Record company defies conventional labels

Silver Spring's Cuneiform Records survives for 25 years by signing avant-garde artists

by Jason Tomassini | Staff Writer

When Steve Feigenbaum started Cuneiform Records out of his parents' Wheaton home in 1984, he wasn't discouraged when it lost money its first year. Or the year after that. Or the next 11 years.

"I had miserable experiences of people taking advantage of me and ripping me off," Feigenbaum said last week from Cuneiform's small office in downtown Silver Spring. "It was difficult and slow, but because I was young I just kept doing it."

Twenty-five years later, despite massive change in the record industry and massive changes in Silver Spring, Feigenbaum doesn't seemed surprised his small label of experimental music now makes him an honest living.

The first record Cuneiform released was from New Jersey songwriter R. Stevie Moore, after Feigenbaum listened to more than 100 of Moore's songs to release a "best of" compilation.

"I asked his manager, ‘Is Stevie going to care which songs are on the album?'" recalled Feigenbaum, a hyper-engery 51-year-old. The manager responded, "‘No, he thinks they are all wonderful.'

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