Three Hits

It’s pretty cool to be label mates with a band like R.E.M. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ first single was released on Atlanta’s Hib-Tone Records in 1981. Four years later, a band named Three Hits would also be on that label’s roster with the 7″ single 'Pressure Dome b/w Numbers', produced by Don Dixon at Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio, just like R.E.M.’s. Three Hits was started by Michael Kurtz, with his brother, Danny, and two friends, Sheila Valentine and Jim Biddell. They’d rehearse between the bins at Schoolkids Records, eventually touring up and down the East Coast -even sharing the bill with Alex Chilton at CBGB in New York. 28 years after 'Pressure Dome' was released, Kurtz co-founded Record Store Day -a yearly feast for music junkies, where references to labels like Hib-Tone are commonplace- as well as being Knighted in France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work with Record Store Day. [SOURCE: OMNIVORE RECORDINGS]