Taking Sides: Label...Label...Label

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Lets start handing out awards for record LABELS...
Best for all-around repackaging and reintroduced the Great Washed to the nostalgic wonders of the past
Nominees: Rounder, Shanashie or Rykdisc

Best for all around so-cheessy-its-great compilation madness
Nominees: Rhino or K-Tel

Most tragically fucked-up label in history
Nominees: Casablanca or Factory (if 24-Hour Party People is accurate...)

Please don't just shout out names...tell us amusing anecdotes and enlighten us to things we might not know about.
Feel free to create your own awards and your own nominees.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 19 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

A couple weekends ago I bought 4 CDs, 3 of which were released by the same record label. I did not realize this until I got home and fiended over the liner notes (as usual). Upon the discovery of this phenomenon, I went through some of my CDs and found that I own a great, great many CDs released by this label, many of which are some of my very favorite recent albums. The name of the label = Ropeadope.

And in other news...the award for Label That Puts Out the Most Opium-Den-Friendly Albums = Ninja Tune.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 19 May 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The 'From Microscopic Acorns' award goes to:

XL Recordings

just over ten years ago their only bankable act was the Prodigy and they mostly just put out quasi-rave anthems (which had a canny knack of denting the charts thanks to some MTV support and a devoted following of cheesy quavers)...it seemed the huge success of 'Music For The Jilted Generation' pretty much saved them and set them on a course resulting in them extraordinarily winning a bidding war for the White Stripes a couple of years ago. its always interesting to see labels flourish purely on the success of just one band, or indeed just one record (ditto Virgin Records?) and being a subsidiary of Beggars Banquet i know they werent really indie (unlike, ironically, Jive/Zomba) but i've loved too much music on XL and continue to do so today.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 19 May 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

oddly XL is tossing serious $$$ around in a bid to sign a second or third-tier nyc band. not a smart move.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 19 May 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Who, Panthers?

Best Label Temporarily Based in Ghana: Megalon Records

― scott m (mcd), Monday, 19 May 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Deathlike Silence Productions

Taking its name from the opening track of the classic 1986 Sodom Obsessed By Cruelty LP, and proudly proclaiming its motto "No Mosh. No Fun. No Core. No Trends." on every release. Label boss Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth uses his "scene godfather" status to sign the cream of the crop from the global underground of '88-'92: Japanese weirdos Sigh, Norwegian totalitarian industrial metal machine Mysticum, Hungarian underground legends Tormentor, Swedish noise mentalists Abruptum, Norwegian viking berzerkers Enslaved, solemn Italian gothmasters Monumentum, rabid Swedish thrashers Merciless, Norwegian ambient drone-metal pioneer Burzum and of course his own (The True) Mayhem. In august 1993, after a string of nine legendary releases, Aarseth is killed. Deathlike Silence Productions ceases to exist, and in the following three years, media attention and internal hysteria rapidly changes the scene into an embarrassing circus.

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 19 May 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Sony/Columbia

― Millar (Millar), Monday, 19 May 2003 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Best for all-around repackaging and reintroduced the Great Washed to the nostalgic wonders of the past

Quite frankly the award can only go to Les Temps Modernes (LTM). They put out the reissues that you dream about in your wildest fantasies. Who the hell really believed there would ever be a complete Stockholm Monsters retrospective? Of course you didn't. But James Nice did. He is the reissue god.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 19 May 2003 22:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm serious, actually. Not for the way they do business, obviously. But they certainly kick the pants off of the rest of the Big Five IMO. Runner ups: Virgin, Island. My favorite "indies" all seem to have lost the plot here or there: Warp, Ninja Tune, Mille Plateaux & Force Inc, Kompakt, the list goes on and on.

I think I'll always have a soft spot for Tresor, Ninja Tune, and random-detroit-imprint-here. Lately however I should admit I've been buying a shitload of Rhino.

― Millar (Millar), Monday, 19 May 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Rhino. They care. Though K-Tel's Gimme Indie Rock Vol. 1 is so awesome and wrong and beautiful that I wanna vote for them.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 19 May 2003 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Rhino Handmade for putting out those grebt limited-edition Devo discs.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 19 May 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Jive.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Vertigo when they had the whole label on one side taken up with the logo, that is the coolest shit ever.

― duane (lucylurex), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 04:42 (twenty-two years ago)

some of the music was ok too

― duane (lucylurex), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 04:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Rhino DOES care. I also love Rhino Handmade, especially for the recent limited-edition reissues by Jimmy Scott and Rank and File.
For old-time music, JSP can't be beat. The best remasters, bar none.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

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