For a punk band, such a comparison brings a not inconsiderable amount of indignity, but it's accurate enough to help explain why Sense Field attracted the attention of Warner Bros., who signed the band a few months ago, a decision accompanied by blessedly little fanfare or Sellout Angst. Unlike, say, Fugazi, for whom their über-indieness is part of a larger and inalienable D.I.Y. mindset, Sense Field has "never waved the indie flag," says Bunch. "We've never said we wouldn't sign to a major label."
Revelation, a label best known for its hardcore outfits (including acts like Civ and Gorilla Biscuits) helped Sense Field distribute such earlier EPs as their self-titled debut and Premonition, glorified demos the band recorded themselves and would sell at shows. As Sense Field's fanbase grew (each record since their 1991 debut has sold more than the one before it), distribution became a problem. "Even on this tour, and this is the best Revelation has ever done for us, kids are still having a hard time finding us, having to drive hours to a record store to find our records," Bunch says. "We were at the point where we were saying, 'why are we still doing this?'" The band toured incessantly; record sales, though higher than ever, haven't kept pace with tour figures. Sense Field recently completed a two-month tour of Eastern Europe, playing places like Slovenia and Poland (!), where plumbing was nonexistent and tour promotion problematic (they would sometimes get to the gig and realize that no one remembered they were coming; audiences of five people were not unheard of).
With a few exceptions, only the band's dates with Fugazi sold out. "It was wonderful, even though most of the audience couldn't understand what we were saying," says Bunch, a nice man who, though he may have labored for years on a small indie, has mastered the art of the universal rock and roll platitude, saying things like (on touring Europe), "The one thing you realize is that people are the same all over the world - they just want to hear music and have a good time," or (on signing to a major), "It just was the right time for us as a band and as people and it just made sense for us, for who we are right now."
Warners will re-release Sense Field's last record for Revelation, Building, in September. In the meantime, they tour (almost inevitably, they're playing on the Warped tour and the small stage at Redding) and they wait. Videos and singles, things that for Sense Field were previously unthinkable, will follow.
Given that Sense Field doesn't have the same sort of everywhere-at-once indie ethos that enables bands like Fugazi to rattle off sales figures and distribution numbers at will (Bunch is given to saying things like: "I think we used to get played on college radio? Sometimes? I'm not real sure."), signing to a major might not have been a bad idea. For the first time, the band will be making a record with an expectation that people might actually hear it, without, to hear Bunch tell it, the attendant lack of freedom most bands find when they move from an independent to a major label.
"We can play any song we want now, we can tour with whoever we wanna tour with, stuff we never had before," says Bunch. "People think there's a big difference between a major and an indie, but we didn't have a lot of control with Revelation. They would put stuff out without asking us. Maybe with Warners, they don't ask us our opinion on a single, but we're not the experts - we don't work radio. So why not let them do it?"
Bunch says he isn't worried that disgruntled throngs of indie-or-die kids won't follow Sense Field to a major. "We'll just play like we always play, and hope people show up. We thought people would give us a hard time, but they haven't - not to our faces, anyway. Most of the people who know us say they're happy for us. They tell us it's about time."