Trampled by Turtles frontman Dave Simonett is teaming up with Mark Gehring, a Twin Cities-based artist manager and the force behind the Minnesota Beatle Project series, to launch a new record label, GNDWIRE (pronounced "Ground Wire") Records.

Simonett and Gehring have tapped into a powerful network to help with their launch, combining their resources to get distribution through Sony Records and support from Thirty Tigers (who manages Trampled by Turtles), Loeb and Loeb, Sacks & Co. and Minneapolis's Clockwork Active Media and Green Room Resource.

GNDWIRE's first release? The latest full-length from prolific young artist John Mark Nelson, who is getting to issue a new rock-leaning album this fall.

The collaboration makes a lot of sense. Gehring has already earned a reputation for quietly and successfully executing big ideas, first with Vega Productions and their Beatle Project series, and more recently with his Periscope Management company, which works with established Minnesota artists Haley Bonar, Nelson, and Pert Near Sandstone. And Simonett has always had a good ear for up-and-coming talent; last year, he helped the Lowest Pair record their highly regarded debut album, and he's also hard at work on a new acoustic album from Moon and Pollution's Molly Dean.

"GNDWIRE is the realization of our vision to create a home for artists we find to posses that mysteriously innate quality that embodies raw musical genius," Simonett and Gehring said in a statement announcing their new label today. They'll celebrate the launch with a party at Icehouse on Tuesday, June 9, with surprise performances from guest artists.