Ames-based Workerbee Records got its start in the fall of 2000 with “Low Fidelity Living”, a CD-R compilation of Iowa artists that label founder Edward Bignar encouraged listeners to pirate and share with friends.

Fifteen years and more than 60 releases later, Workerbee is still working toward giving lesser-known artists a little more exposure. The label will celebrate its latest release, the garage rock compilation “I Promise to Be No-Good,” with a show at the Iowa Music Store on Friday.

“Despite the fact that I’ll make a compilation that is heavily into one genre, I’ve never really paid attention to labels,” Bignar said. “’Hometown’ is just another label that I ignore. I’ve always tried to include bands from Iowa in everything that I’ve done, however there’s the feeling of ‘nothing important can come from my backyard that hangs over local music worldwide.’”

That Iowa-and-then-some mentality manifested itself in the tracklist for “No-Good.” Des Moines bands including Karen Meat & the Players and Goldblums contributed songs to the release, but a slight majority of the compilation’s artists are not Iowa — or even United States — natives. Switchblade Cheetah is from Florida, Electric Healing Sound hails from California, and Double Cheese calls France home. 

Bignar pays a great deal of attention to the music he enjoys, even if he usually disregards its place of origin. He makes a point of reaching out to the bands he likes. Sometimes those interactions form relationships that lead to a future release of a band’s music on Workerbee, as was the case with England’s Love L.U.V.

“I have this habit of emailing bands that catch my ear on Bandcamp, if for no other reason to tell them that they have somebody out there that likes their music,” Bignar said. “I’ve been in bands for over 15 years and the silence can be deafening. I try to make it a point to raise the good will amongst bands and I know how much it means to me when I find out someone likes the things that I make.”

While some of Bignar’s, and in turn, Workerbee’s connections are made via email, many are made in person. 

“We met Edward when we played Ames back in October,” said Bran Blum, Goldblums guitarist. “He bought some merch, then hit us up about the comp a couple days later. Ed rules.”

“No-Good” is available on Bandcamp for the digitally inclined but this time around, listeners might want to dust off their tape decks. It is being released in a limited edition cassette package with buttons featuring artwork by each of the bands on the album.

Cassettes may seem like a bit of a throwback for some music fans, but Bignar said they never went away for Workerbee.

“We’ve been putting out cassettes for a really long time and it’s always been our most popular format,” Bignar said. “The quote that I love about the comeback of cassettes is from the comedian Jonah Ray, where he said, ‘How many crappy old cars still have tape decks?’ It’s a format that has survived due to people being poor … it’s a tough format and it’s going nowhere.”

Bignar also opted for a back-to-basics approach for the compilation’s production. “No-Good” doesn’t feature any lush, hi-fi stereo soundscapes. Rather, it is mixed entirely in dense, ocassionally gritty mono. 

“I’ve always had a predilection to old music and the records that always sounded best to me were mono,” Bignar said. “It just gives the music a nice thick and solid sound.”

Though “No-Good” is getting most of the attention at the moment, it isn’t all that Bignar has been working on. Workerbee is also reissuing Goldblum’s debut EP “Drug Window” and at press time, Bignar was putting the finishing touches on a cassette by Person Whale. If that’s not enough, albums and singles by Thunder Bunny, Electric Healing Sound and Neon Lushell are on the horizon. 

“I just hit a goldmine of awesomeness,” Bignar said.