Up the Stairs and Through the Hall celebrates West Philly's thriving arts scene, but it doesn't stop at the Schuylkill. Curator Rich Wexler wants to expand the definition of community.

"The idea was, because I do shows in West Philly, to highlight the people that were playing at the shows that I was doing," Wexler says. "But I really didn't want to limit it to West Philly, so I call it "West Philly-based.'" To mark its release, he's producing eight shows this month. And while all of the venues are west of Broad Street, three are well east of the Schuylkill.

In fact, the 34-track, two-CD compilation is studded with submissions from Fishtown and Bella Vista. Even former Philadelphians pitch in. Wexler was picky in just one respect: "I really needed to love all the songs that were on there," he says. The first disc's front-loaded with previously released tracks from the city's finest. There's chirpy Cheese on Bread and mood-jumping Make a Rising; pretty Men in Fur and David First's beastly binaural beats; Evil Janet's surfy lonely-girl indie rock and Chromelodeon's video-game prog. The second disc peaks with the melancholy trio of The Ultimate United Givers of Themesâ reimagined "Sex Lies & Videotape," Ed & Georgie's haunted "Intralude" and Victory and Good Hunting's "Gunboat Passage Two."

Joshua Marcus

"No matter what, I think we all pretty much grew up somewhat mainstream, so pop music is a part of everything else," Wexler says. "And I think like some of the pop that I tried to really avoid — I didn't really want to have any pop songs, but they're just songs that I like."

The release coincides with the fifth anniversary of Wexler's promoting concern, which he started under the name Gypsyboots soon after artist Laura Sherman died. "I never really knew anyone who died before," he says, "and it just hit me in this way where either I was going to kill myself or do something to help people or do something to help my world."

When told that Gypsyboots was a nasty term, Wexler renamed his organization Sherman Arts Community to honor his friend. Up the Stairs' title comes from a line in R.E.M.'s "We Walk." "It kind of represents to me something a little bit hidden and not really out there, but not impossible to find," Wexler says. He's trying to do his part to turn on the hallway light. "I just feel like as much as West Philly is great, when I first got here, I feel like it was really closed, and if you didn't know people, you didn't have anywhere really to get to know people. So I think I wanted to do something that kind of would use people that were already around to build community, but also invite new people into that."

Men in Fur

Some of the musicians who contributed to Up the Stairs recently joined Wexler at his home, off Baltimore Avenue, to talk about the neighborhood, capitalism and collaboration.

Joshua Marcus returned from Lancaster last autumn. "I moved to Philadelphia because I was ready to move back to where maybe more progressive, thinking people and a lot more people in general are. I tend to actually produce more work and work better around a lot of people. Although I do like living in isolation, I've never been able to make much there," says Marcus, who appears on the comp twice, on Like Moving Insects' aching "A Cleanser" and swapping verses with Harmony Thompson on Fan of Friends' folky "Ready."

He didn't immediately return to West Philly; first he tried Fishtown. "I don't know what the big to-do is about that area, 'cause it just seems like bars and nothing and kinda racist, at least where I was living." So he moved again. "There seems like more community-inspired events going on, and with the two random acts of violence I encountered a couple weeks ago aside, I've had nothing but pleasant experiences living here."

Make a Rising

Jessy Ginsberg moved from Connecticut to attend Penn, and she stayed for the encouraging artistic atmosphere. She started playing guitar less than a year ago; her vivacious "Storm of Dots and Tries" is a highlight of Disc 2. "I don't live in West Philly, but I work here and I like it a lot. There are a lot of young people, young creative people, and I don't really feel like a sense of nervousness or competitiveness."

Jesse Short, of The Ultimate United Givers of Themes, lives in South Philly, but he likes to visit. "Not to sound hippy dippy, but there's a good vibe out here."

"I used to live out here a couple years ago and I kind of hated it then," says Zachary Sulat, singer and guitarist for The Doctor and Philip. "For some reason, the river was a big mental block for me and it seemed that my life was on the other side of it, so I didn't really sleep out here that much. I think I'm almost about to give living in West Philly another shot, maybe. But right now my possessions live in the suburbs and I live on couches in South Philly."

The Teeth

Sulat says Wexler books about half of The Doctor and Philip's shows: "They're usually like things that involve playing along to films." Tonight's show at Jamaican Jerk Hut turns the tables a tad: The lineup is mostly films made by the comp's musicians, including Tabitha Vidaurri's 20-minute Travels With Chachi, which accompanies her band Tiananmen Squared's aggro-twee "Chachi Theme," and shorts from The Ultimate United Givers of Film (same collective, different medium) and The Doctor and Philip.

Wexler put the comp together after losing his job last year. "I assigned myself the job of doing the compilation and I went to work every day," he says. "I wasn't getting paid or anything — I would go to the computer and work, and it was like a job that I gave myself. Because I was on unemployment, I decided they were paying me and it like was a grant from the government to do my artwork."

Unemployment made him more sensitive to the lack of insurance in the arts community, and that awareness has only been heightened this year since the deaths of scene catalysts Axi Nue and Marlon Solar. "I've had three friends who've kind of been outsider artists, jack-of-all-trade people who've died in the last five years," Wexler says. "It's really taught me that, like, people should have insurance. That's kind of what fuels capitalism. "Well, you don't have insurance, you're gonna get sick and die. Like, so you have to have a 9-to-5 job.'"

"It's almost like a weird form of blackmail," Short adds.

But rather than rage against the system, Wexler's looking into a way to provide insurance and resources for the community. "I'm good at organizing, I'm good at having ideas, I'm good at even planning things out," he says, "but just understanding the legality of that kind of stuff " He needs help.

Good thing there's a grant writer on the comp — Amira Hanafi of Clairaudient — who he thinks might be able to guide him. Take care of the community, and the community will take care of itself.

Rock Films, Thu., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $5, Jamaican Jerk Hut, 1436 South St.
The Teeth play Sat., Sept. 10, 2 p.m., free, The Marvelous, 208 S. 40th St.
Jessy Ginsberg, Victory and Good Hunting, Joshua Marcus and Kevin James Version play Sat., Sept. 10, 10 p.m., free, Fiume, 229 S. 45th St. (above Abyssinia)
Fan of Friends and Amy Pickard play Sun., Sept. 11, 3 p.m., free, Green Line Café, 4239 Baltimore Ave.
The Doctor and Philip, Tiananmen Squared and Eric Carbanero play Mon., Sept. 12, 9 p.m., free, Bar Noir, 112 S. 18th St.
Todd Young and His Rock Band and Cynthia G. Mason play Thu., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., free, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.
Grey Reverend, Be Careful Little Hands and Bile Greene play Sun., Sept. 25, free, The Other Green Line, 4305 Locust St.
Chromelodeon, Victory and Good Hunting, Jessy Ginsberg and Erik Peterson play Mon., Sept. 26, 10 p.m., $5 for show, $15 for show and CD, Tritone, 1508 South St.
www.shermanarts.org.