13 Classic Record Labels We Really, Really Miss
AP has seen many a record label hit the scene hard, create a huge buzz, move some serious units then, through a series of bad decisions, end up with their doors closed, with nothing much to show for it (except maybe a gold record if you played your cards right). Here are 13 labels we’re missing hard. Maybe if we pluck enough eyelashes and throw enough coins into fountains, we can get ’em back on the scene—this time with a better financial adviser or something.
DRIVE-THRU RECORDS
Let’s start with the obvious: Drive-Thru gave the world New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional, Finch, the Starting Line, Something Corporate, Fenix*TX, Rx Bandits, Midtown, Senses Fail, Hellogoodbye, the Early November and more—all within a span of a half-decade (1999 to 2004 was definitely the label’s glory years). Now they’re essentially shuttered, having not released anything since 2008 and letting their domain name, drivethrurecords.com, lapse. (Thankfully there are labels like Enjoy The Ride who have been rescuing some of DTR’s back catalog from purgatory and reissuing titles on vinyl.) We would walk across a bed of hot coals—or maybe just on someone’s back—to see the DTR of old make a comeback.
Okay, technically Vagrant is still an active record label, but the Vagrant we’re talking about is the one represented by that boxer logo above. That Vagrant was responsible for the Get Up Kids, Alkaline Trio, Saves The Day, Reggie And The Full Effect, Hey Mercedes and more. Basically, where Drive-Thru dominated pop-punk for the first half of the 2000s, Vagrant had the market cornered on the emo side (even snagging two bands from DTR, Dashboard Confessional and Senses Fail). The label has essentially cut all ties with their punk and emo past, instead focusing on Pitchfork-friendly indie rock like the 1975, the Hold Steady and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. But we’ll never forget this label’s glory years—and what we wouldn’t give for the 2001 Vagrant America tour to re-form and come to our local rock club again.
If it was the ’90s and it was emo, it pretty much had to be on Jade Tree—the label became nationally known through the Promise Ring, which then led to Joan Of Arc, Jets To Brazil, Pedro The Lion and plenty more. Of course, while the label might’ve been a bit pigeonholed from Davey von Bohlen & Co., it was still a crucial home for quality punk and hardcore like Lifetime, Kid Dynamite and Strike Anywhere. After releasing more than 100 releases between 1995 and 2006, they’ve released less than a dozen since. Truly a shame, considering this label’s ear for quality talent was rarely surpassed.
Having started off with a series of 7-inch singles in 1995 (the most notable of which featured a pre-fame Nada Surf), Deep Elm hit its stride in the late ’90s with their Emo Diaries compilation series. The first volume alone featured previously unreleased cuts from Jimmy Eat World, Samiam, Jejune and one of the best songs ever written by any band ever (“Friend X” by Pohgoh). These comps broke the mold of the punk scene at the time, as they weren’t $3.99 cheapo CDs but full-priced collections that were focused on documenting a genre’s birth and blossom. Future volumes included Planes Mistaken For Stars, Further Seems Forever, the Movielife and more, but the quality (and name recognition) of bands dropped off significantly around Chapter 6—and there were still a half-dozen more installments after that (not to mention the three-part, ill-fated This Is Indie Rock series). The label has released more than 200 releases but the odds of you actually owning any of them past, say, the Appleseed Cast’s Low Level Owl Vol. 1 and 2 are slim—and those two albums came out 12 years ago. Most of what followed (outside of a brief burst of attention from Long Island punk band Latterman in the mid-’00s) has been forgettable copies of well-known post-rock bands.
Originally created as a booking agency in 1998 by former Tooth & Nail Records employee Chad Pearson, the Militia Group became an actual record label in 2000 when Rory Felton came on board and discovered Rufio, whose debut album, Perhaps, I Suppose…, has sold more than 100,000 copies to date—and that was TMG’s first release. A quick influx of cash resulted in a slew of signings, with a few—Cartel, Copeland, the Rocket Summer, Acceptance—finding commercial success and major-label record deals. A string of poorly performing records doomed the label, though, and in 2012 they announced on their website that TMG was going on “indefinite hiatus.” Don’t expect a reunion tour any time soon.
TREE RECORDS
When your very first release is one of the quintessential documents of the ’90s screamo scene (1995’s Eucalyptus compilation, featuring Indian Summer, Boilermaker and more), you’re probably gonna have a good run. Thus began Tree Records, a crucial yet sadly underappreciated label that was responsible for documenting some of the more esoteric corners of the punk and emo scene (Pinback, Franklin, Ethel Meserve). But what they’re best remembered for was Post Marked Stamps, a series of nine split 7-inches with gorgeous handmade packaging that you were almost afraid to open and exclusive songs from the likes of the Get Up Kids, Braid, Rainer Maria, Tim Kinsella and more. It’s still the gold standard nearly 15 years later for any label looking to pull off a cool mailorder subscription series for collectors. (Don’t forget the 10th single that was exclusive to subscribers.) The label ceased to exist in 2003 after only around 30 releases, but they’re pretty much all worth owning—especially Franklin’s self-titled album. (This editor swears by that record being a totally life-changing one.)
