Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Radio & Music >

Do you have any particular favourite indie labels?

Page: (1)2

Matthew Fluxington

14:37 / 22.01.02

Do you have any particular favorites?

I would say that if I had to name the best one in the business, it would be Matador, but Matador really is just in the business of acquiring artists from other labels, so they are more or less the New York Yankees of Indie Rock.

Kill Rock Stars, Dischord, and K all have good line ups and a 'vision', but do have some weaks artists on their rosters, and have a strong provincial spirit which works for and against them...

Domino is another great label, but is similar to Matador in terms of having a high percentage of licensed acts...

Of course, there's so many labels out there - again, which ones do you like, which ones do you trust?

15:15 / 22.01.02

Matador & Domino both have pretty good quality control - anyone signed to them is going to be at least OK, even if they won't necessarily rock my world.

Sympathy For The Record Industry get a special gold star for putting out, with good distribution, records by hundreds upon hundreds of kick-arse garage/punk bands who otherwise would never get heard.

Lookout! Records puts out loads of neat punk-pop stuff which, unlike Epitaph or Phat, puts emphasis on the !POP!, and thus is really fun rather than boring and bad religion-like.

Estrus guarantee's speaker-busting Stoner Rock fun.

Kill Rock Stars and Dischord both pay more attension to remaining COOL AS FUCK than necessarily putting out the best music to the widest audience, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - can't complain, they've both brought us some seriously good bands.

Favourite tiny British labels:

Che
Fantastic Plastic
SickRoom GC
Damaged Goods
Wiija

15:29 / 22.01.02

sonic unyon were great. I'm not sure if they're still around, but they had the likes of Sloan and Sianspheric at one point.

Zoom.

16:37 / 22.01.02

No offence, but why just indie rock labels? Why not, say, techno, house, hip-hop and other labels as well?

Matthew Fluxington

16:40 / 22.01.02

quote:Originally posted by Not Me Again:
No offence, but why just indie rock labels? Why not, say, techno, house, hip-hop and other labels as well?

Well, feel free to talk em up.

I think I just titled the thread what I did as to limit the discussion, and because I was listening to the All Girls Summer Fun Band when I was typing it...

I'll change it. Talk about any label you want.

Anyway, I'd like to send a belated shout-out to the label Corwood Industries...!

17:23 / 22.01.02

A lot of Constellation releases are well worth a look. Although no prizes for guessing which two are pick of the crop.

17:47 / 22.01.02

Originally posted by Flux=somethin that will change by the time I've posted:

feel free to talk em up

Cool! Cheers Flux.

I like Ninja Tune/Big Dada, for a lot of odd dance stuff and hip hop which doesn't get the attention it should anywhere else.

Warp, obviously - persistently brilliant throughout the years, and with a wider remit than its Mancunian little brother, Skam.

Mo'Wax remains interestin intermittently, although you kind of get the idea it's more for people who like models of themselves fighting Stormtroopers from Star Wars than actually like music sometimes. Having said that, some of the stuff Mo'Wax put out is alright.

Skint is alright, and showing a bit of a renaissance at the moment, with high-profile 'Not Comedy Tune shocker!' signings like Dave Clarke.

Mute should get props for being one of the first, best and most diverse...

Red Planet, for excellent techno music

To be honest, there are tons of labels* out there which I would buy a record on anyway - Trojan, perhaps, being a good example. So I'll keep on coming back to this thread as I think of them to post. Or maybe I'll get bored, I dunno.

(And I'm aware that not all of these labels are indie. Well so what? What is nowadays, anyway? The Murdochs run Rawkus, after all...)

Matthew Fluxington

18:02 / 22.01.02

I think you may understand why I chose to narrow the playing field...

I can think of great labels all day long...my admiration for Ninja Tune, Mo'Wax, and Warp runs very deep, I'm glad to hear them get shout outs, though it was certainly inevitable.

The biggest reason I wanted to bring this up was because of my resurgent interest in K, I'm rediscovering/discovering a lot of their acts right now, and there is something that I really love and hold dear about their pseudo-innocent bomemian cool American white kid party vibe... Especially The Make Up, Dub Narcotic, and the All Girl Summer Fun Band...

18:07 / 22.01.02

Originally posted by Flux=Our, surely?

I can think of great labels all day long...my admiration for Ninja Tune, Mo'Wax, and Warp runs very deep, I'm glad to hear them get shout outs, though it was certainly inevitable.

Meeee-ow!

Saucer of Milk, table 2...

I'll shut up and return the thread to its indie roots, tehn.

[nb: I'm not pissed off, BTW]

18:09 / 22.01.02

Touch & Go is a fine label. I've never bought anything off of there that didn't rock at least a little bit and most of it kicked my ass. They have quite an impressive back catalogue (Big Black, Jesus Lizard, Urge Overkill, the Meatmen etc.) and are putting out some of the best bands now (Shellac, Pegboy).

