favorite major indie label (post-1979)

Where is the Love for The Matador?

Touch & Go record label S&D

Drag City

Kranky S&D

The history of Thrill Jockey

Would probably go with Ipecac if it were a choice, but I think I'm leaning Kranky

interesting decision between labels lke matador, drag city, and sub pop who signed a lot of great bands and labels like kranky, thrill jockey, and creation who cultivated an aesthetic. or labels that started as one and became the other (4ad, warp)

I had to look at Warp's releases for the last few years, but they've actually been pretty respectable (Nala Sinephro, Danny Brown, etc).

Is Hyperdub considered a major indie?

It is a shame to not see Constellation listed. At age 20 I would’ve voted Darla, at age 25 Too Pure, at age 30 Drag City. I like Domino! I’m voting Kranky though

If the “major” and “indie” and “post-1979” were suggestions and not modifiers, I’d say the labels that inflame the most consumer loyalty in me are Hat Hut/Hat Art, Lovely Music, Constellation and (for an intense period of time in my 20s) 5 Rue Christine

is 4ad the only one that has been around and thriving for this entire era? many of these either started in the 90s or are no longer active

I think you are right, altho Dischord and Flying Nun date to 1981

Rough Trade.

they should def be on here

o shit

that woulda been my vote, I went for SST, let the record show etc

matador kind of lost the plot in the 2000s but i have to vote for them as the most important to me personally. the first label where i would at least try anything they put out. second place is probably kill rock stars, they had some great compilations (slice of lemon, the stars kill rock/rock stars kill/etc series) that exposed me to some favorites.

No Homestead?

this is hard!

kind of need to vote for either drag city or thrill jockey for being my bridge from indie and art rock to a wide world of weird. kranky and warp are probably most impressive for making a specific 'thing' really cool / desirable. chicago was kind of the goat as far as indie labels go, wasn't it? at least in the u.s. in the 90s.

as far as newer ones go, xl impressed me when i was looking for more of that kind of music. are they london based?

one i always wanted to like - great aesthetic but the few times i checked out a release the music didn't impress me all that much - was sacred bones. no shade, i'm sure they have a ton of amazing releases, this is just my "touch and go" (pun intended!!) experience with them.

Will probably go for 4AD but Factory would’ve run it close if it had been an option.

no on-u sound.
no vote.

rough trade and factory both started in the late 70s. homestead should be an option though

ah you are correct, RT is not post-1979, my SST vote stands

Flying Nun for me, lurve that kiwi goodness

not that I would have voted for it, but Sarah deserves a chance to have a run at the big guys

some missing options that I think are a bit crucial:
mexican summer
no quarter
kompakt
get physical
morr
chemikal underground
mego
load records
tzadik

Warp or 4ad or Dischord maybe... This is tough!

drag city was the label I cared about most when I cared about indie labels as a thing, though kranky is a very close second

Hmm this is a tough one. Depending on how you interpret the "major" requirement, I would be tempted to write in Public Bath or (especially) Skin Graft.

i think the best labels for me are those where you can buy a record completely blind and you know you're going to love it just cos of who put it out

some of these labels have definitely been like that for me, though most of them kinda lost me a bit with their later stuff. maybe kranky wins this for holding out the longest? not sure their peaks quite hit the same heights as the best flying nun or sst or warp though

music from memory was the last label like that for me, where you could get anything and love it (rip jt)

Would have voted Tzadik. Hard to pick a clear favorite among these.

4AD vs Kranky vs Warp vs SST for me. Have to think about it and consider many factors. This is serious business

Kompakt should be on here, though, if only to make my decision even more difficult

For longevity/consistency, how they nurtured/stuck with so many key artists from mid-'90s on, and how hilariously entertaining the one-sheet/promo copy writing of Rian Murphy almost always is, I gotta go with Drag City.

just looking at the drag city website right now it's an impressive list of i'm assuming mostly new releases.

i'll admit my main thought was "which one was jim o'rourke on again?". oh yeah, drag city. though i ended up voting for thrill jockey because that discography is just insane. idk i was really into some of that stuff. trans am. mouse on mars. now i think i should have voted for the one that jim o'rourke is on.

Loveless bankrupt Creation.

Warp in the 90s means the most to me from this list. From the early LFO/NoW/Tricky Disco stuff to Aphex, Black Dog, B12, BoC, early Autechre, the first Prefuse 73 album, the first Clark album (2001), Broadcast… not so sure about afterwards tho

maybe drag city is like a technicolor thrill jockey with a sense of humor. they're putting out the new jim o'rourke / eiko ishibashi album, which is one of my most anticipated this year. last year they put out the rafael toral cd, which is just phenomenal.

xp i was too young to experience warp in its prime, and really all i fuck with from warp now is autechre.

thrill jockey also put out some boredoms stuff and ooioo

matador really was great for a while there, they deserved the reputation. love me some bardo pond.

is 4ad the only one that has been around and thriving for this entire era?

there was a brief period in the early 00s where they weren't doing very much but that's about it. it's hard to go past them for consistency & longevity

4AD. Pixies and Muses changed my life when an older cousin bought me their record when I was 12. Plus for longevity and relative consistency.

ever since i saw this thread i've had this verse stuck in my head...

