New York City based Wind-up Records was formed in March 1997 by Alan and Diana Meltzer. The label’s releases are distributed by Sony Music Entertainment worldwide, excluding Canada, where the company operates Wind-up Entertainment Canada, Inc. and receives distribution from Warner Music Canada. Wind-up is currently the largest independently-owned record label in the United States. Continue reading
“I just wanted to put out my friends’ records because nobody was putting out my friends’ records…” – Slim Moon, founder of Kill Rock Stars
In 1991, a Montana native who had relocated to Olympia, Washington, Slim Moon was looking for a way to release his spoken word performances. He decided the best way to accomplish that was to start his own label. After applying for a business license and coming up with a name, based on a painting that he had done on the back of a poster that was hanging in his room, Kill Rock Stars was born. The first release would be Slim’s own spoken word performance with friend Kathleen Hanna recruited to contribute a piece for the A side. Later that year, Slim assembled a compilation of local Olympia, Washington bands to contribute to the International Pop Underground Convention. The compilation was titled simply Kill Rock Stars and included, among others, Bikini Kill, Melvins, Nirvana, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, Unwound, and Jad Fair. Continue reading
Hospital Records is an independent record label based in South London. The label started in 1996 by Tony Colman and Chris Goss from their West London studio / HQ primarily as a way of releasing their own music, under the London Elektricity moniker. Since then, Tony and Chris have signed some of history’s all time great producers and have set their imprint as one of the leading drum’n’bass labels, not only in the UK, but world-wide. Continue reading
Third Man Records is the brain child of Grammy award winning artist and producer Jack White. The first brick and mortar location of Third Man Records was established on March 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee. The store includes a recording, rehearsing, and photography studio for all of the label’s hand picked artists to create their albums entirely in house, and under the production supervision of Jack White. To date Third Man Records boasts an impressive and diverse roster of artists including: Conan O’ Brien, rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, and Jack White’s own The Dead Weather. Continue reading
Jagjaguwar was started in Charlottsville, VA by Darius van Arman. In 1996, The Curious Digit had just finished recording their album Bombay Aloo, and turned to van Arman for help releasing it. The band had worked with van Arman previously, releasing a 7-inch on Sentimental Records, which he co-ran at the time. Feeling that the album would fare better if it was released on a label, he decided create one. Thus, with some input from a Dungeons and Dragons character name generator, Jagjaguwar was born. Soon after, van Arman would add a second act to his stable. He approached a band called Drunk after a show at Tokyo Rose in Richmond. Drunk had just finished recording an album, and agreed to release it on Jagjaguwar.
Meanwhile in Indiana, van Arman’s friend Chris Swanson was busy running his label, Secretly Canadian. The two frequently talked about doing various projects together, and in 1999, Swanson and van Arman decided to enter into a partnership. Jagjaguwar relocated to Bloomington, and the two labels began to share office space, as well as staff members. Swanson had also been running SC Distributors which began to provide services for Jagjaguwar. SC Distributors gave van Arman more time focus on other aspects of his business. For the same reason, Bellweather Manufacturing was created. These companies also allowed Jagjaguwar to more easily release whatever music it wanted.
These are my fourteen top five favorite sets at Bonnaroo in no particular order. My ‘old guy at the festival moment’ was falling asleep in my lawn chair during the Girl Talk set. It was around 2AM and I had been in the 95 degree sun all day. While it was great to see so many acts for the first time, there were a few I wish I could have caught or caught more of their set. There was never a block of time where there wasn’t something I really wanted to see.
While these are not in any kind of order, the first one was my favorite, hands down.
Dr. John, The Original Meters & Allen Toussaint
Galactic with Corey Glover
In 1974, disc jockeys Martin Mills and Nick Austin opened a record store named after the album Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones. The first Beggars Banquet record store was located in the Earl’s Court district in London where Mills and Austin decided to sell new and used records side by side. This worked out well for them because in the few years to follow, they opened other Beggars Banquet record stores. In 1975, Mills and Austin decided to dabble in the art of promotion.
The history of Brushfire Records begins in the late 90s, not at the start of Jack Johnson’s musical career (as some may think), but was instead born out of the creative impulses of a group of surfers who call themselves “The Moonshine Conspiracy.” TMC, founded in Ventura, California, by Emmett, Chris, Keith, Dan Malloy, and Jack Johnson, is a self-proclaimed “collective of surfers and artists who share a retro sensibility.” They proved this “retro sensibility” when they debuted “Thicker Than Water,” a surf film shot entirely on 16mm film directed by Johnson and The Malloys. Continue reading
by Greg Stephen
Ramseur Records is an independent record label from Concord, North Carolina that concentrates in signing folk and bluegrass artists. Started in 2000 by Dolph Ramseur and run out of his house it has made a name for itself in the industry with outstanding acts such as the Avett Brothers, the everybodyfields and Bombadil.
Dolph Ramseur began his label a little later in life than most with almost no knowledge of how to run a successful independent label. He did, however, have one of the most important and commonly overlooked traits any great music businessman should have: the drive to get the music he loved out into the world. Continue reading
By: Chelsea Gillis
Bloodshot Records is a collaboration of sounds based out of the Irving Park Neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Their artists include infusions of punk, country, soul, pop, bluegrass, blues, and rock making this label as diverse as they get. Bloodshot Records became the child of co-founders Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller in 1993. Warshaw and Miller sat many sleepless nights at local bars crafting their idea for Bloodshot. It started off with Warshaw and Miller noticing that there were several bands playing around town that stemmed from old school country and punk. They thought putting out a compilation of these bands would be a good idea and figured that they had enough knowledge and drive to start their own label. After 17 years, Bloodshot has released over 125 albums and continues to rage in the old school country, underground rock and punk scene today. Continue reading