18:13 / 22.01.02

For electro whatnot, gotta nod toward's Hrvatski's Reckankreuzungklangewerkzeuge, but that's because he's a mate.

I respect Dischord, if only because they gave me Faraquet. And Desoto, because they're so damn nice. Lots of bands I used to like a lot more were on Touch and Go, who seem to have pretty good business practices.

Matthew Fluxington

18:17 / 22.01.02

Oh man, I didn't mean that in a catty way! I meant that those labels as so great that it would be odd and reflect poorly upon this board if they *didn't* come up.

I think it's a better thing that we open up the discussion, it's better for everyone. My personal stake in creating the thread shouldn't stand in the way of a conversation that could potentially introduce others (and me) to things they may not be aware of...

18:33 / 22.01.02

tigerbeat6 consistently puts out interesting, but not necessarily great, stuff. althought the output is electronic stuff, it's basically still an indie, i.e., run on an indie vibe (basically because kid606, who runs it, is a punk rocker with drum machines). the music, generally, is like a more adolescent version of arty electro stars (vibert, squarepusher, etc.) - adolescent in having more energy (strong gabba influence) and a more fucked up sense of humour.

recommend: blechdom from blectum's 'de snaunted haus' or 'haus de snaus' from last year, hilarious stuff...

18:44 / 22.01.02

Ultimate Dilemma. A great little UK Hip Hop labelling releasing material by acts such as The Runnaways and Speeka. I always spare some time to check out their latest release. (warning vynil only label, so far)

Catskills. Wow there's not much that has been released on this little label that I haven't liked. Bushy and Professor EP is seminal breakbeat. Of course you may have heard of Pepe Deluxe, a track of theirs was used in a recent Levi's add, the original version of which is much better. In fact their album is incredible. Last thing I saw released and bought was Bushy Never EP, great remix on the b' side.
(vynil mainly, but CD albums available, good compilations for those entitled 'Look at what the cat dragged in')

Marine Parade. Flawless victory, pretty much, with their releases. The personal must have 12" is BT and Tsunami 1 - Hip Hop Phoenomenom (on my second copy). I burning the turntables with their last release STEVE BUG vs DJ T - Monsterbaze.

[ 22-01-2002: Message edited by: Will 'it work' Wright ]

18:56 / 22.01.02

Oh, yer. Dig Kranky, because I do, and dig Birdman, because they make it so's I don't have to pay forty bucks for a new Boredoms record.

Locust No longer

19:22 / 22.01.02

Well seeing that the majority of what I listen to comes from indie and underground labels I have a few favorites:

Ebullition ( www.ebullition.com ) Great political punk label that releases some of the most intelligent, interesting, and powerful punk rock around. Bands like orchid, reversal of man, born against, and seein' red have all released records on Ebullition.

Okka Disk Based out of Chicago this label releases free and avant garde jazz with the likes of Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Marilyn Crispell, Ken Vandermark, and Anthony Braxton on the roster. Always quality releases. www.okkadisk.com

Youth Attack! The singer of the infamous Charles Bronson created this label a while ago and it's rad. From thrashy snot punk to lofi garage, well produced and the actual records look really cool.

FMP German jazz label with the best European, Japanese, and American free jazz artists around. A tad expensive but cool none the less. www.fmp-online.de/

Matchless English avant garde label. Home of AMM, Eddie Prevost, and many more.

Incus Derek Bailey's label. Good avantgarde jazz.

Havoc Records Great punk record label. Mostly EPs (code 13, skit system, 9 shocks terror, etc.) but all quality. www.havocrex.com

troubleman unlimited Probably the best art punk label currently with noise punk bands like The Black Dice, and arty weirdo's the Flying Luttenbachers. Really cool stuff. www.troublemanunlimited.com

11:11 / 23.01.02

i like my throthy US punk so

Epitaph - top west coast punk label the starting place for too many bands to mention.. although it does include Pennywise and The Offspring

Kung Fu Records - starting place of Blink 182 and The Ataris

Fat Wreck Chords - home of Less Than Jake and No Use For A Name

Feuled by Ramen - owned by Less Than Jakes drummer and has a Jimmy Eat World ep

Nitro - long time home for Guttermouth, AFI, and The Vandals

Golf Records - uk home to No Use For A Name, Less Than Jake, Samiam, Swinging Utters

and Bikini Records.. cause i know the owner.

13:56 / 23.01.02

I liked a couple K bands, and I'd forgotten about Estrus.

I suppose Rhino and Merge are too big to plug? Well I'm gonna do it anyway. Jonathan Richman and the Magnetic Fields, surf rock and Lambchop -- all on them two labels.

And I was really fond of a small Massachusetts label called Harriet. Some of their stuff came out via Merge.

Oh, and I've liked a few bands on various Rounder imprints, but as a whole, they're too sprawling to keep track of.

The Return Of Rothkoid

14:16 / 23.01.02

Hmm. Lots I like have already been mentioned. But not Tzadik or Anchor And Hope. For experimentalism and D3 purposes, respectively.

