Rouleau Records was born as a renegade offshoot of the Bay Area punk scene.  Our first manifestation was the band Wet Nurse, which met with initial resistance from the “established” punk phenomenon based out of Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco’s North Beach. 

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The anointed punk scene first viewed Wet Nurse as posers.  Was it because we came from affluent Marin County?  Whatever the reason, Wet Nurse had a rocky beginning.  The local radio stations that first promoted Punk – KALX (UC Berkeley), KUSF (University of San Francisco), and KZSU (Stanford University) – refused to play our Wet Nurse single. 

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Like all cultural movements, Punk included its share of posers, wannabes, users, scammers, and punters.  Wet Nurse overcame this initial rejection and created our own scene that the founders and our fans found to be more authentic, more independent, less commercial.  We defied notions of genre and musical conformity.  Rouleau Records was born.

Rouleau met with some good fortune when The Love Dogs, led by Alex Call, needed rehearsal/recording space.  They joined Wet Nurse in a studio located next to the county dump in San Rafael.  Soon the Love Dogs agreed to produce Heidi’s songs, and collaborated with Wet Nurse as well. 

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Alex co-wrote a tune in our studio called “Jenny, Jenny,” which stayed on the charts for 11 months.  The Love Dogs eventually split from Rouleau, and the two Jimmies worked with other artists including Heidi and the Pets, Wild Life, Big Frank Hawkins, and Barbara Snow.

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After a few years of hibernation, Rouleau was re-energized in the mid-80s.  Heidi and Boom Boom approached Alex Call to produce two of Heidi’s new songs, the punkish “You Make Me Violent” and an ode to Heidi’s European stay, “French Riviera.” 

Edvard and Roald of Flokken Du arrived on the scene, and meeting up with Joey, their American lyricist, the second iteration of the Pets was formed. As other local musicians joined the project, Heidi and the Pets began performing locally as "Mother Hun,” "The Reptiles,” and “The Mill Valley Dukes.”

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At this point, Heidi was on a creative roll.  Working with singer/arranger Mark Springer, she and her Pets produced two songs.  Heidi’s dream vision led to the third iteration of the Pets and production of “Call Me a Bitch, Just Don’t Call Me” and a new version of “French Riviera,” both produced by Mark and his son Jason.  Mark also produced three songs for Flokken Du during this period, which included production of a CD of all Heidi’s music.

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After another fallow period of a few years, in 2006, artist Jeff Bedrick asked Boom Boom and Rouleau to help with an animation project about a group of punkish bivalves called “The Bad Clams.” Several Rouleau musicians were involved, including Barbara Snow.  Another recording was “Siri” by Sweet Jimmy.  (WHO IS THIS?  JIMMY JACOBS?  SWEET JIMMIE FROM OAKLAND?)

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Other notable projects included a vinyl 45 rpm of Marcelo’s Mud From Marz, and another 45 rpm of “The Car Song” by Barbara Snow and The Downtown Orchestra.   

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Currently Heidi is working on new material with The Pets 4.0.  Barbara Snow performs regularly around the East Bay with her band BabShad Jazzz. 
 

Rouleau Records is proud to work with these women and all the other artists who have graced our Rouleau label.  We continue to evolve and produce authentic sounds for the world.