Do you like everything that comes out on 4AD?
Do you like everything that comes out on SST?
Do you like almost everything that comes out on HOMESTEAD?
I like everything that I get in the mail for free, how 'bout that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f4J2x3crc8
Great Plains - Letter To A Fanzine (1987)

Like that the 18-month lead-in gives us plenty of time to listen to the respective discographies :)

I would have voted Earache if it had been there, but prolly vote Dischord, Drag City for Big Jim, or Kranky.

I thought i was the only person in the world who knew why punk rock boys went out w new wave girls the indie world ~felt~ microscopic in… whenever ? 86?

boy 4ad feels definitive of a movement, sst definitive of a genre, matador of an indie era. like my vagaries there obv meaningless this list really whipsawed me, and my vote after reminder scans surprised me- merge?! 2nd is 4ad

I’m a cliché in my deeeep love of spoon and superchunk among others there, bit those two alone could almost move me on this

Fair re: Spoon and 'chunk--I could've gone Thrill Jockey due to Tortoise 'n' Town and Country, or 4ad b/c His Name Is Alive and Pixies, Warp due to Ae and Aphex etc.

Did not catch the November 2026 end of poll until earlier today, lol

Shimmy-Disc get plus points for releasing Boredoms and Ruins outside of Japan for the first time (I think). Also for reissuing those Fred Lane records and working with Lida Husik. Minus points for the Tinklers and Jellyfish Kiss.
Voted SST even though they put out a whole heap of shite later on.

Missing: Homestead, Tzadik, Hat Art/Hat Hut/Hatology, Earache, Kompakt, Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Relapse, Roadrunner (they became a division of a major eventually, but in the 90s they were kings), Metal Blade, Leo, AUM Fidelity...

“Matador” is still the first name that comes to mind when I hear the term “indie label.” However, I had to vote for Flying Nun.

Relating to Phil unperson's additions, I'd also def add Intakt in terms of contemporary jazz/improvised/new music labels.

Flying Nun

Wouldn’t quite get my vote but not a single mention of Sarah Records yet?

not that I would have voted for it, but Sarah deserves a chance to have a run at the big guys

― henry s, Friday, August 1, 2025 1:13 PM (two days ago)

voted thrill jockey since it felt the closest to mego and mego isn’t on there

mego was really great wasn't it. i only had a few releases but they were prized possessions. great art too. i should go back and listen to some of those pita releases.

erstwhile was and is also really great. i followed it pretty closely there for a few years. some of that stuff really opened up my listening habits and abilities. and maybe i have a touch of asmr pleasure at certain frequencies that are well-represented in many of their releases lol.

yeah i might have gone mego
to the ppl saying they would have voted for Tzadik, what are the key releases that make you want to vote for Tzadik
there’s that incredible Arnold Dreyblatt one, the Carl Stalling anthologies… i mean the number of John Zorn records is a hard identity to sidestep

oh i guess just WmC said that? and a couple of other posters shortlisted Tzadik among the omissions or something

4ad, matador, rough trade are all owned by beggar's group

This is Touch & Go, for me, narrowly over Dischord & SST. I feel SKiN Graft, Twin/Tone & Scat should get some love, too.

Man. Tough choices. Just about every label on here has at least one (and sometimes several) of my favorite albums of all time.

They've slackened a bit since the 90s and 2000s but it has to be Warp

November next year?

Gives the labels time to up their game

erstwhile was and is also really great. i followed it pretty closely there for a few years. some of that stuff really opened up my listening habits and abilities.

oh man, same here, totally. some of those releases that initially baffled me like good morning good night clicked HARD and eventually maybe even ruined “normal” music a little… watch out!

yep totally. i had a big aha moment with keith rowe and toshimaru nakamura - weather sky. good morning good night too. i haven't listened to those in forever! original bgm, it seems like maybe you were posting on i hate music? i was there before i ended up here lol. hate then love, that's how it always goes for me.

oh man, also haven't listened to a lot of these in forever but I might just put on weather sky...

I don't think I posted much on IHM, if at all... but I definitely lurked and took notes

a lot of these are great and worth saluting

several of them ended much too soon

some of them have consistently poor art (love u merge but)

at least one is infamous for shitty over-trebly production

at least one label head is a personal friend of suzy

c'mon exactly one band rates kramer as a producer

flying nun has easily the purest purpose

jagjagwuar was my 00s music diet. matador is the lazy answer.

genuinely tempted to vote KRS despite their horrible W/L ratio. the highs for them are undeniable.

There was a point in my life where this would have been a difficult tossup between Creation and 4AD. But both labels became something very different from the thing I fell in love with them for in a way that destroyed their legacies for me! (Creation way more than 4Ad to be fair)

Now I'm looking through lists of who was signed to Kill Rock Stars, K Records, Heavenly, Kranky because I feel like Warp is the lazy vote