And yeah, they're more localised distribution than anything else, but Shock Records are waay groovy, too.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:22 / 23.01.02

What about Mr Lady records & videos? Le Tigre, The Butchies, Electrelane (in the US), The Moves, and more...

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:51 / 24.01.02

I've heard a couple of great electroacoustic releases from empreintes DIGITALes and Cut, too. Cut's got some MP3s up, if you want a sample: the Jason Kahn stuff is quite nice, thinks I.

I'm really surprised nobody's mentioned Coldwater Suplex yet.

12:59 / 24.01.02

Track & Field Recordings! For all your a-bit-like-belle-&-sebastian-but-better needs!

13:19 / 24.01.02

flyboy i came in here to tell everyone how cool and important mr. lady records are and you've already said it. that's very cool.

23:01 / 25.01.02

I suppose Rhino and Merge are too big to plug?

Merge 'too big'?!

Well I'm gonna do it anyway. Jonathan Richman and the Magnetic Fields, surf rock and Lambchop -- all on them two labels.

Not to mention the superlative re-issues that Rhino puts out. On the one hand, it's a crying shame that more labels don't do re-issues with as much care & planning that Rhino does, but I guess we should just be thankful that someone is doing it.

For shimmery Power-Pop, I can't recommend Parasol Records highly enough. All of their stuff is dirt-cheap & ships immediatly. And since nobody's mentioned them yet, I've got a sweet tooth for Bloodshot Records, the drunkenly brazen alt-country step-brother of Sub Pop.

And I still miss Stax Records. <sniff>

00:35 / 26.01.02

has anyone mentioned chainsaw yet? team dresch, the third sex.... loads of dykey, punkey, riot grrly type stuff.
www.chainsaw.com

Disco is My Class War

08:10 / 26.01.02

mmm-hmmmmm. chainsaw rock. as do:

kranky, thrill jockey, warp, dischord, mr lady, ninja tunes (c'mon, they may be hiphop but they're still independent), spunk! (who distro a lot of drag city albums in australia and have just started putting out their own records), drag city obviously, anchor and hope, grand royal (although i guess they don't count since they're out of business).... hmmm....

also candle records, way over there and corduroy are way good labels here in oz, as well as shock, who i actually don't like that much really. maybe because when i used to handle music reviews for my uni paper, they never sent us good CDs. bastards.

02:06 / 29.01.02

asian man: the only lable to still put out any ska related bands, ran by Mike park of TOO MANY BANDS TO LIST

lookout: yeah the punk-poppy thing gets me...

kung-fu records: ran by the Vandals i do think, has Josh Freeze, Assorted Jellybeans and has old Blink 182 (but was not the starting ground for them they just rerelased the 1rst CD)

intellectos records: ran winterbrief and if they got thier more acts together they'd be quite a force on the indie rock scene

and there's also Vegas, Beluga, Madador, Jump Up and Restless that are all good too

03:24 / 17.04.04

Absolutely Kosher: Basically, what you need to do is go to http://absolutelykosher.com/ and send them an email with your name and address. In a few short weeks (by few I mean 4 or 8 or 12 or 16) you'll receive a free sampler in the mail. Listen to this sampler, then again, and again. Trust me, their stuff is awesome. The Wrens, Frog Eyes, Summer at Shatter Creek, Pinback, and more.

Black Label Empire: I only know of this label because they got in touch with me after visiting my site (www.airradio.net, ahem, I know, shameless plug). I downloaded a few songs and was impressed. Then one of the managers sent me more songs, and I was more impressed. They probably have every good indie band out of Tennessee under their wings.

And of course: Jade Tree and Kill Rock Stars and Matador, etc. All the big name ones that refuse to stop having kickass bands.

13:32 / 18.04.04

pointy records, home to the clientele.

15:16 / 18.04.04

I like Bungalow, Stereo Total's label:
http://www.bungalow.de

21:03 / 18.04.04

I have to say Estrus and Matador records. Estrus guarantee all the rock and roll, surf music and garage punk you´ll ever need in your life and Matador have all those indie melodic super cool bands (like Arab Strap and Cat Power, my favorites).

08:48 / 19.04.04

sarah.

05:18 / 20.04.04

i'm a big fan of planet-mu, mainly because of the ridiculous quantity of venetian snares they continue to put out.

20:51 / 20.04.04

Why am I not seeing Barsuk represented here?

They've put out a few of my recent favorites -- The Long Winters, Death Cab for Cutie, John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats. They're also the new home for They Might Be Giants, thus cornering the market on the bands with the senses of humor and the smartypants lyrics who like to be pop and pay attention to "texture."

Music by musician-musicians, in other words, only without the pretension.

Goodness Gracious Meme

01:29 / 21.04.04

xl, heavenly, creation, k, beggar's banquet, factory.

city rockers, rephlex, cooking vinyl, GPR, blood and fire

Page: (1)2