Founded in 1994, Crank! Records (don’t forget that exclamation point) played a huge role in the spreading of emo in the mid-’90s. Bands like Christie Front Drive, Mineral and Boys Life pretty much spent their entire (short) careers on the label, Cursive got their start there, and the label’s 1997 compilation (don’t forget to) breathe (don’t forget those lowercase letters and unnecessary punctuation—this was mid-’90s emo, after all) is widely considered a classic of the genre, with tracks from Hot Water Music, the Promise Ring, Knapsack, Drive Like Jehu and more. Crank!’s last release was in 2005, but the label still keeps their website up, even if it hasn’t been updated since 2009. (Of course, if you email the label owner, Jeff Matlow, at [email protected], he might still have some vinyl lying around…)
Epitaph Records was born out of Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s need to put out his own band’s records. Fat Wreck Chords was created by NOFX leader Fat Mike to put out bands he discovered while always on tour. Nitro Records was created by Dexter Holland of the Offspring after he hit the punk-rock jackpot with Smash and didn’t know how to effectively spend his money yet. (He eventually bought a fucking airplane, so he figured it out.) Still, even though Nitro started off as a sorta vanity label for the braided-and-beaded-haired frontman, it quickly became a safe haven for old punks (T.S.O.L., the Damned) as well as crass ’90s acts like Guttermouth and the Vandals—oh, yeah, and a little band from the Bay Area called A Fire Inside. AFI’s ascent from goofball punk band to AP cover stars all took place on Nitro, which released pretty much their entire recorded catalog up until 2003’s major label-backed Sing The Sorrow. The label continued with strong signings like A Wilhelm Scream and Crime In Stereo, but then the music industry took a nose dive, Dexter took a stronger interest in selling hot sauce than records (not kidding) and the label became largely dormant from 2007 onward. Earlier this year, the independent publishing company Bicycle Music Company acquired Nitro (and its back catalog), but don’t expect any new releases out of the deal.
Speaking of vanity record labels, Kung Fu was founded by two members of the Vandals, guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and bassist Joe Escalante, in 1996 to release ska-punk band Assorted Jelly Beans’ debut album, as well as one-off gimmick releases by their main band like The Vandals Play Really Bad Original Country Tunes and Oi! To The World. The label quickly caught traction with the help of then-up-and-coming pop-punk act the Ataris as well as the re-release of Blink-182’s (terrible) first album Buddha. The label diversified by signing the likes of Ozma, Tsunami Bomb and Audio Karate, but interest in their roster waned in the mid-’00s; their last proper release was in 2005. They recently relaunched their website, though, so who knows what’s in store?
There is no question that Lookout! Records will go down as one of the greatest independent labels of all time. Just for a second, let’s admire a small portion of the bands the label discovered: Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Screeching Weasel, Avail, the Queers, the Mr. T Experience, the Donnas, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Pretty Girls Make Graves and dozens more. The pioneering punk label existed from 1987 to 2012, though it didn’t do much of anything from 2005 to 2012 besides lose huge chunks of its back catalog to artists rightfully angry over tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties. It’s a shame that the name Lookout! might be tarnished with accusations of missing money, but their back catalog—300-plus titles strong, including some of the greatest records in the history of punk—will always be there, even if recent pressings may have a different record label’s logo on the back.
The beautiful thing about independent labels is they tend to spring up out of regional necessity: If your scene isn’t getting the attention it deserves, starting a record label to help spread the gospel is an easy way to raise awareness. While largely associated with Louisville, Kentucky, hardcore, Initial did more than just (exhaustively) cover that scene—it focused on the Midwest, covering bands from Detroit, Chicago, Omaha and more. Crucial releases from Boy Sets Fire, Elliott, the Movielife, Ink & Dagger, Criteria, Silent Majority and more were released under the lowercase i, but the label eventually shut its doors in 2004. Founder Andy Rich now works in Las Vegas where he makes more money playing poker than any of us will ever see in our lifetimes. (True story.)
Chicago’s Thick Records was a punk label that pushed the definition of what “punk” was. Founded in 1994, the label’s first big band were Blue Meanies, a carnival-jazz-ska-hardcore hybrid that at times sounded downright demonic. Thick also put out an album by Commander Venus, best known as Conor Oberst’s band pre-Bright Eyes. More than 100 releases followed, including one-offs with At The Drive-In, Alkaline Trio, Local H and more, as well as records from the Arrivals, the Gadjits, the Tossers and others—plus one of the best comps of all time, OIL: Chicago Punk Refined. But Thick more or less hung it up in 2007, existing primarily as a catalog label now.
BIG WHEEL RECREATION
Boston-based label Big Wheel Recreation existed for barely a decade (from 1994 to 2004) but in that time put out some seriously amazing records by some seriously amazing bands. (For real, if you don’t own Piebald’s We Are The Only Friends We Have and Jejune’s This Afternoon’s Malady, you are blowing it so goddamn hard.) The label was also responsible for ushering one of Jimmy Eat World’s best songs ever, “No Sensitivity,” into the world (thanks, split EP with Jebediah that no one ever listened to the Jebediah songs on!) as well as playing an important role in documenting Boston’s straight-edge hardcore movement (Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes, Fastbreak). The label petered out in 2004 after one too many bland indie-rock releases no one really seemed to care about (sorry, the Damn Personals, it’s not, uh, personal); label founder Rama Mayo moved into the fashion industry before ending up at StreetVirus—which is not a gutter-punk band, but a marketing company that has worked with Disney and Pepsi. So if you ever hear “American Hearts” in a commercial for Pepsi Max or something, you’ll know why.
