it or not there is a punk rock record label right here in the Haight.

Political Party Records is the brain child of Bryan Ohio, a soft-spoken, intelligent, true-to-heart punk who is as politically pro-active as he is serious about music.

The label is an amalgamation of music, politics, and the digital revolution of rock and roll, with a companion website filled with bands on the DIY circuit, looking not to make it big, but to play for the pure love of making music. And if they do happen to “make it,” that’s just the icing on the cake.

“Music should be free,” Ohio says. “I never made money on any of the music, it’s about passing on these bands that no one would be able to hear.”

Cutting his teeth in the music business in Austin, TX, Ohio promoted not-for-profit underground rock shows for local bands out of his desire to get unknown talent out there. The shows were not solely about music; Ohio saw to it that in addition to bands, voter registration forms, pamphlets on local political issues, and other information otherwise likely to be unseen by many concert goers was made easily available at the shows.

While living in Pensacola, FL, in 2004, Ohio successfully petitioned the Rock Against Bush Tour to make a stop in his town.

Ohio operates Political Party Records by offering music and more for free to the masses. Signing on to the website is like attending a mini street show in your computer, full of raw energy and youthful indiscretion.

The days are over where an unsigned band can realistically get on the radio, but the internet has become the waystation—and Ohio is helping to fill the bandwidths. (More than 50 bands’ songs are available for download via his website.)

The website, however, was not created simply as another vehicle in which to push more product into the global gullet but as a way to promote political, social, and environmental awareness. Ohio hopes he can bring to the forefront of people’s minds the issues that plague us as a society.

Political Party Records is five years old and has been growing steadily around a small nucleus of individuals who feel strongly about the punk rock movement. It is a community based on speaking out against the powers that be and not being satisfied with the status quo. It is punk at its most altruistic. Ohio hopes the label, which so far has one signed band called ‘Fuckin’ Gnarly’ from Detroit, MI, can ride the digital wave into the future, sewing seeds of discontent into the atmosphere.

Although Ohio started his label in the Haight by way of accident, what better neighborhood in America could there be to assert one’s opinion about the derisive nature of modern living? This was, after all, the chrysalis of the counter culture movement.

Check out Political Party Records on the web at: www.thepoliticalparty.org/