Wretchedly raw music your girlfriend might turn off or, ideally, turn up causing one to fall in love all over again. Undefinable, unlabelable; Gold Standard Laboratories Records has provided an international venue for artists that major and indie labels alike would turn and run from.

The GSL label, founded over a decade ago, has provided early homes for acts such as the Mars Volta, the Rapture, !!!, the Locust and the Blood Brothers. Founder Sonny Kay began the label in college with a Guaranteed Stafford Loan and has made a point to not make the label a stamp for the music it releases.

“Everything we’ve ever put out resonates to me personally,” Kay said during his label’s College Music Journal showcase concert. “Consequently its become known as eclectic, the music is organic but never natural.”

Experimental recording styles and band formats keep the GSL from a classifiable pigeonhole. The lo-fi aesthetic and look have kept the label on the ins with scenesters quick to define one as a “sell-out.”

“I approach our releases in a way where I expect people to love everything personally. We try to focus on an ideal aesthetic confined to an indie ghetto,” Kay said.

The label’s CMJ showcase Friday uprooted the eyes and ears of 30 or so attendants in a dark wine cellar. Sonny Kay lounged in the rear of the cellar, looking calm and happy.

“I just found out he’s staying at my apartment tonight,” said an audience member of Kay.

Far from the suits atop a 40 floor Los Angeles tower, Kay is the type of labelhead who just might crash a basement couch for lack of a better place to stay.

Kay’s experience with his own band, Angel Hair, and work with another indie label, Gravity, ushered Kay into the business of record production and distribution.

“I think I learned a lot from mistakes made at Gravity. Different problems led to issues with redundancy and I took away a point to respect listeners. To never look the gift horse in the mouth sort of thing,” Kay said.

An interesting addition to the company’s seven-person staff of interns and lifers is co-owner Omar Rodriguez, half of the prominent major label act the Mars Volta.

“I acquired some stored cash with At the Drive-In and we had always done shows and things with Angel Hair and Gravity. Really, though, it came down to the fact that I just really wanted to work with Sonny because I always enjoyed the music he put out,” Rodriguez said.

Volta splits its label allegiance between GSL and Universal Records which makes for a critic’s credibility concern of Kay and his label.

“There’s virtually no communication between Universal and us,” Kay said. “People like to jump to conclusions and I even received a letter from a writer at Maximum Rock ‘n Roll magazine that stated they would no longer cover our releases and that I was a puppet for the industry.”

Dealing with underground music’s politics as well as those who want to maintain its seeming sacredness is a slippery slope that many have slid on admidst pointed jabs and press from the people who used to worship a now-loathed artist most.

Fair weather allegiances are part of the indie business.

“Here we have someone I knew personally who wouldn’t even pick up the phone and call me to ask if what he was assuming was true. Needless to say I haven’t spoken with him since then,” Kay said.

Kay mentions feelings related to the issue with sadness. The label’s controlled business interests may stem more from genuine music fanaticism, rather than an open hunt for the world’s strange auditory concoctions.

The GSL label, like its subterranean artist showcase will willingly and defiantly remain off the beaten path of the commercial music world. Kay said he remains content with the ideals this entails; willing to accept a high level of integrity in exchange for low income and the occasional foreign couch to sleep on. After all, he’s “doing it for the kids man.”